Home Sweet Bumble Home

This is the journey of my Butterfly houses.

I always like to see how piles of materials can be turned into little creations. Every designer can put a little bit of themselves into each product, giving each one their own signature style.

As usual I visited my product development manager and my personal joiner (Mum and Dad!) and discussed a new idea. I left Dad with a rough design to see if it would be possible and cost-effective to make. Of course, Dad being Dad completely succeeded my expectations and on my next visit, a small town of Butterfly houses were waiting for me.

Made of quality wood and each one hand crafted by a joiner, Butterflies will be making a bee-line (or should that be a butterfly-line) to make one of these their home.

Once they land on the Bumbleblue desk, I can get my paint pots out and each house is given a few coats, sanded slightly in between to get a nice smooth and even finish. This also helps when I paint on any wording, which isn’t as easy on thick, lumpy paint.

The final coat is left to dry completely, and with my latest batch the sun made an appearance, perfect for helping the paint to dry.

When the whole house is finished, it’s then given a coat of external varnish to protect it from the elements, which have been a touch random lately!

Every house will reach its new owner with a little guide to help you to make the most of it and what to do to encourage butterflies to stay. I think one of these will definitely be making its way into our garden, they’re just too nice to sell them all!

 

 

Lovely Lavender

It was a gorgeously sunny day on Sunday and as these seem quite rare at the moment, I spent nearly all of it in the garden. Apart from popping in for cups of tea, I enjoyed cracking on with a bit of maintenance.

I honestly didn’t know you had to put so much time into a garden. Being a city garden, ours is quite small – but thank goodness! By the time you have planted a few bits here and cut back a few bits there, a whole day has flown by! Although Ed is more interested in growing things you can eat, I’ve managed to sneak other plants and flowers in to make it look like a garden, and not an allotment. It’s a bit random, but I like that it doesn’t look too planned and organised.

When we moved into the house, the only plant in the garden was an overgrown and un-loved lavender. We cut it back and nurtured it, but after a really cold winter last year, I was very suprised to see it bounce into life in the spring. On my cutting mission, I kept all the little lavender buds (the smelly bits) and over a cup of tea, I had a think about what I could do with them.

As I’ve explained before, I have a tendancy to buy something, keep it for months and then think of something to do or make with it. In my ‘cupboard of things waiting to be used’ were some plain organza bags – you see, it all comes together in the end! So little lavender bags were in the making, however next to the bags were some reels of wire. Feeling tempted to use this as well, but not really sure how, it was back into the sun to look at my components for a while.

It’s by no means perfect, but this is what I ended up with…

And the little lavender bags…

Quite a productive pruning session I feel.

Green Fingers

I mentioned in one of my very first blogs that we (Ed and me) were trying to make a go of growing our own veg this year.

For his Birthday in February, I bought Ed a mini greenhouse – we only have a little garden so a normal sized greenhouse would have taken up the whole of it! This spurred us on and we drove to the nearest garden center to pick a small and manageable selection of plants.

We spent what seemed like a fortune on plants, seeds, pots, tubs, compost, hanging baskets, plant food and bamboo canes. Of course I managed to sneak a few bedding flowers and lavender plants into the trolly as well.

All ready (and armed with a ‘Grow Your Own’ book – another fabulous Birthday present from yours truly) we trundled out into our little garden to start planting. Apart from a few squeals on my part due to worms and spiders, we really cracked on and by the end of the afternoon we had cucumbers, chilli peppers, potatoes, sweet peppers, tomatoes, garlic, beetroot and strawberries planted. Like a said, a small and manageable selection for two amateurs, and not forgetting the colourful bedding flowers and lavender plants.

The random weather hasn’t made it easy, and for first timers we are constantly inspecting the plants in their tubs, asking them if they have enough water etc. Wouldn’t it be great if they actually spoke back? Things on the whole are looking hopeful – everything looks healthy and the flowers are bringing gorgeous colour to the city garden.

The hot chilli pepper is looking great – not quite sure how hot it’s going to be but we’ll let Ed find that one out.

The sweet pepper is looking good too. They’ve been enjoying the warm bit at the top of the greenhouse and I think the recent hot weather has really encouraged them.

I can’t wait for the cucumber to be ready – although if it gets much bigger, we will have to take everything else out of the green house!

We tried a tomato plant last year and it seemed to have more tomatoes on it, but we’re still hopeful that this years will bring a few.

And the small pretty area at the bottom of the garden isn’t looking bad either.

Ed was feeling brave the other day and decided to inspect one of the sacks of potatoes and came back with a bowl full of spuds! So, in celebration, I rustled up a simple potato salad.

Well done Ed – fabulous growing skills and very yummy potatoes!