LONGBLOG 3 - THE RETURN OF GP

Gary is coming back - hooray! (GP is nothing to do with what I used to be.)
The garden is awash - boo! The paper says it is likely that 2014 will be the wettest year on record - and after a good summer and a very dry September.

One of the most important things about a garden is how it uses light and how the house interacts with the garden. How the garden looks framed by windows, how doors lead out into the garden, how the two interconnect.

This is the view 8 years ago from a bedroom window after the timber frame had gone up - R looking out,



and this is the view now with the frame in this week.

Not all windows have to be standard and this Westmorland window lighting the stairs and both halls, I have to admit, was the idea of the architect. It is at the back of the house and has north light and not much view - but we like it.

Took the grandchildren new spring viewing yesterday. There is something magical about cool fresh uncontaminated water welling up from the seemingly solid ground. I am not surprised that ancient man found these places special.

So we have been in Scotland for a few great days with B (finally got her to come) and returned to find our white birches were not delivered as the big lorry could not get to the house - coming tomorrow in a Transit van so lots of digging and stuff ahead.


This morning the trees have arrived, my back is off again (our bed is too soft)(or I am) but must dig on despite orders from R to the contrary - she is going out to Yoga so . . . .

Here they are, five to a bundle, packed with straw, with stakes and ties and guards.
One big bonus is the three sacks, lots of straw (to be used on the strawberries next year) and bits of string (for tying up things).

It took nearly two and a half hours to get them in and I had to move one as I dug the hole into the soakaway from the septic tank.
The holes do not need to be deeper than the trees were at the nursery and Weasdale said that as they were raised in poor soil they do not need lots of feeding.
So now we have the original six white birches and fifteen more.

The leaves have come off the great white cherry this week and are creating their own golden carpet. Not all the colour is yet gone.

I had to get the trees in this morning as I knew it was going to rain from lunchtime on - and it has.

(I have just found a packet of scilla bulbs I had forgotten - they will need to go in pronto.)
The new spring has dried up.

I REFUSE TO TALK ABOUT UKIP AND FARAGE, WELL, OKAY A BIT - NO WAY THAT THEY MIGHT GET ENOUGH SEATS AT A GENERAL ELECTION TO HOLD THE BALANCE OF POWER. Whoops - I am getting into politics again.

I understand that it is snowing in Buffalo, USA. Please keep it - I want my sweet peas to last until next year. Here they are in collapsed state behind pot on pole.

It is raining - my perennial excuse for not gardening.
It is Saturday.
The peanuts are going mouldy in the feeders.
Last night went to see the film Mr Turner - some great acting and cinematography, compost of a story line - all bits - not 5* - slow at start - thought about going to sleep or leaving for a drink but stayed for a Fry's chocolate cream at the interval - reward for putting in the birches.

And then it became showery in the afternoon. R tied up the bed by the back door (the one at the side) and I took that rake up to clear leaves of the paths and unblock the streams. In many places water was disappearing into the beds of the rivulets.
It was moles wot done it.
When we had our very dry September they dug runs into the side and bottoms so water suddenly disappears into a mole run to reappear - somewhere. The spring is running again after this morning's rain and I have found a new stream near the rhubarb patch.
Speaking of that on the soil nearby was a Fox Pooh!! You can always tell it is a fox by the aroma.

Ah! The joy of gardening and nature.

LONGBLOG 2 - THE RETURN OF THE SQUIRREL

Here we go, well not really, it is raining so go nowhere. Swept a few leaves and cleaned the AGA.
Potted up two old amaryllis and potted on some pinks - all in all a potty day.

And the squirrel is back (or squirrels?)(I hope not)(but . . . )

So to cheer myself up here is a pic of sunbeams on sheep in the field in front of the house, albeit monochrome and a view also to Heysham Nuclear Power Station on the other side of the bay.

Sometimes one notices things that should have been done long ago (like all the garden) and today I saw that I had not cut back the lavender. So now it is done - important not to cut back into the old wood but take off the flowering stems and trim the new growth to give a reasonably pleasing shape.

Grey days and lowering clouds, spitting rain and sodden leaves - an English autumn in full flow. The lawns are best left well alone at this time. So go out and have a coffee by the estuary - it is raining there too but then the sun came out for a short burst and we had a rainbow.
This afternoon, if I can steel myself into some Wellies I will do some flowerbed tidying, just something to spruce the place up a bit. Not all the leaves have gone - not off the fig, roses, buddleias and for some reason the apple tree. We have been to the gym (:-(}= (that is an inverse smiley) (a groanie) and now I am going to prepare some Michelin starred lunch - boil 2 eggs, chop with mayonnaise and bung in a sandwich. (And take the shells off.)

