SPRING GARDENING, A TRIP TO THE SEASIDE AND BAKING FUN! / EMMA'S SUNDAY DIARIES

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my Sunday Diaries. It is a beautiful morning here this morning and we've got blue skies, sun all day, but it's very very cold. We've had a huge drop in temperature. Oh my gosh, I didn't know you were there Tom. My son's just trying to disturb me in the window. Yeah, the temperature has had, we've had a massive plummet in the temperature, so it's very cold. I don't know if you can see my breath, but that kind of gives you an indication of how cold it is now in the UK. I think today it's going to be maximum temperature, 8 degrees, so very cold. So, we have decided to go to the seaside today. We're going to a place called Rye, which is on the south coast of the UK, in Sussex, and it's near to a beach called Camber Sands, which is supposed to be really beautiful. I've never been there before, and Rye is a really pretty village, which is supposed to be kind of as pretty as the Cotswolds, so I'm very excited to go and see it and have a little mooch around. I'm going to take you guys with me and hopefully just have a really nice day out in the sun. Going to wrap up very, very warm, and yeah, I hope you enjoy it, so let's go. We're just currently wandering through Rye town. It's so quiet today. It's such beautiful weather. We're just having a bit of a wander. I'm really sorry if I just show you loads and loads of footage, just of all the pretty little things that I've found, but it's just the most beautiful town. I can see why people say it's like as beautiful as the Cotswolds. It is gorgeous here. So, we're just going to keep wandering, looking around, exploring little areas, but so far, I love it. I love this little balcony up here. Imagine waking up in the morning and that being, just being able to sit out there with a coffee. These are the Ward Gardens at Rye Castle, and they're so beautiful, but very, very small. Look how pretty and neat this is. Love it. Right, I do hope you can hear me here because it is a little bit windy. We have just driven 10 minutes from Rye to Canberra Sands, which is like the seaside, basically a beach. I've never been here before, and I'm really, really excited. It's a sandy beach, and if you live in the UK, sandy beaches are not that easy to find along the South Coast, especially to get to quite easily from London. Everywhere that we seem to go is like a pebble beach, so I love sandy beaches, and I can't wait to see the sand. But yeah, we're going to have a little wander through here, have a little explore, have a walk, and then try and find some fish and chips for lunch. So, we'll just see. We'll just see where the day takes us, but it's so nice to be by the sea. I can smell the sea already. I can hear the seagulls, and it's just, yeah, it's just great. Guys, this is potentially the nicest beach that I've ever been to. It is absolutely stunning. The beach is incredible. The sand dunes are amazing. It's just so nice, and I can't believe as well how close it is to London. It's about an hour and a half away. It really didn't take us that long to get here. I know it's off-season right now, so it's a bit quieter than maybe it would be in the summer, as it is sort of everywhere, but I tell you what, this is just lovely here. It's just lovely. Good morning, guys. It's such a beautiful day. As you can see, blue skies, sunshine, which is just lovely. So, I've just come out into the garden to sort of check on everything. Some of my daffodils have started to bloom, and they are absolutely gorgeous. I never sort of remember what kind I buy, because I put them in sort of before Christmastime, so I sort of forget what I put in the ground, and when they come up, it's always a surprise, so they're really, really pretty, and I love them. Having some problems with some germination of my peas and my cosmos, so I thought this morning we could pop down to the garden centre and just see if they've got any plug plants. I seem to be struggling to grow stuff here from a seed in my home garden. At the allotment plot, things are doing a bit better, but I would like to get some sort of peas in soon, because March is a great time. We've got great weather coming, and I just feel like I'm going to waste the weather if I don't have stuff to grow in the ground, so I'm going to buy some plug plants, if they've got them in stock, and have a little look around, see what else they've got. But yeah, a lot of this is starting to bloom now, and it's just amazing. Yeah, these ones here I noticed this morning, look at those, aren't they so pretty with all the petals? They have been a little bit eaten, which is annoying, but there's nothing I can do about that, but they're sort of multi-petalled daffodils, and I just love them, they're so pretty. A lot of the pots are looking quite good now as well, I've got some tulips coming up. My chives have gone crazy, and they look beautiful, and it's all just looking a little bit more alive. And then these ones too, we've got the daffodils coming up in there, which is very pretty, tulips over there, it's all just starting to come to life a little bit. Broad beans looking good, I'm starting to get a few sort of flowers on them now, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for black fly, and if I start to see an infestation, I will pick out the tops of them, which should kind of keep them at bay, but so far they're looking good, the flowers are arriving, they're