Herb garden

Gardening on a steep slope isn't easy! Thankfully the garden has many levels and has been landscaped very well apart from a grassy slope just outside the kitchen window. While lawns can be beautiful when newly mowed and properly looked after, the patch visible from our window never quite fell into that category (being on a steep slope didn't help!) so finally after two years I decided to turn it into herb garden. It has been a pleasure to remove the grass and slowly work from one end to the other filling in the border with lovely fresh herbs. I've only done about a third of the area yet but a trip to the garden centre yesterday resulted in a large purchase of more herbs and the odd rockery plant which should be able to cover the remaining area! And it is conveniently located just outside the kitchen!

Veg patch nearly ready!

William's cricket area proved to be too small last summer as the balls just kept going outside of the enclosure and nearly over the roof tops. Lily the dog enjoyed being the best (and only) fielder and managed to find and bring back most of the stray balls that rained down over the rest of the garden. This year, after having waited two years, I will grow some vegetables instead and have constructed a few beds as well as planting some fruit bushes. I made good use of today's spring sunshine and carried a few buckets of wonderfully rich and rotten horse manure from the neighbours manure heap. Back breaking work, as most gardning is when living on a steep hillside, but definately worth it as I'm already excited about all the vegetables I'm going to grow this year.

Airkix fun!

In Manchester there is an indoor skydiving centre called Airkix, which uses a big fan to create huge wind speeds that lifts you off your feet simulating a skydive without the hassle or danger. William got scared of the loud sounds from the fan and decided not to have a go last minute (although we saw children as young as 4-5 years old having a go!) so I got the opportunity to have several goes and it was fascinating to learn how to move around and control your position in the air. At the end the instructor took me up to about 10 meters and down again really quickly which added an extra thrill to the session. If you get an opportunity to try this do it, but you have to book well in advance as it is very popular especially at weekends! You'll never forget the feeling of flying! But don't worry I'm not going to take up the sport of parachuting anytime soon!

Showing John the trails!

The weather is getting increasingly drier and sunnier so John took a day off work and we went for a long mountain bike ride around Chinley Churn and Hayfield. We could hear the helicopters going back and forwards to Kinder Scout and at first we thought there might be a big rescue operation taking place, but then realized they were only carrying flagstones for the foot path restoration up there. John did really well and rode loads of quite technical descents and we were nice and tired when we arrived home 32 km later.