Belatedly into June!

Hello folks, I'm typing this in the garden and it's almost too hot to be out here. Yes, I really did say that!  We had a quite lovely early May then we had two weeks of dull skies and rain and COLD! on this (east) side of the country, and feeling a little put out (not really) when my friends in Ireland, Wales and the west of England were talking about their glorious sunshine and heat! So feel entitled to feel a little smug as I slap on the factor 50 and put on my sunhat.


No textiles this post, it's all about the garden. Still some way to go, but it is looking particularly lovely this morning I have to say. So, no more chat, just photos and a few explanations. Enjoy!

In the tin bath I have some swiss chard growing, some mint, chives and coriander. Around the bath are a selection of thymes and sages, and in the trug are coriander plants grown from seed.

Up on the little terrace, the "whimsical Corner" . Two mosaics and the fisherman's clock which had pride of place in Jim's Fishing Lodge (the shed) which is permanently set to 5 because it's always "Five o'clock Somewhere!"

 Yes the water needs a clean out! Love these tiny poppies growing in the gravel - Oh! it was a job cutting the membrane and getting them in the soil beneath, but well worth the effect. I wonder if any seeds will actually grow in the bare gravel?

The chook's corner - I love my white picket fence. It's only short but I was determined to have one somewhere!

OK so he's not a 'proper' Green Man, Jim bought him for me to paint YEARS ago when I was poorly at some point. Waiting to find a really nice  Green Man to put in some little nook somewhere.

The raised beds and potatoes in sacks. I keep meaning to to call it The Pottager! Everything is growing away like mad, and I'm harvesting radish, rocket, spinach, chard, all kinds of salad leaves, and re-sowing. I have to be reminded at times or find things in books and magazines which keep me on my toes, because it is all new to me. But I'm SO enjoying growing stuff.

The little patch in front of the summer house is coming along beautifully. I'm really impressed with the ranunculus, I sowed loads more and they are coming up now and into the garden with them. The second stepping stone is getting its mosaic treatment, but I've not finished it yet.

I really love this view. So glad we took up the lawn which was never used. There's so much going on here now, and it's somewhere where we sit when the sun is on it. I've planted lots of herbs and creeping plants which I hope will eventually spread all over the gravel.

Ah! My little pond. No signs of frogs yet, but it is feeding the wildlife and there are a couple of wriggly things in there!

Jim's side, the Serious Veggie Growing Area. There's more to the right of the bean supports too. I'm cropping the guerrilla salad which is growing among the parsley on the left of the netting tunnel. I planted out the remains of a supermarket salad box… and it is all re-growing!

The new little bed outside the kitchen. Jim took up a row of paving slabs and concreted in the edging, so I have cavolo nero, bulb fennel, broad leaf sorrel, winter savoury, and leaf fennel growing happily here. Also tarragon, coriander and chives in the old sink at the back. The loveage is growing away like mad as it does each year- I've chopped it twice already! Ah well, it all makes excellent compost.

Well that's it folks, sorry it's been such an age getting this out, and I WILL now check out YOUR blogs too - I feel too guilty to go into Blogger when I haven't posted so I get all behind with your news. Soon to be rectified, I promise.

Well, it'll be lunch outdoors today, Jim's just put up the sunshade for me (It's MUCH too tall for me to get the thing opened!) Off into the kitchen I go to prepare lunch. I hope the sun is shining on you too!

April Garden

April so far has been a real mix of weathers here in the UK, and in our corner of west Norfolk, we've been enjoying some beautiful sunshine and real warmth (when you're standing in the sun!) along with real chill, and plenty of rain. In fact we had heavy sleet yesterday and some folks even got snow! So we aren't out of the woods yet.

However, it has been good enough to galvanise us into really making big changes in the garden. What used to be a damp dark bottom corner, where Jim's "Fishing Lodge" i.e. man shed, was, along with a thick hedge and fence, has now been opened up and is a very sunny spot now. How about that white picket fence? I painted that; I thought it would be good to have a visual separation between the top garden and the bottom bit where all the work is going on now.

An over-all view of what I'm calling the pottager (for want of a better word!) showing the large cold frame and the raised beds Jim built. Right at the bottom is my little Square Foot Garden which started everything. Jim had been very reluctant to use raised beds, as our garden soil is brilliant - it's been dug over and nurtured for over 20 years by him, with no nasty pesticides or fertilisers, other than our own home made compost and regular feeds with comfrey juice he makes in a large bucket from the comfrey plants he grows. However, reading more about the raised bed system, and acknowledging that the soil wouldn't be wasted, convinced him that we could probably try it, and he set to in his usual manner, and quickly made up the brick bed and the two wooden raised beds, also building the large cold frame which replaces the small greenhouse, given away when we were preparing the ground for the summer house.