It rained all afternoon so I did not go in the garden, in fact the weather is so awful and grey here is a sunny pic to cheer me up.

My thoughts on bees and such have been challenged by R and G in Dublin and I rather agree with them but it was an interesting headline. As I have said to them I suspect bee problems may be related to what the beekeepers (apiarists for the literati) are spraying them with for Varoa mites etc?

Time to make a beeline for lunch.

We had such a wonderful September and now we pay for it. Just cleaned out some of the bird feeders - important as the birds can catch nasties from them - especially greenfinches I think. They are drying on the Aga before being refilled.

To a path problem - the one below the house and top bit of banking that sweeps round to the lawns - as the banking is steep, applied manure, dislodged soil when weeding (and when the pheasants scramble up towards the feeders) rolls down onto the hoggin. Moss grows as do weeds and seedlings. I do not want to use a total path clear type stuff but hand weeding etc is not on. So I have to admit to using a bit of Round Up.

(I hear the organic brigade yelling at me but a mossy path is dangerously slippery for old fogeys).

Then there is the moss that has insinuated itself in the cracks in the paving - well, that stays as R has said she rather likes it. The blue stuff in the pic is self-sown borage, still flowering in November and useful to decorate a gin and tonic - bit late in the year for a Pimms.

So this is Friday,
and what have I done?
Gardening is off
Without any sun!

R........A.......I.......N!

Then sun but am off to get family from Oxenholme station.

So gardening now? - Well, I have developed a bad back - hunchback of Rosside Nook - just managed my socks and shoes - do not know why but very stiff despite Ibuprofen.
I know, excuses, excuses.

So her is a pic of our cherry - our ballerina tree with three branches, two like outstretched arms leaning into the garden on points.
This morning should be digging and such but - coffee in town is all I can manage I think.

Just been up the garden to the wood - loads of sticks down, paths need raking and two new springs pouring water into places I would rather they avoided. One of the pots of paperweight daffs I potted up for Christmas are in bud and about to come out, the rest show no sign of life - have they an aversion to the festive season?

Bad back - praying the 15 white birches do not come now for planting.

Time for linament (and a cuppa).

NOVEMBER DIARY 1

Is this a new way of doing things? Yes, well a bit - longer blogs less often.

Sunday 2nd - Out with trailer and mower first time but garden very boggy after the rain. We will need a new bridge over the stream higher up where it is drier.

R chopping back old montbretia, I pruned back the rosa rugosa by the car park and cut back the perovskia and blue shrubby clematis. The latter is getting big, the former suckering which is ok because it will give me some new plants for the banking.

I write as Mrs Mills (R) hammers out Go down Moses on the piano in the hall.

Tuesday 4th - It poured in the night and water is flooding into the pond. The lawns are sodden so it is keep of 'em time. The miscanthus, weighed down by water, is hanging over the top path so I have fixed it back with a willow bean pole.

It is chilly this morning but the sun has come out and the air is washed so clean it is crystal bright.
We were just saying yesterday that we had not seen a grey squirrel for ages an I have just looked out at the bird feeders and Voila!
Will not be much gardening today then - anyway I am being dragged out to the gym and then joining good friends for the rest of the day. I hope they have some rubbing alcohol for my aches and pains (post gym).

I am being haunted by a friendly robin. He/she, cannot tell) (hope they can) was even with me in the shed the other day, just sitting proud as punch on the edge of a cupboard. Of course it is waiting for me to garden and turn over soil/disturb undergrowth. Gutsy little bird in more ways than one.

Just got back and it is dark - what a shame!

Wednesday 5th - Bonfires and stuff - beautiful if cold morning, good for gardening so I am playing golf!

The brain amazes me - last night had a surreal dream. It was the World Cup Final. I was on the right wing and I had to make the winning score against Germany by slotting a piece of sausage roll into a corner by the post of a goal full of German sausages. I ran to the by line and crept up unseen by the goalie. Sneakily I pushed my bit of sausage roll in a small space beside the near post and we had won! Then I woke and went to the bathroom.

