IT'S NOT DURKIN BUT IT IS DATE SLICE

The heat has gone but it is still pleasantly warm.

I have just spent an hour or so sitting in the garden listening to the birds singing and watching the swallows and house martins - yes, both are nesting under the eaves.

A cup of tea, a piece of date slice (recipe at the end)(not mine), a Kakuro completed, a few pages out of Prehistoric Cumbria by David Barrowclough (he gets the middle name of my Great Great Uncle, the one who excavated Ehenside Tarn, wrong - should have been Dukinfield not Durkin), and finally Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre.

The name Le Carre reminds me of the story of one of our children - I will let them be anonymous - who when asked to name a disciple of Jesus said Judas the Carrot!

To the garden, mowing, STRIMMING!!!!!, yes, I have taken it out after 18 months and it started first time, done around shrubs on banking and the sides of the stream. A big toad and a small frog escaped my threat.

The asparagus struggles on - a disappointing year - but the rhubarb has recovered with a good feed and loads of water. We are getting desperate for rain or it will be watering, watering, watering. Three cheers for a bore-hole.

Aquilegia are everywhere - wonderful chaos.

The Oriental poppies the previous owner, TJ, had have come out in the long grass on the top banking. I rather like the shock of colour in the long grass.

The streams from the field (drains) have dried up but the one from under next doors wall and the drainage from the septic tank overflow have kept the pond, just, topped up (ish).

The wood is full of red campion and pignut but the bluebells are over.

It must be time for the recipe -

Date slice -

Ingredients - 12 oz dates chopped and stoned

6 tbsp water

grated rind 1/2 lemon

8oz wholemeal flour

4 oz porridge oats

dark brown sugar 3 oz

butter melted 5oz

Heat dates, lemon rind and water gently till dates soft.

Mix rest of stuff and press half into bottom of shallow square cake tin.

Spread date goo n the top and then the rest of the stuff on top of that. Press down.

About 20 min in 200C - Aga, bottom top oven with cold shelf in.

Allow to cool, cut into squares and eat!

OWLS, HERONS AND HEAT

I should explain - we took friends to Muncaster Castle Gardens yesterday to see the azaleas and rhododendrons, the owls fly and the herons being fed and had a wonderful time.

It made me realise what a contrast the Lake District can offer as we had had a picnic by Wast Water earlier.

Today I have put in some calendulas and it is hot - as it was yesterday - 25.5C.

Of course last year's marigolds are still flowering!

This is an honesty given to us by S and the colour is fairly accurate - perhaps a bit pink. I have the white but this is intense, not like the usual rather pale version.

I rather like having unusual colour varieties of plants - still looking for a true blue rose. Our friends brought us a super floribunda called Supertrooper which I have now planted near the other roses.

There was always a problem with the rose bed in that it was bordered by a large area of paving but the difficulty was resolved when we were given some forgetmenots

by another friend of R. They are wonderful at the moment but they do go a bit scraggy later in the year and have to be pulled up. Then there is an interval whilst we await the growth of self sown seedlings. One snag is that the forgetmenots sow themselves in the other beds, in the wood, everywhere.

One of the weeding jobs is pull up errant plants.

The last picture is of a flower

arrangement R has done from the garden, sitting on the woodburner which I hope is redundant for the summer.

The grass on the banking and in the wood is knee high but I cannot cut (or strim - hooray!) it because of the daffodils still in leaf - they need to build up their bulbs for next year.

Our friends have just prized themselves away from the view from the house over Morecambe Bay and headed home. He is a magician but not all magic is sleight of hand?

The house martins are building, no they are not, yes they are, no they are not but the swallows, which were not, possible are, I think?

If you are now confused then you seem to share this with the birds. Perhaps this is where the phrase - away with the birds - comes from?

FLOWERS AND BLACKBIRDS

We have our first rose and first oriental poppy.

Sudden rise in temperature means all is go at last

- for the weeds too.

Spent two days weeding, ripping up the clawed roots of creeping buttercup, pulling out the thousands of broad-leaved willowherbs and cursing at the newest pest - we have vetch!

