And so it begins..

Gardening proper has started. Just a little bit, but definitely started. Keith and Mum have taken on the orchard pruning. It is like a scene from the operating theatre in General Hospital. Dr Keith surveys the patient then decisively calls out “Loppers”. Nurse Granny passes them up and stands by to mop up twigs. I would be a most unsatisfactory standContinue reading “And so it begins..”

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

There is a haunted look about the place today. The orchard is a spectral grove of skeletal trees bearing baubles of hollowed out apples. The gravel garden has the air of Miss Havesham’s wedding feast, with eerily preserved frozen shades of summer’s bounty. Driving down our rollercoaster of a road into town for coffee withContinue reading “The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come”

Gifted light

Today was the first solidly dry and sunny day for an age. This was a stroke of luck as I had entirely forgotten that Stuart (the Rat Man) was coming bright and early to spray the carpets against moths (Stuart is a chiel o’ pairts). This entailed chasing out the cats and taking Lyra outContinue reading “Gifted light”

Beautiful bed blockers

The garden is bright now with turning leaves and still dotted the lingering flowers of the nicotiana planted in vast numbers in the spring. I have cleared out a few of the very tall white ones, which took to lurching drunkenly after some strong winds last week. The broken stems (or possibly the seed pods?)Continue reading “Beautiful bed blockers”

Flibbertigibbet

Oh dear, somehow I just can’t get myself back into any kind of sensible routine. I am just skittering and dittering. I start the day, as often as not, with some kind of plan but it takes but the flap of a butterfly wing to derail me. I have taking to rising and donning myContinue reading “Flibbertigibbet”

Sizzle and Hiss

Well, whilst the rain pelts down against the garret door I’ll just do a bijou update on the garden as we cruise from June to July. Curiously, perhaps with the early frost then burning dry patch, everything seemed to come out in a helter skelter all at once and hang around well past the scheduledContinue reading “Sizzle and Hiss”

A reckoning…

The weather gives and the weather takes. In the end the reckoning comes…. Since the wind changed at the end of June we have been promised thunderstorms daily. Any yet, the days have continued hot and sultry, with barely the odd spit spot here and there during the day (though the lawns have welcomed someContinue reading “A reckoning…”