Urgh, this has been sitting in my unfinished drafts for a fortnight. I had high hopes that I would be super efficient on my trip to London and dash off a few blogs on the train. Well it was a trip of two halves. On the way down everything went according to plan. On theContinue reading “Witchy woman”
Author Archives: karenifountain
The real salt path
As I type this, I am hurtling backwards towards London accompanied by Capuçon playing Bach’s Partita No. 3 for solo violin (a lucky score in a random selection downloaded on my last trip – I had not hitherto heard of the fellow but Dr Google has opined and he is a rather dishy frenchman). IContinue reading “The real salt path”
A moment to myself
I am in an unashamedly self-indulgent mood. The weather is still just hot enough for me to justify a degree of sloth on the patio, trusting to drought to slow the weeds. (If I venture forth it is for light weeding, dead heading and pot watering. Everything is overblown and slightly crispy). Our stream ofContinue reading “A moment to myself”
Thoughts from the patio chair
With the ongoing, maliciously fine, largely rainless, weather my mornings tend to start at 4am when the eye of Sauron inexorably finds a chink in the curtains and blasts me on the forehead. I then shuffle all around the bed looking to recover some shade. With the weary repetition of “are we there yet” fromContinue reading “Thoughts from the patio chair”
And as for the rest….
After a manic fortnight, with much appreciated help from mum and a posse of others who beavered away in atrocious heat, we made it to the garden open day in reasonable shape. The weather gods smiled and at 8a.m, when I got into the pond for a last minute blanket weed clear, it was almostContinue reading “And as for the rest….”
5 Days to go….
The last couple of weeks have been a blur. My step count is tremendous, largely achieved by barrowing weeds to the wood and compost to the borders (combining both weightlifting, an aerobic work out and stimulation of the epidermis with nettle stings – somewhere out there, people are being charged a fortune for this…). IContinue reading “5 Days to go….”
Death by a thousand cuts
I now have less than three weeks before our annual open day and the weeding of the deep interior has commenced…The process is fraught. It has been blisteringly hot recently so I’ve been resplendent in the gardening shorts, an outfit which pairs badly with the nettles and thistles which escaped the first round of springContinue reading “Death by a thousand cuts”
Mayhem
The last few years we have had gloriously sunny Mays and this year seemed set for the same. The sun was riding high, the garden was a riot of tulips and cherry blossom. Our clay soil ground was baked so hard any weeds had to be chiselled out and it seemed a whole lot easierContinue reading “Mayhem”
Don’t be gaslit!
Today, I, Lyra, Lady Commander something something, kennel club, will be taking over posting duties. Auntie Karen is suffering the aftermath of a most traumatic evening spent at Pack Leader Lachlan’s when it was only due to my vigilance that she survived. I have no doubt that the evil kitten known as Mabel would haveContinue reading “Don’t be gaslit!”
Aciiiiid
If there is an opposite of jaundiced I am that person. I love the season of screaming yellow fields. It’s like living in a Mondrian. It is impossible to convey the extraordinary acid brightness of the three fields of rapeseed that sit just beyond our field, undulating all the way down towards the town. YouContinue reading “Aciiiiid”