Common vetch has started to appear in dense clumps of campanula and saxifrage and it is a terror - compatible with horsetails and bindweed. I cannot be bothered to dig the whole bed up so pull and pester the pest and hope it will give up.

Our back windows are netted and criss-crossed with trellis and this seems to have stopped the mad blackbird that was attacking its reflection. Now it sings gloriously from the ash tree above the shed. One blackbird has built a nest in the bonfire! So we have abandoned that one and started anew.

Then R was debrambling by the wood and uncovered another nest. We can only hope that the bird will go back to sitting on the eggs but . .

Many flowers self seed in the garden.

Some I am happy to let do their own thing such as Aquilegias - nothing fancy, just good old Granny's Bonnets, pinks and blues mainly. R likes the blues best though I think they are almost violet.

The asparagus is just starting to recover from the cold and I have had to net the turnip seedlings to keep off the pigeons. Goosegogs are doing fine and we have blossom and leaves on the Bramley - I had given up hope.

Sadly the swallows have not returned to nest on the house but we are being investigated by House Martins as last year - fingers crossed.

Have just Skyped family in Herefordshire - now exhausted so need a cuppa or a pinta (not milk).

TIME AND FROST

The poor old Davidia (hankie tree ) has had its leaves crisped by

a surprise frost.

This also means the sweet peas I am growing for my son's wedding and the asparagus are not progressing. This must have happened whilst we were away enjoying the beauty of Arisaig. We went to a garden near Port Appin called Druimneil House which is recovering from, what the owner described as, three disastrous winter storms with much damage. The house is in a lovely position and the garden interesting. The storm also brought down some old pines by castle Tioram changing the landscape dramatically.

We visited Drummond Castle near Lough Earn on the way up - an amazing example of control freakiness with parterre and topiary all laid out with mathematical precision.

Nevertheless worth visiting.

In Arisaig the oaks were just coming into leaf and astonishingly yellow, bluebells and primroses carpeted the woods and banks - as here with this view over to Rum and Eigg.

Earlier in the year we had been top Herefordshire and found this flowering cherry

- could have dug it up and taken it home.

The garden at home is filled with birdsong (and bunnies) (and Squirrels) (and woodmice) and so on.

R and I discussed what we will do when I can no longer manage the garden in its present size and came to the conclusion that we could separate off a lot of it with a fence and then just mow paths through it. In late August we could pay some one to strim and clear it - and, perhaps again in early spring?

Must go, sister and b-in-l here having breakfast and the wild birds need feeding.

SWEET PEAS EVERYWHERE

Swallows are here but not the rain. They keep promising it and then three spots and that is all - so watering going on. It has been a very dry April/early May.

The pond is low with a few surviving tadpoles clinging on. Down there the first candelabra primulas are out - white with a yellow eye and deep red. The yellow and orange ones come later.

The Kingcups/marsh marigiolds

are splendid but this has nothing to do with the title.

I have been putting out handfuls of sweet peas all tied in and surrounded by netting to keep the bunnies at bay - two fat ones who come in and out of the garden by the oak tree in the hedge. I suggested to R that I made a wire loop trap but she pointed out that I would botch the job, and that I wouldn't kill them anyway as I do not like killing things.

I am rather fond of the rabbits - perhaps I should personalise the relationship by giving them names - something from the past - ?Uncle Bun and Aunt Bill?

Herbs have been put in near the coldframe - thyme, marjoram and lemon balm. There is also a rosemary bush there.

Tulips have moved on to later flowering ones - a black one given to me some years ago by Puck which keeps going on and on and these red ones by the Wendy House which are almost overpowering.

Ate a little rhubarb yesterday so my tongue is not the only thing I am running away with now! Amazing how a little radiotherapy can change ones habits! This makes me remember to tell you that I have planted some buddleia cuttings around the septic tank to try and hide it.

Also had a smidgeon of asparagus but had to supplement with some shop bought stuff. It has not yet really got going.