Gardening - I have unpotted all the garden pots and then repotted with fresh compost and a mixture of tulips, iris reticulata, paperweight daffs and tete-a-tetes. Contents like old lilies and so on have been put around the garden wherever I can almost find a space. I had a lot of small tulips I saved from last year and as they are unlikely to flower I have bunged them in the old sink.
The garden is sodden with the rain so though I have made a rough new crossing of the stream above the heaps it is still too wet to go there. Water seems to be coming up all over the place - sort of spring in autumn.



To the left is the strawberry bed. to the right the cleared rhubarb patch with the asparagus bed in the distance.



Fireworks are a-going off now as dark falls.

The good news is that I have washed the kitchen floor. The bad news - I have bust the Dyson cleaner - it no longer goes.

The weather forecast for the next two days is wet again. I expect the whole garden to become liquid and slide away down the stream bed towards the sea. Time for a (not a cuppa) - a shower.

So this is Thursday, and what have I one, lunch is over etc etc.

This morning was -

But I went to town as is my wont and bought a dozen winter pansies and a bag of wallflowers off the market.

This afternoon is dark and windy but the rain has eased. So I put them In. And this is what I did.

Each planter had a few inches of compost in the bottom (drainage hole covered by crocks or polystyrene) and then bulbs placed in a layer spaced evenly. more compost and repeat layer pf bulbs. It does not matter too much if one bulb is on top of another as the shoots will find a way past. Then the pots are topped off with final compost and pansies.
For L and G - I have just mentioned compost three times.

Today is Friday and very wet weather is coming. Went weeding in the bottom corner below the pond trying to eradicate the pendulous sedge. Not finished - yet more to do.

The garden has developed new springs all along the banking line. One was bubbling raucously in the grass and when I cleared it the water was churning forth like boiling water.

Talking of squirrels - here we are again.

Just noticed that we have berries on the holly in the bottom hedge - the first time to have many. So, nearer Christmas, if they have not been eaten, it will be a ladder and prickle job.

Winifred Atwell is playing Greensleeves now. Henry VIII would be pleased.

It is Saturday and on my Facebook is the following - Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which are about 600 hives.

It does make me wonder if the large numbers of men with prostate cancer, women with breast cancer,  might have something to do with the use pesticides like DDT when were young. One looks at what might have changed over the last 60 years - Mmm - the use of plastic also springs to mind?

So to Sunday and here is the first longblog.

I need a coffee as I have just got knotted up over the Dyson vacuum cleaner. I ordered a new one when we can get the old one serviced and repaired much cheaper so I can afford a biscuit now as well - if it wasn't for THE DIET!

MURK AND WORK

Out of the murk comes November, winding the garden down etc etc.

Actually now begins one of the busiest times of the year - need (unfortunately) does not equal desire as far as moi, diggings and stuff goes. 

The bulbs are still waiting. 

Today I must fix the windmill - the metal pole it is on is too flimsy and I will need to attach it to a good stout fence post. 

Today I must replace the broken tie on the left-hand hawthorn as it is leaning towards the small oak (that R wants removed elsewhere so the view up the garden from the pond is uninterrupted). (I have just chopped the glace cherries for the Christmas cake and popped them in the bowl with the dried fruit and sherry.)(Well I ate only one.)(R has gone to church and left me this huge task.)

Yesterday I emerged from the house to find A and J examining then pond and outflow. They obviously feel some responsibility for their handiwork which is good, some pride in it. When Gary returns so will they - I have found more for them to do.

The garden proceeds on into winter - the leaves are all off the ash trees now though there is still colour with such as the liquidambar. Yesterday leaves were swept and R cleaned the slippery paving by the front door (which is still at the back) in the rain with the Karcher. Logs were taken in for the woodburner and this was lit in the evening. Some of the fallen twigs - we get a lot off the ash - have been stacked up in the wood as places for wildlife like hedgehogs and small rodents to find winter sanctuary.

There is still a lot of colour in the garden though the nasturtiums have been removed from the compost heap in preparation for its use. They have been plonked on the other heap to make more compost. Hostas and other perennials going over are being tidied and consigned to the heap.

The leaves above are one of he azaleas in the woodland edge.

Then there are more exotic, less hardy plants that are still flowering like this Passion Flower.

I still feed the birds (and the rabbits though the latter not willingly).

Oh! And I found a clump of HONEY FUNGUS near the beech hedge. I fear it is endemic and all we can do is pray. If the dreaded ash killing disease reaches us the struggling trees will be easy prey for this fungus. 

Still, we would have a lot of logs for the burner then and ash is a good fuel.

So, as the finger of the hour drags ever remorselessly towards the top of the clock and the rumble under my belt signifies I am getting dehydrated, it must be time for a little fuel for my soul.

