Despite the endless rain and cold temperatures, garden jobs are gradually getting done around here. I made a real schoolgirl error with my Apothecary, I moved everything in and gave no thought to the floor whatsoever, apart from adding a few mats. Over the last few months I’ve noticed the floor getting muddier and muddier. …
Every time I’ve thought that, Elvis Costello’s, Good Year for the Roses, runs on a loop in my head! Yet it has been a marvelous year for the roses. I’ve never known so many, so early, these are just a few, it must be down to the wall to wall sunshine we’ve had for the …
The topsoil arrived. The neighbours asked if we were building a fortress! Four tons looks smaller than it actually is….poor hubs….a shoveling he did go, and there were a lot of holes in that rusty old barrow! One by one he filled the four raised beds. One is now planted with potatoes, another sown with …
Birds, branches and bedraggled beech nuts. Wilting hibiscus. Sodden leaves and boisterous dogs. Raised beds and bird sown yew tree. Entangled vines. Iris seed pods. Glowing dogwoods. Fading, papery hydrangeas. In other news… I’ve been out and about rather a lot recently, but my favourite’s are… when the “Whatever the Weather Girls” took themselves across …
Cosmos, grown from seed. I do enjoy cosmos, how it suits it’s name. In Greek, it means beautiful and ornamental, or “love flower” most apt. I rather like how these begonias and marigolds compliment each other. The marigolds just keep on going. I was collecting seed, but now I’m just composting the seed heads. This yellow …
It’s been all systems go this week. At last, this wall is ivy free, and order has been restored, to this little bit of the courtyard anyway. It’s been an absolute battle, especially scraping the remnants off the wall, in the end, hubs burnt it off, well, singed it enough for me to paint over …
Imagine my surprise when stumbling across four juvenile peacocks gathered around my neighbour’s front door. I was concerned for their safety, as we are horribly close to a duel carriageway and I know how long it takes for large birds to become airborne. Fortunately, after an hour or so, they all hopped up on a …
I almost called this post “rain, rain, rain RAIN“, and those words would have settled nicely to the rhythm of Baldrick’s WW1 poem. For those of you who haven’t heard it, see here. I am heartily sick of being utterly drenched, but that’s nothing compared to the suffering of those living in Cumbria who have …
There has been talk of climate change for years now, and while the alleged experts continue to debate the causes, the weather and seasons become ever more erratic and unpredictable, to the point where the process has now been given a name, “Weather Weirding.” Across the globe, incidents of severe and extreme weather are now becoming the norm. I …