Now I have to go up into the wood and do a rain dance - well actually the weather forecast is poor for the coming week - hooray! for the garden, boo! for those going on holiday.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SWALLOWS GONE, LONG TIME . . .

Where are the swallows?

Now May and only seen one passing over.

However we have had a cuckoo in the garden for the first time.

Some shrubs are flowering and flowering - the Magnolia stellata and the flowering currant have been at it for weeks. I think the cold weather may be the reason.

And the rhubarb is thriving - I have frozen 6 lbs already - and we are eating asparagus.

R bought an ice cream maker at Lakeland in Windermere so we have had our first sally into such with a mixed fruit sorbet - very rich.

Of course Windermere is the name of the lake (not Windermere Lake - tautology) and the town called Windermere is actually Applethwaite and the bit by the lake Bowness. I think the name changed when they opened the station in Applethwaite and called it Windermere Station.

This has nothing to do with the garden so onward.

During the few showers I have potted on the Begonia rex and 4 amaryllis which live in the house.

Talking of weather we are cool and dry!

Whereas the south now is flooded our stream is almost dry.

We had a shower yesterday but the sun is now out.

Also yesterday I carefully removed new growth below desired height from trees in the garden, especially the willows and have pruned the twisted willow and the weeping willow which has never wept - I live in hope.

More veg in - have sown turnips (not the big things we call swedes up here but the small white turnips) and french beans. It may be too early but I might get away with it. The sweet peas are also in after hardening off. Tied in loose raspberry canes and mucked them up - I mean mulched them with muck.

The bonfire grows with old wood from the bramble patch as we clear it (well, R does).

The cherries are now looking

more like trees - as with the Prunus shirotae here - and one day will be spectacular.

Where the blue seat is in this picture in front of the cold frame I have made a small bed and planted it with 3 choisya ternata sundance given to me by A. my son-in-law.

More weeding, I hear the cry.

At least the cool weather has slowed grass growth which reminds me I need more petrol for the mowers.

In the autumn I rashly splashed out a few pennines in the market and bought some wallflowers - worth every penny and the scent. . . !

I am short of Thyme as we seem to use a lot - must get another plant or two.

PROOF IS IN THE JAMJAR

So here is the proof - did make marmalade - albeit with frozen oranges - but it worked.

So the day I made Marmalade Bert Weedon died - did I use his tutor - well actually, no, I was too lazy and just mucked about with chords (which is all I can do now). Only good for jam sessions - Ha!

Did 4 lbs raspberry jam with old fruit today - yum!

Saw first swallow yesterday

and we had siskins on the birdfeeders, sir to the left, m' lady to the right.

Still no nuthatches but one can always hope.

In the garden a banking has been cleared by covering it for three years with black porous plastic sheeting - actually this was part of the great pumpkin and squash, oh! and marrow plan but this year I have scattered wildflower seed.

And there are bees in the garden - honey bees. Hardly saw a single one last year.

So to the celandines -

I no longer dig them up - have conceded defeat and now say how lovely they are. Anyway they will have disappeared by summer.

I have planted some parsley and three rows of leeks, the latter in their trenches, in the protected vegbeds.

There is this thought that runs through my head - Shall I mow? Shall I not mow?

I pondered so long the heavens opened and my dilemma was resolved.

One great success has been the ranunculi - never did well before so I emptied an old sink in the autumn and stuffed it with compost. R then put in the ranunculi and they are doing so well.

Is it rununculi or ranunculusses or, if neuter Latin, ranuncula?

Does it really matter?

Even to the ranuncs?

IT IS NOT MARMALADE TIME

but it is - explain later.

It is tulip time (and forget-me-not time and wallflower time) and, hooray, asparagus time. First steamed asparagus with a little melted butter due this weekend.

Clumps of tulips always give a good display as here by the sundial. It is a pity they tend to diminish over the years - some are worse than others (and I am not a lifter and storer) and one of the worst is Angelique - great first year but then phut!