In the brick bed, I've got three red-veined sorrel plants, rows of radish, rocket and spinach. Later this month or in May I shall put fennel bulbs in the remaining space. I've got a variety of salad leaves growing in those small troughs.

Here in this wooden bed, I've planted long stem broccoli and red cabbage. At the bottom of the bed we made a trellis and I planted two outdoor variety cucumbers which I hope will scramble up the trellis.

The view from the garage looking up the garden. In my square foot garden I've sown Chard Bright Lights and White Chard, red beetroot and beetroot chioggia, which has red and white concentric rings. Also in this bed are spring onions and lambs lettuce. To the right you can just see the four sacks containing early new potatoes. Much simpler planting them in sacks and they take up much less room too. In the second wooden bed, I've got some shallots and some red onions, and at this end I shall plant some squash which I'm growing from seed in the cold frame at the moment. I've no idea how the squash will do… but until you try you never do know!

The cold frame has all sorts of seedlings coming up - chives, parsley, coriander, nasturtiums, anemones, stock…other flowers…  and some veggie seeds I can't remember what Jim sowed! We probably get as much in here as we did in the green house, and the tomatoes are in a covered planter just to the left of this photo.

In December 2014 I was saying "all I want for Christmas is a potting shed!" well, I never did get one, and we have no room for one but I DID get a potting table yesterday! We painted it and here it is in its glory - I love it! Don't laugh at my dinky trowel and fork… I love the colours!

On the right-hand side of the garden you can just see where Jim has planted some cauliflowers and round -head cabbage. How about my pink planter, hey? This used to be a white tray set-up I used initially for my craft fairs, but it was never a very good idea and I abandoned it. So I painted it pink - Jim just raised an eyebrow when I told him my intentions, but he does now agree it looks fine against the sage green summer house wall.  Here I have lavender and a load of herbs waiting to go in….. somewhere else….more of which another time! Beyond the covered caulis and cabbage Jim has  prepared the veggie garden for further sowing and planting.

Up on the patio I dumped these uprooted muscari (grape hyacinth) which I moved out of the old sink planter from the rockery area just outside the window.

This sink had become totally overrun by muscari. There are a few tulips, violets and ground cover plants which I can't remember the names of; they've been there for so long! I'm going to replant the muscari in the two tiny strips of soil we laughingly call the front garden.

We have many more plans for the garden, some of them quite revolutionary, by our standards. But it all takes time. I am amazing myself with this new -found enthusiasm for actually getting into the garden and getting my hands dirty, as opposed to footling around with my herbs and doing little else out there. I think I always felt the garden wasn't my place. Not that Jim was possessive about it, but it was always just a place where the veggies got grown, and I just used the patio and grew a few herbs. Since the com ing of the summer house we have revised our ideas of what the garden should be, and Jim has encouraged me to really get out there and garden. I know by the standards of my long-time gardening friends, and those who have gone even further and rented allotments, and installed polytunnels, we do very little, but everything you can grow for yourself is a step away from reliance upon an increasingly and worryingly prescriptive food industry. Also, we need to sow and plant and confound the plans for the global seed industries who are even now trying to force through legislation forbidding us to save and share seeds. You couldn't make it up, and I'm not. There are states in America where they are forbidden to save their rainwater. If any of my American readers can enlighten me as to the reasoning behind this I'd be grateful ! The so-called 'doomsday seeds' are not a conspiracy theory construct, Monsanto and other GM producing seed companies intend that their seeds are purchased which will mean that they will have to continue to be purchased as they are one-offs, you can't save seed from these crops, they are sterile. Hence eternal reliance on these mega companies. And they market themselves as the saviours of the Third World poverty problem!

Anyway, continue to do your bit and enjoy all the other benefits working in the garden brings to you!  I'm loving it! Must go, that muscari won't plant itself!

Easter Sunday

I'm writing this post on Easter Sunday, in a beautiful hotel in the West Sussex countryside, Gravetye Manor. We are gathering together tomorrow to attend the wedding of Blanche and her man Chris. Blanche is a long-time whistle and flute player, a friend from my Burwell Bash times. They have invited a noisy crowd of Bashers to celebrate their special day - folk music is assuredly going to break out tomorrow night! Jim and I arrived today as I didn't know how long it would take, and to give us a relaxed start to the day. I'm sure there will be some photographs in my next post! 