looking really healthy. No germination there yet, don't think we've got any germination with the radishes either, no, not yet, maybe a little bit too soon. All these giant daisies, I think they're called shasta daisies, that I moved, they've all just taken really well, and they're all growing away, they've all rooted down, so that should be really pretty this year, and if I don't like them, I can always just pull them back up, but they've all taken, so it's so easy to move those flowers. I have this yellow tree, what's it called, I can't remember, honeydew, honeysuckle, something like that, that needs to be moved, and then I've got a lovely pear tree here, and I'm not entirely sure whether I need to move it or not, in order to make way for the extension we're having built, I think it might be a good idea to move it, just in case, but I'm not sure where to yet, so this is all a little bit of a mystery, and then this area is looking so messy, this all needs to be cleared, because obviously when we get the extension built, all of that's being sort of demolished, and then we're having like a patio built, so it all just needs to go. Yeah, the extension plans are really a go, we had an architect come around the other day and measure it all up, and he's going to send us some ideas for sort of layouts and stuff, so it's all a go, it's very exciting, a little bit nerve-wracking, and there's going to be a lot of building work going on, but it will be worth it in the end. I am going to lose this side alley, oh nearly fell down a hole there, we're going to lose this side alley, I'm a little bit sad to lose my window, because I do love that big sash window there, but I think it will be worth it, so we're kind of building out here, but yeah, that's all to come, it's all to come in the next few months, it's all kind of quite stressful actually, there's a lot to think about, a lot of decisions to be made and stuff, but right now the only decision I have to make is what plants to buy at the garden centre, so I think we're going to go down there, have a little look around, see if they've got any peas, like I said, maybe some cosmos, things that have been eaten basically that I can replace, because I don't want to sow it all from a seed again, I just can't, I just can't seem to keep it alive here, so let's go down and see what they've got I think. right, obviously I'm back from the garden centre, it was really nice just to have a little look around, it's very very busy today though, but they did have quite a few vegetable plants and I sort of filmed some of them that they had, and at this time of year all the plug plants are coming out, which is just fantastic for the allotment, so I do like to grow stuff from a seed guys, you know I do, but when it gets eaten and kind of disappears, it's great just to be able to buy some plug plants and have those to plant, and I did pick up some sweet peas, which you might be like why on earth have you picked up more sweet peas, but the ones that I planted out last week have become a little bit stringy and they were sort of half eaten, so I thought it might be a good idea just to plant these ones out now and have a bit of a backup, because unfortunately in this garden anything I plant out here does seem to get eaten a lot quicker than at the allotment plot, so the ones the allotment is safe, the ones here not so much, this is the exhibition mix and they look very healthy and very happy, as you would expect at this time of year, so I think we'll get these out later, also picked up some peas and they don't look like the healthiest peas, they do look a little bit leggy to me, maybe that's how they're supposed to look, I don't know, these are early prelado, again just because my peas aren't germinating very well, I think I'll plant these at the allotment, I do like to have a lot of different varieties of peas growing, so I'm not too worried, and the ones that are still growing at the moment, the ones that do survive, I will also plant out, and then I couldn't resist some of the brassicas, so I got some of these which are graffiti cauliflower, and it just means that they're really bright pink colour, which is so fun, so I've got some of these to plant out, and then also picked up some tender stem broccoli, which is my favourite broccoli to buy and use in cooking, and I saw these and thought yeah stuff it, we'll get some of these as well, I do have some kale and some cauliflower, and also kale cauliflower and some calabrese growing from a seed, oh and some sprouts, brussel sprouts as well at the allotment, they're doing fine, but I thought I'd get some plug plants as well, just because I like to have a lot, I like to have a lot growing, so couldn't really resist those things, I think what we'll do is plant out the sweet peas, and I'll show you what's to them. Actually I tell a lie, they don't look quite as bad as I thought they looked on first impression, they look okay, they just look a little bit straggly to me, I think when I saw these this morning I thought oh no what's happening to them, but actually they're okay, but I think I might plant some of the new ones out as well, and then I might put some along here to grow up on that lovely trellis, I think that might be nice as well. I don't think there's any harm in just whacking in a few more, just to make sure we do get some up here, I'll just pull these ones apart, because they plant quite a few in one clump, so if I just pull them apart, I've got some