I experimented this year by underplanting winter pansies in pots with tulips and this has been a success and will be repeated next autumn. The pansies have flowered most of the winter and now we have both.

In the garden the wood mice are busy under the feeders, Senor Blackbird still chases his Senorita (Senora?) around and around, rabbits dine on what they can get - two big fat ones this morning - and other inhabitants thrive - squirrels, mallard, goldfinches - and a heron and myself scared the ******* out of each other by the willow tunnel.

So to marmalade - out of the freezer came the forgotten Seville oranges, out of the shed came the jam jars.

Here is Sadie Howarth's Marmalade Recipe.

(Even a man can make this!) (It helps to have a Kenwood - I bought ours in 1973 in Kendal)

9 Seville Oranges

8 lbs sugar

2 lemons

1 sweet orange

9 pints of water (this can be reduced to 6 pints if the fruit are softened in the oven - Aga simmering oven)

Halve fruit and squeeze out juice. Save pips and put in muslin bag. Tie with string.

Put peel, with pith, through mincer.

Add water to peel etc, tie bag to handle and leave for 24 hours.

Boil up without sugar and simmer till peel transparent and soft - about one and a half hours.

Warm sugar in oven and add. Stir over gentle heat till all sugar dissolved.

Bring to boil and boil for 10-12 minutes.

Test for setting - cold saucer in freezer, take out - put drop of marmalade on saucer, let cool and push with finger. If it wrinkles it is done.

Unless you have a whopping pan you may need to do this in 2 lots in which case remember to split pips etc into 2 bags.

You should have put jars in oven to get warm so marmalade can be potted quickly. We, also, put the lids on a metal baking sheet so the heat of the oven will help sterilise them.

With modern jars there is no need for waxed paper discs. As the jars cool they will pop ensuring a good seal.

ps. Do not spill orange juice on a travertine limestone floor or it will be etched for life!

WET GRASS, MANY PLANTS, WHERE DO I PUT THEM?

The grass is wet, is wet, is wet.

Hence the mower is in the shed, is in the - well you get the idea. The garden is shaggy with grass.

Colour is everywhere, magnolias, blue sky (intermittently), red young sycamore leaves, yellow-green euphorbias (out of control and spreading wildly).

I have too many plants - bad habits have caused this - every time I prune a blackcurrant I cannot refrain from sticking in a couple of cuttings. I did the same with buddleias and when I pruned the red leafed

maple I thought, well why not, and jammed in a few sticks to overwinter.

They are all sprouting!

If you then add in the 27 bay trees I got in a pot from the market for £1.20, 23 have survived the winter, a couple of redcurrants, suckers off the raspberries - well - WHERE DO I PUT THEM?

R has said, no more flowerbeds, we have enough weeding to do.

So I have stuck some of the stuff in the far corner by the wall to fend for themselves in the couch grass. At least the birds will enjoy the currants.

R has been manfully, no, womanfully dead heading daffodils. So many of their flowers have been damaged by slugs - cannot blame that on the bunnies.

After the warmth, the rain - ducks on the pond, king cups (marsh marigolds) out and flowers coming on the ash trees. Yes, they do have blossom - purple clusters of anthers etc before the leaves.

Tree colour is something, apart from autumn hues and the obvious like the cherries, we do not often consider. The flowers on sycamores are like small versions of laburnum, more green than yellow but very beautiful.

Time for a pontificate.

I have just been reading Simon Sebag Montefiore's Biography of Jerusalem. Nothing seems to change much in that part of the world (or never stops changing) - so many deaths, all related to power and religion.

I am so glad I live in this beautiful backwater,

The goldfinches are back outside my window and a small mouse had just scurried around the wall by the shed.

What do these creatures know of power and religion - a man made thing?

Perhaps there is nothing wrong with religion as long as men are not involved?

Women?

WHEN IN DROUGHT

go out and buy a sit-on mower, well a lawn tractor actually.

I have found that as soon as I was ready to mow the lawn with it, it began to rain and the grass has been wet ever since and the weather forecast is for more rain all week so it hulks in the shed waiting . . .