Meanwhile, here's what we've been getting up to at Church Cottage this month.

March has been a really lovely introduction to Spring here in Norfolk; it has been chilly, certainly, but we've had so much lovely sunshine it has even made ME get out there in the garden- actually DIGGING and getting my hands dirty! I'm not a gardener, apart from always having grown and used herbs; I've never felt the garden was one of "my" spaces, but now we have had a bit of a seismic shift in our attitudes and we've been really happy spending time together, pottering around outdoors.

Jim built a large cold-frame to replace the greenhouse which went to make room for the summer house. We've both been sowing herb, veggie and flower seeds to go into the garden and raised beds.

Some plants have already gone into the soil…. the garden is waking up!

Of course there's been ongoing activity indoors too, all the kitchen upheaval, painting, heaving out the Rayburn, digging out the concrete plinth, re-arranging the units and installing the new cooker. The bowls, jugs, plates and other kitchen equipment has been in and out of the living room and been washed and re-washed several times!

The kitchen feels and looks lighter and brighter now, and we had new lighting installed yesterday so the motley collection on spotlights which never really worked has gone and the new lights are SO efficient! I'm loving the light in the cottage now, it was so dark and dim before.

The new trolley is just the job, and snuggles alongside the NEW COOKER!! Yes, all fitted and working very nicely I have to say!

 I painted the high book shelf and the little window frame and sill and the new spice shelves Jim built for me.

                     The summer house is sneakily taking on an additional role as potting shed!

Do you like my tin chickens at the top? I know, I know, they are a short step away from garden gnomes, but we can't keep chickens - no room, so they go some way to make up for it! I love 'em!

Right, I need to dress for dinner, I don't think my short brown tunic and brown Doc Martens will cut it in the hotel dining room, somehow! Then a quiet evening - during which I'll have time to catch up on my favourite blogs,  and we'll be looking forward to the festivities tomorrow. It's going to be so good to meet up with some lovely Burwell friends!! Catch you soon!

Holiday Week

Well this is where I spent most of Bank Holiday Monday : a small Norfolk village which I had never heard of let alone visited. It was the day of the Village Fete, and it was a glorious day. I'd been asked by a new musical friend Lesley whether I'd like to join them as the  comedy act  musical entertainment in the Tea Rooms.  It was a really lovely couple of hours, just sitting there, playing folk tunes and being fed tea and cake and being appreciated.

       OK, not the best of photographs, but thank you to the member of the public who took it for us.

After all the sunshine - when have we ever had TWO bank Holidays full of sunshine? - the week was chilly and dull here, rain at times. Sigh. But today the sun is back and it is gorgeous. Quick nip into the garden to get some herbs for dinner.

                   Look, my beautiful sage flowers are just about to burst forth, aren't they lovely?

And the sage, lovage and mint story continues. Soon be enough mint for a mahoosive bowl of tabbouleh - that's when I KNOW summer is on its way. Lovage and chives into the bacon and leek casserole for tonight. And some for a large quiche I'm making for a special event tomorrow.

Quick update on the lino carving - I've been trying to sketch hares - well, cheating by copying them.

OK, so the haunches on this hare would launch a heavy horse over a five barred gate, but I think the general gist is there, isn't it? I quite like the carving to be honest.

And now, for the REALLY exciting event of the week: Yes! My new melodeon has arrived! Everyone has had a good drool over it, and it has been responsible for at least TWO very expensive purchases by Other People who Should Know Better!

Isn't that beautiful?? A Beltuna 'Alex' 3 voice, two and a half row, 12 bass  D/G melodeon, in cherrywood, hand crafted in Italy. Custom lay-out. (We designed it by juggling the Andy Cutting/ Julian Sutton/ Nick Wiseman-Ellis layouts and coming up with exactly what I wanted/needed. )

I have played it, it's quite different to my Saltarelle, also bigger and heavier. But so many extras I shall need a lesson just to have them explained to me! I took it to the session last night to be ooohed and ahhhed over, but I played my Saltarelle, no way am I going to be up to session speed on the Beltuna for quite some time to come!

So all in all it has been a brilliant week, and more to come tomorrow. But I'll tell you about that next time. Now I must take some time to read all your blogs, I just haven't got round to it for days. Have good weekends, everyone.

Garden, Late May.

