enquiries@pricklyhedge.com

Posts Tagged "pricklyhedge"

12Apr2021

💚🌷💚 GARDENING KIDS Primrose & Violet (The Flowertots)

Hello everyone, how are you all?  Well, I hope.

Did you manage to get outdoors more last week?  I hope so,  if the weather was good (or bad) where you live.  I LOVE walking in the rain, so it never bothers me to go out in the rain, but I have to admit to liking the sun a tad more lol.

This week, we have some cute characters that I’ve never come across before in the guise of the Flowertots.  My kids used to watch Tiny Tots back in the 90’s.  Do you remember them?  I’m a tot and you’re a tot, Tilly, Tom & Tiny.  They loved it, along with Bump the Elephant.  Anyway, I digress.
 
Here’s a little vide featuring Primrose and Violet.  Enjoy.

Despite the lovely Spring weather, there are still a lot of animals that like to live underground.  Wednesday, we get to know what it’s like to live underground in a video that due out then.  You can check them out on our website at https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/ or on our Facebook page /pricklyhedge. 

If you loved the paper cherry blossom, then check out our video on Friday for #fridaycraftmorning where we’ve dug up 23 more ideas to make paper flowers.  I feel inspired.

It really does feel good to be getting out and about more in the fresh air, and I may even be able to get a walk in the park scheduled with my eldest son, it would be nice to see him for a little longer than 15 minutes on the doorstep.  Can’t wait to give him a hug, like the rest of the population.

If you have any pictures of things you’ve grown in your garden, or seeds that are already sprouting, let us know.  We’ve planted some broad beans so we’ll keep you updated on those.

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round-up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

 As ever, if you make anything, drop a picture on the Facebook page, we’d love to see them.

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and don’t forget to let us know if you make any of our craft items.

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
5Apr2021

💚♻💚 RECYCLING KIDS 39 Hacks, Lots of Swallows and Oodles of Cherry Blossom!

Hello everyone, how are you all?  Well, I hope.

Did you have a good Easter holiday/break?  I LOVE Easter, it’s my favourite time, I think I like it more than Christmas.  But then I love the Spring and this week we’re all about swallows and cherry blossom, as well as 39 brilliant hacks to help with your recycling quest.  You can see that video below

A lovely animated story about swallow’s migrating will be out on Wednesday this week and you can check them out on our website at https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/ or on our Facebook page /pricklyhedge. 

On Friday, we have a gorgeous craft item for #fridaycraftmorning to make some beautiful paper cherry blossom.  This might be one for the mum’s and dad’s too.  Isn’t cherry blossom just the prettiest sight after a long hard Winter?  I know that when it appears in our street, Spring is definitely on its way.

Again, you can check that out on the website or Facebook page on Friday. As it’s April, we want to start pushing the Spring theme a bit more, so I hope you’re feeling a little lighter and more rejuvenated.  World-wide things seem to be improving a little, let’s hope that we can get back to some kind of normality by the Summertime, in the meantime, we can get outdoors and enjoy the freedom that fresh air affords us, so let’s all do that if we can.

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round-up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

 As ever, if you make anything, drop a picture on the Facebook page, we’d love to see them.

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and don’t forget to let us know if you make any of our craft items.

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
29Mar2021

💛 🐣💛 NEWS – Chickens are way cuter than dormice 💛 🐣💛

Hello everyone, how are you all? Well, I hope.  It’s Eggciting isn’t it!!!  Yes, that’s my one and only joke for the newsletter #pinkypromise

As it will be Good Friday the end of this week and then the Easter weekend begins, I thought I’d concentrate on chickens. Who doesn’t love little fluffy yellow chickens?! Even if you don’t celebrate Easter, none of us can resist them.

Here’s a little video with some really cute chickens (and a few other animals) doing funny things.

Also this week, I’ve added a few more craft items to keep the kids entertained and making the Easter table and decorations a little more ‘bestpoke’.