Todays pictures were all taken before the cloudy skies arrived - and now we have had our summer it is time to think of the rest of the year - gloom descends.

The daffodils at the top of the garden by the big ash tree (it has a Rambling Rector rose up it) are now bent and flattened by the rain.

So, what have we been up to - R has been taking candelabra primula seedlings and spacing them out so the triangular bed by the Wendy House will be only the primulas and some veronicastrums.

And moi?

I have been putting in some purple sprouting broccoli and broad bean plants raised in the shed, making a second compost bay and widening the garden's narrow areas so that I can get around with the new mower - when the grass is dry.

(By then it will be ten feet high and we will have to join the Wherearewe Tribe.)

The last image is looking over the top pond down the boardwalk to the Wendy House. The shrub on the left is an amelanchier and this is now in flower.

We must have gold finches nesting nearby as two have suddenly become regular visitors with their call of Coo-ee.

I must get into the garden and check who is now living in which nesting box - when the rain stops.

Finally here is a photo I took two days ago from the window of a B&B in Oxfordshire before breakfast. Stunning, isn't it.

BLUEBELLS IN MARCH?!!!

Yes, it is true. The bluebells are coming into flower in the wood six weeks early.

We have the usual primroses and snowflakes and so on but bluebells!

Now, you may notice that something has been having a good nibble at the primrose petals in this picture, well the daffs have suffered also and I have not yet found the beetle or bug causing it - yet!

It has to be said that the weather, 23C, is unseasonably warm and because of that I worry for the fruit. One cherry is already out and the buds on the plum, damsons and pear are bursting. Will we get a frost and no crop?

I love sitting here looking out of the window where I have placed 2 feeders and to one side a nest box. Last year spotted flycatchers investigated but decided against. I have improved the shelter for the box this year - fingers crossed.

And now 2 goldfinches have landed on the feeders - what birds.

Talking of birds we had

another tragedy, I think caused by a passing sparrowhawk. One greenfinch panicked and flew into the study window and breaking its neck.

Work goes on in the garden, the usual mower needs an overhaul badly - I have rather neglected it - and tomorrow Harry A arrives with a sit on mower for me to try in my senility. (Might be fun though and I am sure younger members of the family might actually do some mowing?)

I have been repairing

the woodland steps which are ageing and have begun to construct 2 large compost bays beyond the veg beds. This will enable me to get rid of those by the back door.

Our basil in the kitchen which we bought from a supermarket 18 months ago has succumbed to overwatering - we both watered it by mistake. I managed to take three cuttings so we have three young plants. You just bung them in a jam jar of water and they root. Then they can be potted up.

Oh! What wonderful weather. The garden is Eden. Sitting with the Kakuro and a cuppa in a riot of birdsong and scent (from the Skimmias) looking out over Low Furness and Morecambe Bay is heaven.

But Bluebells in march?

MARCH IS BURSTING OUT ALL OVER

It is all happening - mowing, mulching, pruning (gooseberries), weeding - it is all happening.

This is the view from the wood.

So what do I put on the blog?

There is so much to do.

So I have decided to put up a lot of photographs of colour, of flowers and shrubs.

And the sun is shining and shining. It is 19C and the outdoor table and bench have

been moved onto the paved area.

R has weeded the primula bed by the stream (candelabra primulas.)

And I made a spur-of-the-moment purchase on the market which you can see below. This had to be planted and mulched.

The garden feels timeless yet hurrying on towards summer - actually it is a bit timeless as the watch I bought in Argos in Haverfordwest in about 1990 has given up the ghost. (Mm! However there is a rather nice Armani watch in a shop in Kendal . . . .)

So here is the Magnolia

I bought for £25 on spec.

Ah! The 'phone rings - R wants a lift back from church - back in a mo'.

I am back to be greeted by a jay squawking at me and the thundering song of a wren. How does such a tiny bird make such a loud noise?

The protectors on the magnolia stems are to keep rabbits from stripping the bark. Apparently rabbits love magnolia bark.