Garden - and herbs especially - going like the clappers with all the rain we've been having. It is so tempting every morning to whip out the camera and record the progress, but there are only so many pictures of green things growing you can blog about!

        The Clematis doing quite nicely, waiting to be joined by the rose on the other side.

The lovely Aquilegia / Columbine /Granny's Bonnet nod at me as I walk past - these are the seeds of some very old plants brought from my sister Diana's 3-houses ago house, still going strong. You can just make out the tiny white flowers of the eyebright I planted years ago, and soon the geranium / cranesbill will be filling the garden.

Sorrel, rocket and Welsh Onion, which I planted doing really well- the sorrel will come up year after year, and makes a lovely sharp, lemony addition to a salad.

Looks a bit of a hotch - potch over this side, but it all makes sense when the flowers are out. I really do NOT like the grasses which Jim added, just wispy untidy bits of nothing to my mind, but there you go, not as intrusive as the Dratted Beech sapling!

I'd love to say we've been enjoying sitting out in all this lush greenness, but despite the sunshine, the wind is quite cool, and it's no pleasure sitting about, or eating, when you aren't warm enough! Hopefully (PLEEEEEEESE) we will have some real Spring/Summer weather soon. I know some of you have had better temperatures than others - I got caught in FOUR hailstorms the other day, and the temperature varied between 4 and 8 degrees all morning. Weird.

Just a quick little post today, but I couldn't let these photos go to waste! Hope you can all enjoy your gardens this Bank Holiday.

House and Garden Potterings

Well goodness me, the sun is shining again this morning, but still there's that very keen wind, so we're not out of the woods yet. Fortunately I AM out of the woods, having spent this weekend largely pottering around the house and garden. Last week we did quite a lot in the garden - yes, even I did some herby stuff - so it all looks rather neat and blooming at the moment. Here's a quick tour for you.
(Hmm, they didn't load in the right order so we are dodging about a bit!)

       Small rose bush, pot of ramsons and a trough of replanted garlic - fingers crossed, Thelma!

    This is the lower end of the lawn, left hand side of garden. You can just see the 'Fishing Lodge'    peeking from behind the fence.

      OK we have jumped to the right hand side now, looking towards Jim's freshly set veggie patch.

   And back at the top left side, with a view of the Curséd Beech! I am very unkind, and frequently go out just to ill-wish this straggly upstart of a beech-nut!

I do love this view of the left hand herbs! I photograph it a lot, which, if you have been reading my blog for some time, you will know! The lovage is at a manageable size at the moment, but it does get a bit big and blowsy. Not that there's anything wrong with that! The grape hyacinth have gone mad this year, and self seeded all over the place.

And some of the right hand herbs, and you can just see behind the green planter the troughs of garden mint, one of Moroccan mint and one with rocket, sorrel and Welsh onions. A small pot of curly parsley, as I don't use it much, preferring to grow loads of the flat leaf variety on t'other side . And so from the outside, come on into the living room and see what we've been up to.

Hurrah! Having recycled our huge Habitat sofa in the direction of No 1 son Mike, I can now position Jim's recliner in the corner, where it doesn't dominate the small living room. The little chair seen here is from my sewing room (still waiting for its new loose cover I'm afraid) and is just filling in the gap while we await the arrival of my new arm-chair. 

This is the 'snuggler' which is lovely, but it encourages me to sit with my legs tucked under me which is NOT good for my back. So this will just fit ..er...snuggly.... where my little chair is at the moment, and the New Chair will go here. I'm looking for a Butler's Tray to replace the stool here, and get the mess tidied up.

Feeling spring-like yesterday I decided to paint the rest of the dining room chairs - well, not the carver chairs. I got as far as one, so it is going to be a long process! (well I did make more sourdough bread and cook a roast dinner and nip out up to Onion Corner to pick more wild Garlic!)

No, I painted it outside, before you say anything! It looks white here but the colour is actually a very soft green. And here's one I prepared earlier :

Not quite sure, now, about the multi-coloured effect, but I'm probably going to leave it. Repainting would be the equivalent of un-picking stitches, and I avoid that whenever I can!

Speaking of Wild Garlic (oh yes we were!) it seems to be 'trending' at the moment - everywhere I look there are articles about it, and two tv programmes mentioned it over the last week. Fancy that, at last I am trendy. For all the wrong reasons. Ah well.

Hoping this is the start of a good week for everyone, and perhaps some warmer weather too.

PS: Just read the latest edition of Country Living magazine - they too have caught up with me! pg 142: recipe for Wild Garlic Soup with Pesto!