On Wednesday, the chickens will be hatching over at

and we’ve got a couple of craft items Friday and Saturday this week in readiness for Easter Sunday.  Friday’s are some cute folded chickens at https://youtu.be/j4jk1IHqJV4

and Saturday’s is an egg container for the table.  You can see that on the website at https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/or our Facebook page on www.facebook.com/pricklyhedge

 As ever, if you make anything, drop a picture on the Facebook page, we’d love to see them.

So a bit of a theme, eh!  Well, there’s enough going on without me adding to it with reading a newsletter too, lol.

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round-up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and don’t eat too much chocolate!!!  Have a great Easter holiday.

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
22Mar2021

💜🎙💜 NEWS – Dormice – Too cute for words!

💜🎙💜 NEWS – Dormice – Too cute for words!

Dormouse

As a kid I had hamsters, both of whom, if I recall, I called Hammy.  Original, eh!? I never had a mouse or a rat or anything like that, but I did love hamsters, I would sit and watch them going round in their wheels for hours and I loved laying sunflower seed trails for them and seeing how many they could stuff in their faces before staggering back to their nests.

Mice and rats aside, however, I have a distinct passion for Dormice, they are toooo cute for words and this week is dedicated to them and our hope to help save our Hazel Dormouse, but first off, let’s learn a bit more about dormice here

Check the website on Wednesday to see the video on how to help them.  The link is www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar

You can also check out the conservation work this couple are doing in their woodland.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u-yMkXOuTY

Also start to keep a look out for anemones coming up in the garden, they are usually planted in the late Summer/early Autumn for Spring flowering, but there are a few varieties, dependent on where you live, that can still be planted in Spring.

These are wood anemones though, so keep an eye out when you’re out walking too.

Wood Anemones

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round-up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

And a little #fridaycraftmorning for the kids. Doris the Dormouse – soo cute. Hopefully that will keep them amused for a little while at least. Check it out on the Facebook page or the website on Friday. As ever, if you make anything, drop a picture on the Facebook page, we’d love to see them.

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and watch out for anemones this week, see how you can help the Hazel Dormouse survive and show us your pictures of Doris!!

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
15Mar2021

💜🕷💜 NEWS – “Incy Wincy Spider”

💜🕷💜 NEWS – “Incy Wincy Spider”

“Do you understand why people are scared of us?…”

Hey there, hope you’ve all had a great week.

Well, love ‘em or hate ‘em, we have to deal with ‘em.  Spiders!  I either let them go on their merry way or, if they are HUUUUUGE, I trap them in a plastic cup and let them go on their merry way OUTSIDE of my house.  I have to be careful as I’m allergic to spider bites, so gently does it for me.

Best thing to do with something you’re not too sure about, or afraid of, is to find out as much as you can about them.  Here’s a start with a little video all about our eight-legged friends.

Check out the website at www.PricklyHedge.com/sidebar or our Facebook page www.Facebook.com/pricklyhedge on Wednesday for a video explaining why we shouldn’t be afraid of them.

Something else that people don’t like are dandelions, which is a real shame.  They have been used as edible and medicinal plants for many hundreds of years, but even if you can’t stand the thought of eating dandelion greens in your salad, give a thought to the bees.  Especially, the red-tailed bumblebee who is the laziest of the bees, they prefer to graze on one large flower, i.e. a dandelion, as opposed to flitting from flower to flower.  They’re not really lazy, they are just super-efficient with their time and energy levels.

Here’s an article from the Guardian highlighting their usefulness.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2015/may/12/dandelions-pollinators-wildlife-garden

And to round off the week, we have #fridaycraftmorning making this adorable moving spider.  You have to admit he’s rather cute.  No???  Aww poor spidey.

Come on though, you can’t help but LOVE Lucas! ❤❤❤

Yay!  New episodes, I’ve missed him.

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round-up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and try being a bit kinder to spiders??? Don’t forget if you have any great drawings of spiders, share them with us on our Facebook page www.Facebook.com/pricklyhedge

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
8Mar2021

💜🎙💜 NEWS – How Easy is this? Simple Way to Grow Tomatoes.

