Christmas Envy

I must admit to feelings of deep envy upon seeing the beautiful Christmas decorations in the Bramall Learning Centre today. The trees especially caught my eye, all decorated with the bounty of Harlow Carr, I'm speechless at the idea of crowning one of them with an allium seed head, it just looks so right. It's not that I couldn't attempt something similar myself but that the perfect images I see in my mind never seem to come to fruition in reality. I guess I'll just have to admire and wonder at other peoples handicraft imagination and content myself with the thought that these arty folk may not be green fingered enough to grow the plants themselves, but I can!

"You see things and you say why? But I dream things that never were, and I say why not?"
George Bernard Shaw

A Complete Wash Out

I know it's probably a little early to sum up 2012 but I think I can quite safely say that it's been a complete wash out. By the end of my second month of self employment I'm positive that I wont have the tax man hounding me for my hard earned riches! There has been no work this week, I would have needed to be an amphibian to turn up at Norton on Tuesday and the garden at Spofforth is flooded once again. On the plus side I'm so ready for Christmas it wouldn't matter if it occurred tomorrow! With all this spare time on my hands I think I shall try and get creative with some decorations in the garden, more on that if the results warrant it!

"Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time"

A Real Pea Souper

There was a distinctly eerie feeling about Norton Conyers when I alighted from the bus yesterday morning, the fog was caressing the surrounding landscape as tightly as a swaddling cloth. I am always there first at the moment as Alyson is away in Australia for a month, but I quite like that, I get to see the place first and absorb the solitude before Shandy shatters the peace with her excited rabbit hunting bark. The days chores consisted of cutting down the autumn raspberry canes, more leaf clearing (as I feared), and then clearing and digging over the apple tree border. The fog didn't lift all day making for cold working conditions, thank goodness I had my hat with ears on, it makes me look ridiculous but doesn't half keep me warm! The forecast for Monday is pretty dire again so Nikki and I have already decided to give work a miss if it turns out to be correct, we are well ahead of ourselves in the garden now so can afford to bypass the worst of the winter weather. Of course that may change if we get snow for more than a couple of weeks, but for the present we can let the garden slumber without disturbing its tranquillity.

"I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind" Albert Einstein

A subtle palette

Harlow Carr is slowly changing into its Christmas wardrobe, like a mousy maiden who transforms herself with a few well chosen shades into a head turner. Not for her the brash and trashy jarring colours of the office party, but an intoxicating sophistication which makes you realise the underlying beauty has been there all along. Our lesson today was about pruning techniques, starting with a master-class on cordon apple trees taken by the charming Francisco, a good looking gardener can enhance the bleakest of Yorkshire days! A stroll around the winter walk emphasised the different stooling and pollarding methods beautifully whilst showcasing the colours which are shown off to best advantage by the muted light of November. The garden staff are hard at work adding festive touches in just the right places, never overstating the Christmas theme they enhance the trees and make the garden revel in this underrated season. Now is the best time to visit as you will have the place mostly to yourself, the less resilient Harrogate gardeners can only nurse their hot cups of coffee behind the steamy windows of Bettys!

"Of winters lifeless world each tree,
Now seems a perfect part,
Yet each one holds summers secret,
Down deep within its heart"
Charles G Stater

A Labour Of Leaves

The autumn tasks are definitely getting tougher, we think back with longing to the quieter days of summer when the mowing and hoeing was almost soporific. Not so Mondays work load of mulching the round border with compost, of course it started to rain half way through making each barrow load heavier as the morning progressed. We had a change come the afternoon as the rain steadily persisted, it is the time of year for collecting leaves. This can be a pleasant if monotonous chore especially if the sun is shinning and each leaf is crunchy and light as air, however yesterdays leaves were sodden and heavy, making the petrol blower work twice as hard, not to mention us girls! Still we know how much good it will do our compost heap over the winter and it's all for free as long as we have the energy to go on collecting. However it will be slightly disconcerting when we arrive back on Saturday and view the lawns we so painstakingly cleared yesterday, because I know it will look as if we had never been there, a Sisyphean task indeed!

"Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world any more. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf" Albert Schweitzer

The New Coat #2

Despite a gloomy damp start when we arrived at work the morning was soon brightened by the sight of Shandy sporting her new coat. This is #2 in the coat stakes as she lost the posh waterproof one in the woods within the first week. Giles' wife Carol considered all options before deciding to have a go at making one herself, hence the rather smart knitted number Shandy was modelling today. Whether Shandy was aware of the stir her apparel was causing I can't be sure, but within five minutes of being in the garden we noticed it was gone! The three of us hunted high and low throughout the day but to no avail, despite it being a cheery bright red it remains missing, and Shandy seems to wearing a rather smug expression!

"Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes" Henry David Thoreau

More Haste Less Speed

Things got off to a promising start this morning, our new RHS tutor introduced herself and told us about her varied horticultural career so far, but more importantly she asked each of us in turn about our own experiences and expectations for the course. Then instead of spending the the morning shuffling paperwork whilst she settled in, which was what I expected, we immediately began a lively lesson on seed preparation and sowing, including a practical session where we gathered Cotoneaster franchetii and Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' from the garden and sowed them using the correct technique. This is definitely more like it, lets hope things continue in the same vein.  Feeling well chuffed with my pots of sown seed precariously dangling from one arm and a bag stuffed with text books and notes plus handbag in the other, I noticed the bus approaching my stop, waving energetically I ran to try and catch it, for once the driver obligingly waited for me. Once on board and having caught my breath I peeped into my bag to check on the pots, disaster! All jumbled up in a mess at the bottom with no hope of salvation, blast!

"Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way"
Francis Bacon

Liquidambar living up to its autumnal promise