Live life outdoors

Oh I do love a Bank Holiday weekend. Just the pure joy of a long weekend so full of potential! So much to do and all the time in the world to do it! Saturday was an absolute cracker. We, Mary and I, headed off to the Garden Centre to get some replacement tomato plants. We had planted some out at the beginning of the month and lost the lot. We think it was a combination of weak plants (we left them in a heated propagator too long and they bolted) and sun scold. Anyway, regardless of what it was we lost the lot. We had some other plants that are doing OK hanging on the fence; even have a couple of fruit on them. I had also bought on some giant plum tomato seeds which I had brought on slowly and had been given a few plants by our friend Emma. We now have 24 plants so fingers crossed we will have a good crop of toms again this year. In the afternoon it was time to go and play pirates with my brother, Paul. As our alter egos, The Wessex Wyverns, we had arranged a Splash Mob – a Ge...

How much fun can you fit into one Easter weekend? The answer is "a lot!" The weekend started with a roadtrip to Cricklade with my mum to go and see the fritillaries in the Nature Reserve there. This one meadow has 80% of the country's Snake Head Fritillary population and is an incredibly beautiful spectacle! When you look across the meadow there is a purple haze from the sheer number of flowers, then when your eyes adjust you can then begin to focus in on the individual flowers and see the intricate patterns on the petals, some like chequerboards. After our roadtrip it was back home and time to launch The Saucy Nancy III and Katie Kayak. Our first paddle was from Marchwood up to the Redbridge Causeway and back with my big brother (best brother ever). We went up on a rising tide and it was our plan to get under all three bridges ( a rail bridge, road bridge and the old stone foot bridge) to the landward side which we did. After a short break we were back...