💜🎙💜 NEWS – How Easy is this? Simple Way to Grow Tomatoes.

Juicy Tomatoes straight from the bush

Hello there, I hope you’re all week and looking forward to longer, brighter days.  On days when the sun is shining, it makes you feel so good to be alive doesn’t it and let along looking forward to Spring, some of are already considering Summer and the goodies we get to eat from our gardens or allotments.  Some of you may not be lucky enough to have an allotment, or even a garden, but this week’s gardening video shows you just how easy it is to grow salad vegetables and we have had them in our dining room at one time in a large pot.

Check out this cute kid and let him show you how to grow tomatoes at home without even having to buy seeds.  He’s an inspiration.

As the weather continues to warm slowly, bats will be coming out of hibernation too.  We used to have bats in our garden until the neighbour took down a huge conifer.  Not that bats like nesting in conifers but they do like the insects that hover around the plant and so it was a bit like going to take-away to swarm around the conifer at dusk for a feast.  Shame because we don’t see them now.  We still have one place we can walk to to see them during the warmer months, so we may do that and video them.

This week, we have a video telling us all we need to know about bats.

You’ll be needing to buy a few more tomatoes this week too, lol, what with planting them and now crafting with them.  You can check out the Craft video on Friday, you’ll need a few tomatoes and some paper and poster paint #fridaycraftmorning

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and try growing your food and helping to keep our planet healthy.

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

GardeningNews
1Mar2021

💜🎙💜 NEWS – HOW Many Spines Do Hedgehogs Have??

💜🎙💜 NEWS – HOW Many Spines Do Hedgehogs Have???

I can’t believe it’s the third month already.  It’s starting to feel like Spring, March 1st is always a sort of watershed for me, I feel energised and upbeat, the dark months of Winter are drawing to an end and with it a lot of our animals will be coming out of hibernation, especially bats, dormice and hedgehogs.  More on hedgehogs later, but I love to try and promote how we can all recycle more and this week, we have a great video giving you ideas for 20 projects you can get your teeth into for recycling.

There’s some really great ideas in the video, I especially like some of the gift bags and clever use of newspapers and those tea light holders are something else.  I bet they smell gorgeous.  Have a watch and you try anything snap a picture and share it with us on our Facebook page

www.facebook.com/pricklyhedge

Now back to those hedgehogs, hopefully, if they’ve survived the Winter, they should be making an appearance around now.  They are in such small numbers in this country now, we need to look after as much as we can.  Here are 5 super cool facts about hedgehogs.  So HOW many spines do hedgehogs have??

Of course, the humble daffodil will be starting to make its presence known in our gardens and waysides this month.  They are one of my favourite flowers, I absolutely adore all Spring flowers, especially hyacinths, but daffodils never fail to cheer me up.  Just a small bunch of them in the house lifts my spirits immensely.

So, on our recycling theme, our craft video this week is all about making daffodils from egg cartons.  Mother’s Day Card??? Perhaps?

You can catch that video on Friday this week on the website and also on our Facebook page.  We should have quite a few here at Prickly Hedge, they’ve already started to push up from the ground giving us that much-needed promise of Spring. #fridaycraftmorning

Don’t forget that on our website, you’ll also find a round up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/

I hope you have a great week and until next time, stay safe, stay well and keep recycling and helping to keep our planet healthy.

Lots of love from Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
22Feb2021

💜🎙💜 NEWS – Getting Paranaoid about the Paratoids!!

💜🎙💜 NEWS – Getting Paranaoid about the Paratoids!!

Toad

Well, we’ve had a busy week here at Prickly Hedge, our neighbours are having some work done on the party wall in March and in readiness for them to come and move one of the greenhouses that is in the way, we needed to do some prep work.  So we’ve been moving bricks and pot plants and garden furniture.  Fortunately, it’s not been too cold, a bit blustery and rainy some days, but then it’s only water.

