Produce from the garden

This year we have grown cucumbers for the first time this is our first straight one we have had a lot of bent ones they taste so much better than the supermarkets and after the first two we were making a profit.

 Now this is impressive our plums are almost as big as an apple and the taste is really great.

We have already picked so many that we have had to give them away you just cannot buy plums like these.

The original tree was planted at least fifty years ago in Patrick's grandfathers garden in Richmond Road Yeovil, he then gave a cutting to Partrick's father who also lived in Yeovil.  From there they gave some cuttings to his brother and sister who lived in Scotland.  As Patrick and I loved the plums Aunty Pat took some cuttings when we visited her and we managed to bring on two trees as the garden is too small for two trees we have passed on one to our friends Val and Graham.

Family Tree

I have gone back in the last month to tracing my family tree and Patricks it is very interesting now that there are more records on line.

I found the passenger lists of when I went to India, Hong Kong and Singapore it was very easy to do, and I have added this information to the family tree.

As my name was Buckland I have traced them back to 1825.

My mothers side was Carey and I have traced that back to 1816.

The Mills I have traced back to 1870.

Patricks side was Bagg traced back to 1855 and on his mothers side Templeman back to 1740.

The large person shown in the middle is Percy Buckland who was adopted by my
 great grandparents his original name was Kiddle.
My grandfather William Buckland is sitting on his right.

My father was quite young in this picture  and Fred Waghorn was his brother-in-law
married to his older sister Peg.

This is a picture of my dad and his two sisters
taken at the Bell Inn Southborough



Grandchildren

Cody having a go at painting.

Daniel at Yeovilton he enjoyed the visit.

Tyler trying out the hotel bed.

Jake showing off his new glasses that he had on Monday.

Westbury Court

While Barry and Sarah were on holiday Patrick an I stayed at their house for a couple of nights.  We could not go away on holiday as I had hospital appointments so we have been going out for day trips, as Patrick is working most Thursdays and Fridays so that we can go over to visit Alan and Siew Gin and the boys at half term.

On our first day we got up early and headed accross the bridge to Wales found a lovely little cafe and had a great english breakfast, the we quickly did a couple of geocaches as we haven't done any for a long time and it was a opportunity to see if we could do them with my new phone and it worked.

Then on to Westbury Court which is National Trust it is based on a dutch garden and has old fashioned vegetable and flower gardens it was really peaceful.

This part of the garden was laid out quite formally I much prefer the cottage garden effect.

This was in the walled garden and had some really old plants here hopping my garden looks more like this next year.

Patrick loves trees and this one was hundred of years old in fact you could get right inside it as the middle was quite hollow you can see how big the trunck is compared to Patrick.

We then headed for the Forest of Dean and had a lovely picnic, then on to a really great place for a cream tea, after a walk we called back for ice creams they were called welsh gold really big should have taken a photo.

The following day we spent a really good time with Sarah's mum and dad, had a great meal in an old Mill the history was really interesting, then Bryan took us to the canal and we enjoyed the walk and saw the road bridge open to let the boats through left camera in our car so no photo's.  Then back to Norah and Bryans for a cup of tea.  it was a very enjoyable day.

Gardening

This year we though we would do some serious gardening so we brought a Polytunnel

We could not believe how big everything grew inside and we have been eating lovely fresh vegetables

As you can see we continually have vegetables growing some plants got so large we had to put them outside.

Daniel's Birthday

This is a picture of Grandad and Daniel
sure a happy pair.

Grandma and Grandad went up the day before Daniels Birthday, so he had some presents early.

Daniel with his new scooter so he
could ride home from school
with Jake

Daniel on his birthday opening his presents
from mummy and daddy.

Visit to Yeovilton

Barry brought Jake and Daniel down for a visit so we went to Yeovilton as Patrick had not been for many years and the boys enjoyed going there on a recent visit.



Jake took time out to direct some helicopters on to the aircraft carrier.

Then Daniel thought he would have a go with some help from his dad.

Jake did not like going on the simulated helicopter so while Patrick, Barry and Daniel went off to do this Jake and I looked arround again at some of the planes and then Jake decided to make a large felt picture before the others got back.



I liked the way some of the planes have ended up at the bottom of the sea.

It was a good day out and Patrick is looking forward to his next visit.