What I mean is I am going to have a cup of tea.

P.O.N.D.

Popeye, Oi've Now Dunnit!
(Initials)

Some times one has to ignore the instructions of a loved one.

We returned yesterday from a couple of nights in Selkirk, Scotland where we had explored the delights of Traquair and Abbotsford, and sat in the rain at Smailholm Tower.
After unloading the car I went out through the kitchen doors to look at the pond. Pond, what pond?

True there was a puddle at the left hand end but the rest was liner and all the plants were high and dry.
No longer could I be content to wait a month for Gary to return from Canada - I had a Popeye moment - 'I can stands so much, I can stands no more!' Tin of spinach out, one squeeze and down the hatch. Off to the shed for spade, fork and hoe then down the path to the Wendy House and around the back of the pond.
I dug towards the pond from the ditch by the hedge, uncovered the top of the liner and carefully scraped away underneath with the hoe, blade down so as to not damage the liner.
Suddenly water was flowing through my Bosphorus into my Black Sea, a veritable gush. Gradually the level of the liner fell - panic - I realised that as I drained the water from under the liner I needed to fill up the pond on top.
Off to the settling pond, block the outflow, remove the cover I had placed over the pipe leading to the pond and wait. The level rose and then water was running in over the butyl sheet that was the pond.

It is only temporary but Oh! how good it was to see pond not liner this morning.
As Popeye would say, 'Toot, toot!'

However, all that tooted, yesterday was the first lovely sunny day for a while and here is the garden in the late afternoon.

Surprises came as I looked around - this is an oriental poppy having a second fling.

However not everything was a delight - the rhubarb is well over and needs tidying for winter as does the asparagus.

And plants have arrived and need putting in somewhere - a host of hydrangeas and some grasses, bulbs by the bagful.

So, what am I going to do - go to town for a coffee with friends after I have finished reading The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. (The o in Joel has two little dots on top but I cannot find how to do that in Blogger.)

So, I have set myself a task of some time every day in the garden (weather permitting) to try and catch up. Mind you gardening is a continuous process of catch up.

So I shall do an uptake of loin-girding and despatch myself to the Farmers Arms for a coffee.

So October ends for 2014.

OFF FOR A WALLY

I am for ever being surprised by the people who say they read this load of rubbish. As a consequence R and I will be going to visit Abbotsford in Scotland (we were determined to get away for some autumn sunshine) to seek inspiration from Wally Scott. (Yes, I have been to the top of the Sir Walter Scott Memorial in Edinburgh but it was a VERY tight squeeze at the top).

Pond update - I think I have found the problem, at least one. Water is tracking in from the stream and so called settling pond via the old channel; though it was filled in, water has a way. Unfortunately due to the efficiency of the liner this water is going under it.

Here it is in better times -

And now -

It is driving this control freak bonkers.

And I have got stuck, weight wise, with my diet.

We have had BC to tea and before she came I went out get some flowers for the house - the roses are still good(ish). The cosmos by the house was, surprisingly, covered in honey bees. I say surprisingly as I have not seen a single honey bee in the garden this year before.

Soon I must empty and replant the pots and things with bulbs - some bought and some saved from last year and stored in the garage in the dry and dark. I suppose the topping will be winter flowering pansies - they did well last year.

Earlier in the year I hacked back a brachyglottis (senecio) to see if it would regenerate from the old wood and Voila! (Showing off now).

And it is doing well so now I know that mutilation is not terminal in this case. (Unlike the broom I killed off a few years ago.)

So the clocks in the UK have gone back an hour, what was 8 am yesterday is now 7 am and I got an hour of extra sleep. Has not changed the grey windy weather though.
The leaves have come off the cercidiphyllums but have scattered so no toffee scent this year.
Most of the leaves are off the big trees and the first of the cherries is turning.
So I leave you again with an image of autumn, an image of work waiting and the end of another season.

Bit depressing.
Christmas - urrrgh!
Work can continue to wait.
Roll on February and snowdrops.
Cuppa time.

AUTUMN IS HERE

and I am bulb barmy - forgot I ordered them and now will have to put them in - somewhere? The pond area looks vulnerable to assault but not where grass will grow.