contingency ones going in here, and then I reckon it'd be really nice to have some coming up here along this trellis, I think that'd be so pretty, so let's whack some in along here, so let's do it, I think it'll look really nice. I've just scratched myself on this rosebush, and I just remembered that I moved this rosebush not very long ago, and just sort of whacked it in here, but it's doing really well, and it's still alive, so I clearly didn't kill it when I did that, and it's a really nice looking rosebush, it actually looks healthier here already, even though I've only just whacked it in, isn't that funny? Definitely getting some new leaves and new growth, this is an excellent sign, it means I haven't killed it, hallelujah! Oops, guess who accidentally left the new bag of hay on top of this thing, and a certain bunny had a party last night, didn't you? Was that fun? Absolutely annihilated it! Hello again guys, this vlog is sort of all over the place, I do apologise, I know I've just been picking the camera up so randomly, I think most of the footage from the seaside is just basically just phone footage, but anyway, the weather has finally cheered up, it's blue skies and sunshine, which is so nice, I think it's going to get up to like 20 degrees this week, so I might start another video for that, because I think I'm going to be able to get a lot more done, and it's going to be a lot nicer to film. I'm about to do some baking, but I just wanted to show you my tulips, because they're still going strong, and I had so much tulip advice from you guys, and I thought I'd just quickly share, in case you didn't see the comments in last week, I thought I'd just share some of the advice I've got, so firstly, a lot of you said when you put tulips in a vase, you only need a little bit of water, you don't need to fill it all the way to the top, because tulips don't like that, so you just need a little bit of water, also a lot of you said about cutting the leaves off, to make sure the leaves don't go into the water, because that way the tulips die a lot quicker, and also cutting the tulips down to be shorter, apparently is a really good thing, and helps all the flowers to sort of, I don't know, look better, and for them to last longer, so three pieces of advice that I got from my comments last week, I'm so thankful for, and I will try that when I get my next bunch of tulips. This one has done well, and I've sort of squeezed so many into this vase, and they have all sort of bloomed, and they do look absolutely stunning. They're sort of on their last legs now, I'd say, but just beautiful, and the colours, the colours, I mean come on, so springy and lovely. Anyway, I'm going to do some baking, and I'm going to bake something I've seen a lot of people on Instagram and TikTok baking, which is banana bread, but with a bit of an Easter twist, so I thought we'd go into the kitchen and just do some baking. Unfortunately I don't have any super ripe bananas, because banana bread always tastes better with really ripe, like overripe bananas, and these are sort of slightly underripe, but I'm hoping that my secret twist will make up for it. Also a bit of a random fact, but did you know that if you bury banana skins under where you're going to plant your tomatoes, it helps to feed the tomatoes and keep them healthy, so you should always save your banana skins when you're about to plant out tomatoes, and just literally when you dig the hole, put the banana skins in the bottom, and then plant the tomatoes on the top, and it's supposed to really help them. I think it's potassium, but I might be wrong on that, but I think it gives them potassium. There you go, fun little banana fact. Okay, the secret Easter twist, it's not really a secret, I think you probably guessed it, is to add some speckled eggs. I'm using the M&S ones, just because they are bigger, and also a little bit softer than like the mini egg ones. I think they'll work really well. So we're going to crush some of these up and put them in, and then we're also going to add some on the top as well, which hopefully will sort of melt into the banana bread and be delicious. Okay, I'm just going to put some on top. Oh, these are so big, these ones, I love them. For some reason, I thought you'd be able to see the mini eggs on top, I think they might have sunk in a little bit, but that's fine. I've just mixed up a bit of icing sugar and water in here. I'm just going to drizzle. It's all sunk to the bottom, but you know what, it doesn't matter, because it's in there. All the chocolate has sunk to the bottom, but I reckon that's still going to be so delicious. Oh my goodness, that is so, so good. That is definitely not good for you, but it has got banana in it, so who am I to say? Anyway, I think I'm going to go and have this in the garden now, read my book for a little bit. I hope you've enjoyed this week's vlog. I hope it's long enough. I really don't know what I filmed, but definitely enjoyed going to the beach, going down to Rye, having a little look around. So I quite like going on little adventures with you and taking the camera out and filming nice things, and just for me to look back on as well, because it's so nice. But yeah, I'm going to go sit in the garden now. I hope you've enjoyed the vlog today. I will be back again here in my home garden or in my home life next Sunday at 9am, or you can catch me on the Allotment Plot tomorrow at 5pm. Thanks so much for watching, guys. Hope you enjoyed. Bye!