Tag: garden

The new routine

On By geordieroscoeIn garden3 Comments

Way-aye, Roscoe here again.

Nowt much has happened this week. Except May finished.

We’ve had morning cuddles and cucumber, a run, and breakfast. Then we’ve had a snooze or three.

I have to say, the amount of breakfast varies. Sometimes we get just three bits of veggies from the fridge (it’s colder, and not as fresh) and sometimes we get lots of little bits, mostly tasters, from the garden. They’re fresh and warm. That’s because the sun’s been shining on them, Mam hasn’t heated them up or anything.

Things from the garden I’ve identified: vetch, dandelion, plantain, grass (sometimes Mam picks a few very long stalks to include in our breakfast), kale leaves (different from the fridge ones), carrot leaves, strawberry leaves, hawthorn leaves, and hazel leaves. I think Mam was trying those out on us, and since we liked them, she brought twigs of hawthorn the next day, soft new growth, which I rather liked. There are also usually a couple of herby leaves, like mint, rosemary, lavender, parsley or thyme. And sometimes basil from the kitchen, because that grows indoors.

  • Mam’s compost bay and the herb bed
  • Carrots in a big pot
  • This new kale is called ‘Ragged Jack’

It’s been hot and sunny, and we’ve been out in the garden every afternoon once it’s nearly shadowy. I reckon Mam cut down on breakfast because we spend the afternoon eating grass, but it doesn’t quite work like that, Mam, because we’d be eating hay if we weren’t outside. We get hay when we come back in, at any rate.

Mam says to make the most of it because it’s going to get cooler and rainy next Wednesday onwards. She’s a bit pleased because she’s run out of rainwater to water the pots with. She has to use the mains instead. You’ll probably understand what that means.

Mam’s been spending lots of time in the garden growing things and cutting things and making things. It’s good for her, I think. Apparently we can come out of this avirus lockdown a little, but Mam isn’t because the scientists say it’s too early. She seems a bit worried by something she learnt the other day, but she hasn’t explained it to me, save that she has to have someone nearby who can come in to look after her when she’s ill.

Well, Auntie Vikki always did that, so I’m sure she’ll find someone else now that Auntie Vikki (and Auntie Claire) don’t live near us any more.

And there’s no sign of some new boys coming yet. We just have to be patient. As long as there’s enough cucumber and hay, Mam, we’ll be fine.

Have a nice week

love

Roscoe xxx

S is for Summer, and Sadness

On By geordieroscoeIn a to z challenge3 Comments

Way-aye, Roscoe here again.

2019 A to Z badge
Blogging from A to Z

It was hard finding inspiration to talk about the letter S this week. Mam had some good suggestions, and Summer is certainly one I feel qualified to talk about.

But I also feel Sad, and that’s because I felt completely misrepresented last week.  Joshua and Auntie Noelle both thought I wasn’t very talkative. I answered Bertie’s questions when he came and interrupted me, and he wrote down the answers. He got all the rest of our background from Neville the other week, what would have been the point of repeating that?  You’d have said ‘Oh, we know all that.’

Also, I don’t think you understand how hard it is being a rescue pig with no wish to relive the horrible time when you were just left.  We were lucky, some aren’t. It’s traumatic, being moved about and worrying whether anyone will keep you, however nice people try to be.  Even these days, when Mam puts me in the carrier, there’s a little part of me that wonders ‘will I be coming back here?’

Anyway, it’s still Summer, and we’ve been out on the grass most days.  The grass is a wee bit short, and the other grass is a bit dry, but Mam says we aren’t getting enough rain.  Sometimes it’s been too hot to go out till really late, when the sun is going down. But we’ve been fine.  Some people’s piggies haven’t been, and the reports of piggies dying in the heat are horrible. And Sad.

Look, littlies!
Biggles meets Fire
Bertie loves lavender
Roscoe with Fire and Ice
Yummy leaves
Summer snoozing
More mowing

 

The new kids on the block went out on the grass on Saturday and we had a chat with them.  I talked to the ginger one and the white one.  The black one took a dislike to me for some reason.  He had a real rumblestrut at me.  Cheeky little… Biggles had a nice chat to them too.

