More Friendship!

This is what the friendship plant that I got from Catherine yesterday will eventually look like.  She has kindly potted me up a couple but the winter weather has somewhat ravaged the green leaves.

This is Billbergia Nutans also known as The Queen's Tears and is a bromeliad that can apparently withstand periods of neglect but when in bloom their multi-coloured flowers (pink blue and lime green) are a stunning addition to the garden.  It is a native of South America and is capable of being grown on the side of another plant or in a pot on its own.  It has shallow roots taking most of its moisture from the leaves and flowers.  

Due to the fact that it is easy to split and share it is often called the Friendship Plant.  New shoots are produced multiple times a year.  The original plant will have an average lifespan of about three years so if I want to keep it going I need to make sure I split and renew and pass it on of course - Catherine says only to pass it on to nice people!

I had to nip to my chemists this morning because I realised I was running out of one of my drugs and it is the one for the hernia so can't really do without it and am not sure how next week's Easter Celebrations will affect opening.  It is UK Easter this weekend and Cypriot Easter next weekend!  Outside the chemists they were busy putting up their Easter decorations - can you imagine this in the UK - they wouldn't last a night!  Drugs got we popped into Kaites for some salad stuff and then next door for an ice-cream before returning home and spending the day pottering in the garden.  I am not entertaining Mum tomorrow so I don't have to panic about what we are going to eat.  John and I have our food sorted for tonight and in the slow cooker!

I have finally gotten round to upcycling the old metal candle chandelier thing that used to be in the Do-Jo.  It is a bit old and rusty but I like it and I saw something on tintyweb where they had turned one into a planter.  This is what I wanted to do but using some artificial plants I got recently - that way I don't need to worry about watering.

John had to adapt the plastic pots the plants are in so that they fitted over the candle holders and I had to spray them black to match the chandelier and then we found a place to put them under one of the Gazebos.

I have plenty of these little plants left so want to do something in a trough and put up on the roof terrace.  I don't want live plants up there because of the watering but want to make the space look greener and softer.   Once the clock vine grows up and over the railings that helps too.  Plus it affords us an extra bit of privacy when we are sat up there.  We had a bit of a Heath Robinson thing last year using an old camouflage net but that died when we took it down during the winter storms.

I have yet to plant the osteospurmum I bought the last time I went to the Garden Centre - that is because I am waiting for John to make a decision about where he would like them to go.  Although the garden is really my domain I do let him make some decisions every now and again just to keep him quiet!!  Anyway the original border of osteospurmum that was put in years ago is getting old and woody so definitely needs replacing or supplementing.

With the lovely weather we are embracing salads which are my favourite although I am not so sure about salad with hot potatoes and meat but we had potatoes that needed using up and the remainder of the pork neck from yesterday to eat.  It was from Shuks and was absolutely delicious and as he says Cheap as Chips!!!

We finished Peaky Blinders tonight - it felt like saying goodbye to old friends.  Life will not be the same without Mr Thomas Shelby in it!!!