I’ve been surprised that normally when we start working in the garden we come across the subject of this week’s newsletter; frogs!  We normally see them around but no, nothing, zippo, zilch.  But I’ve never been able to tell the difference between frogs and toads.  Have you? 

This week’s video teaches us all about the similarities and the differences between the two, most noticeably that toads have two bumps on their heads behind their eyes.  These are called the paratoid or poison glands.  That’s a surefire way of telling if it’s a toad, but give the video a watch and join in with the quiz at the end.

On our website, you’ll find a round up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/ one of the stories this week is about the demise of seagrass.

“Increasing awareness of the importance of seagrass ecosystems is one of the greatest challenges for its conservation. Seagrasses suffer from not being as well-known or appreciated as their more charismatic marine cousins, such as coral reefs and mangroves, despite being just as threatened.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/seagrass-ocean-climate-change-pollution-florida_n_602ced75c5b6cc8bbf3819ff?ri18n=true

We don’t only learn this week about the differences between toads and frogs, but also about the life cycle of the frog.  Who didn’t love looking for frog spawn when they were a kid, well, I still get excited if I see any nowadays.  Let us know if you know the difference between frog and toad spawn. It’s in the video!

That’s one thing we’ve never had at Prickly Hedge is a pond, we have some aquatic plants to attract the dragonflies but never anything for frogs etc.  Hmm.  We’ll see.

Frog Spawn

And to round off the week, get those craft boxes out again, this week, it’s all about the Japanese art of paper folding, yes origami.  It alludes me too at times, my eldest is a whizz at it and can rustle you up a crane in next to no time, I have trouble with napkin folding lol.  But this week you only need paper and a marker pen to make the jumping origami frog

#fridaycraftmorning

The link will be on the How To’s page on Friday, so you can check it out here https://www.pricklyhedge.com/?p=14194

Throughout the week on our Facebook page @pricklyhedge, you can check out the videos we post.  Sadly, not getting many at the moment as the animals seem particularly spooked by the bright light on the colour camera.  I’m going back to the black and white version, but we’re just repairing the camera ‘hide’.  Perhaps I’ll video that next week.

Anyway, in the meantime, I hope you have a great week and I’ll speak to you next week.  Have fun, stay safe and well.  With love from all of here at #TEAMPricklyHedge.

Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
15Feb2021

💜🎙💜BREAKING NEWS – Slugs have GREEN blood!

💜🎙💜 NEWS – BREAKING NEWS – Slugs have GREEN blood!

Hello there everyone from a sunny, but cold Prickly Hedge!  Remember last week, when I said there were signs of Spring?   Hmm, well I was wrong.  I’ve felt like I was living in a deep freeze this week and I’ve most definitely frequented by fleecy pj’s this week.  I’ve spent most of the week in my polar fleece ones.  I don’t sleep in them, just wear them during the day to keep warm!  So inside it’s been toasty and warm and I haven’t ventured out at all.

Nature still has a habit of making its presence known though and along with the lovely robins, we should start seeing more of the blackbirds and blue tits.  The blue tits are the cutest little birds, they feed on the cotoneaster berries under our lounge window – conversely – the blackbirds gorge themselves on the berries, but they have been noticeable by their absence this year, sadly.

One for the boys now, or maybe the tomboy girls; they were something I’ve never really taken to but, hey, each to their own.  Snails!  The bane of gardener’s lives.  Want to know more about them?  Slugs and snails are from two different families, even though they belong to the same Phylum (Mollusca) and Class (Gastropoda).

“Slugs and snails are very important. They provide food for all sorts of mammals, birds, slow worms, earthworms, insects and they are part of the natural balance. Upset that balance by removing them and we can do a lot of harm. Thrushes in particular thrive on them! 

Here are some of the weird and wonderful reasons we love slugs and snails.”