Nev likes his new haircut and Mam says he looks better with his hair short.  She said his face reminds her of Victor with his cut as it is. So I think that’s three pigs he reminds her of now.  As for me – well, she’s called me Colman a few times recently, and I don’t know why. I could understand her calling me Kevin. Mam says there’s a word beginning with S to describe her brain at present – Senile. I think she’s just been working too hard on her new book.  Perhaps she needs a Siesta.

That’s it for this week.  Bertie will be back next week, to talk about T.

love

Roscoe xxx

PS Here’s a picture of Mam’s wildflower garden with lots of butterflies in it.  We’re not allowed in there because there are some poisonous plants in among the yummy ones.

wildlfoer meadow with butterflies

G is for Garden Parties and other things

On By geordieroscoeIn Birthdays, garden6 Comments

2019 A to Z badge
Blogging from A to Z

We’re back to our A to Z weekly blogging challenge today.  I’m Roscoe, the handsome one of the party. The one with the dashing eye patch!

G is for Garden parties, Gotcha days, Gardening and something Mam does pretty often, which is Golf.

We had hoped to have a Garden party last week to celebrate the blog’s anniversary.  Mam is very happy you came and visited her special anniversary post, but is a mite disappointed that people haven’t entered her Giveaway. I mean, it’s like a raffle, and friends enter raffles, don’t they?  So step up and enter the Giveaway.  It’s at the bottom of Tuesday’s post.

Mam says she might add everyone who’s left a comment on the blog anyway.

Jubilee Garden Party
Biggles and Bertie have Gotcha cake
Colman’s 7th birthday 2015
Kevin’s 5th birthday party
Neville helps Bertie eat his cake
Roscoe and his Gotcha cake
Midge’s 3rd birthday party

We generally have Garden parties for birthdays, and  Gotcha Days, which are the dates on which some of us arrived here, rather than the date we were born.  Nev and I don’t know when we were born, and neither does Mam, so we have our Gotcha Day on 18th August.  Bertie and Biggles celebrate their birthday in February, and we have an indoor party for that.  Garden parties are a tradition here, though.  Mam says we might have one for Princelings Day, 13th June.

Gardening is something Mam does to keep the garden tidy, while we do the gras mowing for her.  This weekend she was weeding the new veggies.  She says the salad leaves are nearly ready to pick, and the carrots and kohl rabi are growing nicely.  She took out weeds like chickweed and some mini dandelions and mini fennel, which she gave us to try. We liked them. She gave us some extra Grass she found too.  Yum.

Golf is what Mam does when she goes out all day.  She usually gets us cuddled, cleaned and fed then says ‘Bye Boys, see you after 3,’ or after 5, or before dark, and she goes out of the door.  She comes back later, and usually she brings food or hay.  So Golf is obviously related to shopping.

So that’s it for G, apart from George, of course, who was Gorgeous, and so am I.  He-he 🙂

See you next time

love

Roscoe xxx

 

first day of spring grass 2019

It’s spring! We have proof!

On By bertie bootsIn garden2 Comments

Bertie here, full of the joys of spring!

We went out in the garden for the first time this year at the weekend.

I thought it was a bit scary, all that sky above my head, so I hid under my tent.  I still ate the grass I found there.  I thought it was a bit cold on my feet, but nice under the shelter of the tent.

Biggles ran around with Roscoe and Neville!  I know he’s been spending time with them on the floor, and more time than I have.  I usually say hi and good-bye to Roscoe at floor time.  Sometimes we get to bump noses, but usually if Mummy’s got my tent out I’ll go into that to avoid any confrontation. If there’s something we don’t argue about we can spend a while longer together these days.  But I didn’t realise that Biggles had actually made friends with them.  Turncoat.  I knew there was a good reason I didn’t like him.

Roscoe intent on the grass edges
Neville and Biggles eat from tents while Roscoe turns his back
View of the runs and the garden with Nev, Rosc and Bigs out in the open
Bertie still hides behind the tent
Bertie hides under the tent
Biggles emerges onto the greass

Here are some pictures of us out on the grass.  The white thing is the netting over the new seeds.  Mummy’s sown carrots, salad leaves and something else for us in there. On the left is the bed with the veg that’s been growing all winter; swiss chard which we get for breakfast some days, curly endive (the same) and broad beans which will pod in a couple of months, Mummy says.  And on the far right, behind the lavender, there are baby pea plants growing.  That’s baby plants, not baby peas.