And, finally, here is an image

of THE MARIGOLDS -

just to show that they have flowered all summer last year, all autumn, all winter and are now still at it this spring.

No time to waste (unfortunately) so lunch, watching the news (this is what I say after lunch which means I might just nod off for a few minutes) and then back to the fray.

Should I have lunch outside?

Al fresco?

Perhaps tomorrow.

IT IS NOT AS HOT AS MYSORE

I will explain the title later but it is low 60s F and I have been MOWING the lawn - and finding out that it is time to change strategy.

While I am rambling on here is a picture of two big pots from above with a tip - they can be very heavy when full especially if crocks or stones are put in the bottom for drainage, so, use old plastic bottles and such - very lightweight.

Now back to mowing and the limitations of limping man.

Harry from the farm machinery people has been round and is coming next week to demonstrate a sit-on mower, one to which I can attach a trailer to go and fetch manure. Part two consists of selective mowing - close cut paths and sitting areas where the grass cuttings are removed and rougher areas mown orchard style with mulching or just leaving the mowings on the surface.

There are daffs everywhere but, for all the hybridising and cross breeding and so on the little wild daff shown here is the best, (mind you tete-a-tete flowers for ages.)

The pond is teeming with taddies, thousands of them and tulips are coming out. The Memsahib is brambling away and I have removed the posts and barbed wire from the far end to reveal a dry-stone wall carpeted with moss - beautiful but the wall looks a bit unstable.

Son R in India (hence Mysore) where it is 34C and he has Dehli belly (hence the title of the blog). I sit in the sun here and sip Indian tea and think of him. Funnily enough it sounds like his problems were not caused by Curry but a pizza!

So, to end with a poem - not mine - but from Gael Turnbull who used to live and work near here for a while.

While working in the garden recently, I dug

a small fragment of truth.

It was adherent all over with clay, and must have been

buried for many years, but I recognised what it was almost at once.

At first we kept it on the mantlepiece in the living room,

but it was often embarrassing to visitors and I eventually

put it on my desk in the study, for a paper-weight.

I asked several close friends what they thought I ought to do

with it, but no one was sure. 'Keep it for your children,'

some said, 'It is a great curiosity.' Others suggested

the local museum.

It was too heavy to take with us when we went on out holidays.

While we were gone, someone broke into the house and stole it.

The police said they would make investigations,

and asked me, 'Could you identify it agin as yours, if you

saw it?'

Perhaps. But I am not sure I do want it back. After all,

if whoever it was should have found some use for it ...

I HAVE JUST BEEN BROUGHT A CUP OF TEA

It is overcast, chilly and very still in the garden this morning - nothing is moving apart from birds - Mrs Pheas. is ambling up into the daffodils on the high banking. She nests every year in the rhododendrons at the top.

The big bud is Madame Lefevre

- first tulip and a glory when open in the sun, scarlet and black centre - what sun? My daughter tells me they are basking in Herefordshire.

Last night we had a lot of tuwhitting but not much tuwhooing so the tawny owls are just starting to get their act together.

I have made a gate (of sorts) for the rabbit proof pen - a bit of a cobbled job but it works. and R has been weeding and brambling like a trooper, plugging away and her only pay was a cup of tea.

Every day, if possible, I trundle down to the horse manure mountain in the field below the house and load up. It is a long slog back up the hill but the stuff is magnificent and have now done the rhubarb as well as the roses.

I have put out the last of the small oriental poppies and nearly forgot to water them, blocked another leak from the pond before the frog spawn dried and tinkered.

After a Witherslack walk in birdsong we were out buying again - cannot resist sometimes - to wonderful Halecat Nurseries - bought Mrs Bradshaw again (the

geum), a blue blue sea holly,

an even bluer delphinium (now with bottomless flowerpot over it - with a band of copper to try and keep away the molluscs) and, for R, the brief but abundant flowering Rose Albertine to go up the hedge by her writing shed.

I stand in the garden and all I can hear are the birds, the lambs and water tumbling in our stream.

It is time to shift manure again.