Thanks for your welcome Toni. I'd just like to introduce myself. 59 years young (the big 60 in April! Hmmmm.)I've been a fan of watergardening for many years, with a few ponds under my belt - but still learning. Having moved from Surrey in late summer to a new location here in North Devon, my current tasks revolve around knocking the garden I've adopted into some kind of shape. Not a large plot at all, but was mostly lawn, which I find unadventurous. At this mucky, damp and depressing time of year I've accomplished as much as I can for now, replacing much of the lawn with a largish pond, flower beds and just enough patio paving to sit out there with a cool beer come the summer...can't wait. I'm now a fulltime carer for my 91 year old mum, so making the garden accessible to her without obstacles has been an important ingredient. My other interests: I play keyboard, and collect old records (by old I mean 78's), together with vintage players to match. Watercolourist of sorts, with art school training in graphic design. My career in advertising in London ended abruptly upon redundancy some years ago. Being creative by nature, and since being laid off, I invented something called Jigstones (just search Jigstones if you want to see what it is), but after a few years of marketing it I'm no longer connected to the product. Sold the business on. So lots of time on my hands. And that's about it. My best regards to you all, Pete.
Hi from the Lone Star state of Texas. We are glad to have you join our Stew.I'm off to search for Jigstones so I'll know what you are talking about.
Hi there Pete and welcome to our forums. :-D Great to have a gardening enthusiast here from 'down south.' I'm from the UK too - Scotland to be precise. Jigstones are a really great idea and I think that my eldest lad has ordered them in the past as he makes model buildings for Lord of the Rings layaouts. Really looking forward to seeing some pictures of your garden and maybe some of your watercolours too.
Sounds like you are an interesting guy to have around Pete Welcome to GardenStew from the resident gnome. What type of music do you collect mostly or it a mish mash of music? Lots of great folk here so make yourself at home! Don't miss our blogs, calendar or member map either
Thanks for your warm welcomes. Eileen - hope to post a pic or two when things become just a little more photogenic. Everything's a bit rough around the edges at the moment...but I think it looks promising. At least I've got past the stage of treading mud into the living room! That became very tedious. Maybe a watercolour too. (I guess you're getting most of the rubbish weather up there, after we've finished with it down here!) Hi Gardenstew - my main love are the bigband sounds of the 40's etc, though I like most kinds of music - rock 'n' roll, modern jazz, classical, whatever's going (not opera though). Although I have, like most, quite decent CD reproduction gear, there's something very atmospheric about listening to a 78rpm record on an old wind-up gramophone. I suppose I have about a thousand 78's now, but haven't bothered to count them. Perhaps I should have mentioned that, gardenwise, I enjoy the miniaturisation, colour, cheerfulness and often robust spirit of alpines. Favourite scent - mock orange on a summer's evening. Pete
Hello, Pete, waving at you from the coast of North Carolina. How nice to meet you, glad that you've found us here at the Stew. It sounds as though you have some terrific projects underway to replace that dull lawn space. Designing your spaces in such a way that your mum can enjoy them with you must be so rewarding. I also had a career in graphic design (advertising arts and the printing industry), which eventually burned me out. I have (blissfully) put all that behind me, now.
Hello Pete and welcome from Louisiana. Glad to have you at the Stew. Can't wait to see pics of your gardens and pond. I, along with my imediate family, also take care of my Mom, she is 84 and crippled from a bone disease. She loves flowers too and she is anxiously awaiting spring for a tour of the yard.
Hi Pete and welcome from New Orleans, LA, where hurricane Katrina hit. I checked out jigstones. What a great idea. Love 'em.
Big 60 in March here welcome to the stew. Your mother is blessed to have a Son like you. My wife's { CajunBelle} is 84 amd living about 40 yds away from our front door. Again Welcome to the stew.
Hi Zuzu - I guess we're kindred spirits. Happy to have done all those endless ad layouts, but just as ecstatic not to have any more impossible deadlines to meet (and impossible clients). I don't know if you're from the old school (like me) or new school (that's 'lick 'n' stick', or computer) but as for colour markers drying up at 11pm, with nowhere to run...Yep. Leaving that crazy, crazy world and all its ego-trippers and primadonnas behind was a big b i g relief. Take care. Pete
Oh yeah, old shool, absolutely. Wax and brayers, heaven help me. I still have some stored in a trunk, out in my studio, though I've never found a practical purpose for them in real life. Yup, "graphic dinosaur", that'd be me. As you say, glad to have done it . . . and just as glad that I stopped . . . before I killed anyone.