Next week we start the A to Z thing.  I’m very excited about it.

See you in a couple of weeks,

Bertie

xx

PS Did you see my interview with Joshua?

PPS.  Mummy says we can come off our special low fat diet pellets because it’s made no difference to our weights.  This is the latest chart.

last day of summer 2018

That might be it for summer…

On By geordieroscoeIn Happenings3 Comments

It was really nice last week.  Each day when Mam came back from her golf (it’s always golf, we think), she put us out in the garden for a wee while, even when it was nearly dark. It wasn’t really dark. The darkest day we only went out for a few minutes, but it was good for a leg stretch and some grass.

Selfie with Mam
Me on Mam’s lap after the bath
Neville’s selfie with Mam

Thursday Neville and me had a bath.  We don’t like having baths, but it’s good afterwards.  My hair goes soft and silky, and so does Neville’s.  His bottom stops smelling riper than is polite, too.  We get an extra long cuddle (I don’t like long cuddles) and get a warm blowy noisy thing held over us before we go for our run.  It does make you feel nice and warm, though.

Saturday was great.  Mummy was not in golf clothes, and we went out into the garden runs at lunchtime. That’s earlier than we’ve had all summer long, I think.  The runs had moved onto fresh grass.  We made good work of that, I can tell you.  Mam made good work of planting seeds in the veggie patch with the chard and winter lettuce.

Us on Saturday
Bertie on Thursday
Biggles on Thursday (he went all shy in the garden)

There was a lot of air blowing about, almost as warm as that hair drying thing Mam used on Thursday.  We were in a sheltered part, between the plant that’s escaped from its pen and the wall, where there’s lots of grass.  Bertie was beside us.  He’d moved only a little way, next to where he’d been before.  And the other end was Biggles.

Mam said to eat as much as we liked because we wouldn’t be coming out much longer.  How right she was!  Sunday was wet as could be and Mam said it was cold out, too.  Today Mam’s gone out early in her golf uniform again, but she’s got extra layers on.  It’s funny how she manages to get extra layers of coat on.  We just fluff up our hair a bit more.

Mam said to send a special note to Auntie Noelle, because she’s been suffering from the hurricane, which is even windier than our wind.  That must be really something, Auntie Noelle.  And also we’re still thinking solidly for Uncle Mo, and hope the treatment’s okay and the human vet people are looking after you well. Love and kisses from us.

And love and kisses to you too.

Roscoe xxx

Birthday cake and Gotcha party

On By geordieroscoeIn Birthdays2 Comments

Way-aye! Roscoe here, full of Gotcha cake, or was it birthday party? I’m not sure, and I don’t think Mam was either.

Anyroad, yesterday we had a party with cake. Me and Neville have been here a whole year. I have to say, I like it here. I’ve got used to the funny way Mam talks, and Bertie and Biggles too, for that matter.

Neville with cake
Roscoe and his Gotcha cake

Nev and I like our cage and the time we spend in the garden, especially with the blue tunnel to play in. And the morning routine is good too: Nev gets a cuddle and some cucumber (six pieces, he says, cos he counts), then gets to go on the floor for a run, with Biggles, who’s already been through the cuddle-cucumber bit. Then I get a cuddle and six pieces of cucumber, if I can’t fool Mam into giving me more. Then I join Nev on the floor and Biggles goes back in his cage.

Then Bertie goes and gets cuddled and finishes up the cucumber, and when he comes into the kitchen I get picked up and put back, then Nev joins me.  Sometimes he stays a while to talk to Bertie, but I don’t like him doing that.  Makes me cross to think Bertie has been trying to cuddle up to him.  No matter, I forgive him after a bit.  Then we get our pellets, and then Mam gets the breakfast from the garden or the fridge or a mixture of the two.

After we’ve eaten, it’s time for a snooze.  And maybe we’ll go outside on the grass in the afternoon.

Then sometimes, like this weekend, we do other things later in the day, like have parties.  The cake was delicious, although Nev was too busy with grass to start with.  The grass has grown.  I think we should be out there to trim it for you every day, Mam.