Check out the article here https://www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/gardeners-guide-slugs-snails – I’ll let you into a little secret – slug blood is green!  It is!  Wow, I didn’t know that.  I think you might change your mind about slugs and snails after reading this, I know I did.  We NEED slugs and snails, they provide food for our endangered hedgehogs.  We start killing one thing in the chain and others suffer.  Like the beautiful mistle thrushes from last week, they thrive on them too.  This is why we have to be sooo careful with what we use for pest control in our gardens.

There’ll also be a video later in the week all about slugs and snails, here’s your advance link for that

https://youtu.be/c8ma6vDvXAM

And a little Snail song for a bit of light relief. Those eyes, they’re just TOOO cute!

And on Friday 19th, there’ll be a craft video on how to make your very own paper snail – all you’ll need is a piece of green paper and a piece of coloured paper, orange, blue, red, whatever colour you decide you want your snail to be.  So get those ready for Friday Craft Morning along with some scissors and glue and get crafting with your little ones. You’ll need:

  • 1 pc Green A4 Paper
  • 1 pc Coloured A4 Paper
  • Coloured pencils
  • Scissors
  • Glue/Pritt Stick

#fridaycraftmorning

What to look out for this week?

Keep an eye out for house sparrows – if you see them congregate, perhaps you have a bird table or you put some birdseed out for them, write down the number of sparrows you see this week.  Let us know in the comments.  They have been in decline in the UK recently, but we’ve seen a few more around this last year (and no, not because we’ve had more time in lockdown – lol).

Housesparrow – beautiful colours!

Anyway, have a great week.  Stay safe, stay well, stay home if you can and we’ll see you next week.

Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
8Feb2021

🧡🎙🧡NEWS – Posh Baked Beans on Toast, anyone?

🧡🎙🧡 NEWS – Posh Baked Beans on Toast, anyone?

Hello there everyone! How are you all doing this week?  There are a few signs of Spring here at Prickly Hedge, our snowdrops have come up.  Well, that sounds very grand, we have about 5 in a pot!  Every little helps lol. 

We also have a few hazel catkins that have appeared on the tree, amazingly, as I mentioned before, other half definitely gave it a shave the other week.  Was warranted though, because they can grow huge and even though Prickly Hedge is a rather large urban garden, it’s still an urban garden nonetheless.  We have two oak trees growing and two huge Yew trees as well, so we have to be careful of our neighbour’s light being blocked.

The weather seems to have improved a little too, well here it has and it’s been slightly warmer, a little bit more like Spring but interspersed with bitterly cold days too.  That little bit of heat though means we can start to think about planting or at least growing from seed.

Here’s an easy vegetable to grow, doesn’t grow too tall or take up too much space.  Broad beans!  I know a lot of people don’t like them but sometimes they can taste way sweeter when you’ve grown them yourself J  Why not give them a try https://youtu.be/o4Dt7hzlNHU

And here’s a novel way to use the.  Good old Jamie Oliver let’s us into the secret of making Posh Beans on Toast!

On a recycling theme, we have a little video coming up on how to make a bird feeder from a plastic bottle; https://youtu.be/7-0kjsXbmrs

And talking of birds, listen out for the song of the Mistle Thrush, you can check that out here https://youtu.be/68jDXIGUBMo

In news from abroad, the Biden administration have delayed the implementation of a Trump era ruling on migratory birds, reports the Huffington Post

“The Biden administration on Thursday delayed the implementation of a Trump-era rule that gutted protections for hundreds of species of migratory birds. 

Finalized in former President Donald Trump’s final days in office, the rule codified a 2017 legal interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) that effectively legalized the killing of migratory birds by corporations and individuals so long as the deaths were not intentional.” 

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/biden-delay-trump-rule-migratory-bird_n_601c4a7bc5b6179453d70464?ri18n=true

Did any of you manage to create a Valentine Card from last week’s video, it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday.  Even you didn’t create cards, it’s free to spread the love, so let’s do just that.

I hope you all have a great week and I’ll chat to you all soon.

Yvonne, Bubble and #TEAMPricklyHedge

News
Copyright ©2021: PRICKLY HEDGE ©2015: Kiddy Wordpress Theme