This is the way into the garden from the unappetising approach to the house over tarmac, past shed and wheelbarrows and washing lines. Even the leaves on the Rosa rugosa on the left are turning yellow. Seeing all the leaves cascade from the trees makes think of a power blower rather than a rake and barrow (I do have a trailer though now.) Actually, though the sun is shining and I have done a bit of tidying, most of the day has been making blackcurrant jam and updating the Mac to Yosemite. Family do have a connection to the place - though very tenuous - my Great Grandfather on my mother's side was John Muir's first cousin! I wonder which gene he and I share, if any - probably just Levis.

The first autumn coloured bush you comes to is this witch hazel, not the usual yellow flowers one but it has deep orange ones.

Then there is the Acer sango-kaku my sister I gave us. I did plant some crocus around its base but they seem to have emigrated.

It always stands out well against the dark leaves of the big sycamore by the wall. Dismal things sycamores - grim brown autumn colour - I mean they are an acer so why not give us a bit of end of year va-va-voom?

Next is the Euonymus in its bright red splendour - just stunning. The hue seems almost unreal and when the sun shines - wallop!

Euonymus alatus of course - the winged spindle. Up here we do have the wild Euonymus europaeus in places with its peculiar pinkish fruit. I believe that the tree got its name from the habit of making spindles from its very hard wood. It grows as far away as Iran and has hermaphrodite flowers. (Well, it was time we had a bit of sex in this blog.)

Now, below these shrubs at the foot of the banking is a Liquidambar (not yet in full red) and a Rhus typhina.

You can see it has already started to sucker. (Ignore the drain excavations in the background.)

Our big old ash has lost a lot of its leaves and those that remain are yellowed. The younger trees are still green - but it won't be long, yeh! yeh!

More autumn pics -

So, what am I going to do now?

Make a cuppa for the memsahib down in the Wendy House who is writing something or other a lot more erudite than this stuff.
Might make myself one too.
Yes, that is a good idea.
Wish I could sneak a biscuit though.
I am suffering from a dietary deficiency of self indulgence.
The world is treating me bad - misery!

Nearly forgot - compost - had to mention it.

JAMMY OLD GIT STILL AT IT

Hurricane something today - lightning, thunder, hail and gales, driving rain - not a day to be out so am having lunch with R and I.

Recipe to start with - Bramble (blackberry) and Apple Jam -

3/4 pound chopped peeled and cored cooking apple in 1/4 pint water - simmer till soft.
In another pan 2 pounds blackberries in 1/4 pint water - simmer till soft.
Combine, add 3lb sugar (I warm this in a bowl in the bottom over to speed things up)(R taught me that one) and stir till sugar dissolved.

Boil till setting point reached (cold saucer in freezer or fridge, take out and put a teaspoon or so of jam on it - if it wrinkles when pushed - ready (R taught me that one). Also. I use a big metal spoon to stir it all - when this is resting by cooker if cold and you run a finger through clinging jam and it leaves a trail - ready.
Pot into jars made hot in bottom oven. If you put the jars into a roasting tin they are easier to get out when hot. I put the lids on a baking tray to get hot too. Put on lids straight away and tighten - they will need another tighten when cooler.
Label.

Now R found some sprouting potatoes in the veg cupboard and I popped them in the garden - look at the crop we got.
I added the pen to give you the true size. They tasted good even if only one bite each.

I have been up to my frozen fingers in the upright freezer seeing exactly what we have buried in there - so much fruit - well, I will never get constipated!

Let me change track to the pond - perhaps not - so much of the risen liner that the plants in their sunken spots are falling over. "Gary, Gary, wherefore art thou Gary?"

Move on quickly lad - roses, yes roses - still flowering and a delight.

These two in the garden and the one below by the shed on the way in. It was given to us by P and A from t' big 'ouse on Stockbridge Lane.

Finally a pic of the huge Fatsia (no, not me any longer)(just a bit tubbia) by the Wendy House beginning to flower again. It must be nuts or very stupid, I mean, winter is almost upon it (us).

I have just been down to the compost heap with the kitchen waste (mentioned it) and it is almost full -  so I will need to empty the other one.

Those two rabbits I keep seeing worry me - all the go forth and multiply stuff. Mind you the solitary moles seem to manage too well let alone the grey squirrels. And snails. And slugs. 

Thought for a children's book -

Once upon a time Slimey the slug was slithering across a big cabbage leaf when a blackbird landed beside him. 

'Nice lunch,' thought the blackbird.

But he had not reckoned with Slimey's superpower!

As the bird bent down for a nibble Slimey jumped, yes, jumped right onto the blackbirds head and began to make all its head feathers horrible. Not only that, he squeaked as he slimed. . . .  etc etc etc.

Well I thought it was better than X men.