Staithes Windows

We spent Christmas week in the fishing village of Staithes , it had long been our intention having had an association with the community there when Dave lived at Spindrift cottage for a couple of years. Many of the cottages had decorated their windows for the festive season and this had the effect of making the village more magical than ever. On the big day itself the whole village gathered in the Royal George for a joyful celebration pre lunch where we were lucky to greet many of our old friends, all of whom exclaimed upon how grown up the children were, remembering toddlers with buckets and spades on the beach! Even Chumdog enjoyed himself, especially after he found he could push open our bedroom door and avail himself of the pleasure of jumping on the bed, strictly off limits at home!
Happy New Year to you all, gardening will resume on the 6th Jan.

"Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself"
Merle Shain

Merry Christmas Everyone

We have been busy today at Norton Conyers making wreaths for our doors. It is nice to be creative with the produce from the garden and we think they are so much better than shop bought, they cost us practically nothing too!
So the gardening year has finally come to a close, we will be celebrating on Saturday with a party in the orangery and then returning with renewed vigour to do it all again in the new year. On behalf of all us gardeners we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful new Year, see you in 2014.

"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas"
Peg Bracken

Unlikely Appreciation

Inevitably after Thursdays storm we were back collecting leaves again first thing Saturday morning. The wind had almost done our job for us having created deep drifts, but only in certain places, making collection of them easy if long winded due to the amount, but at least there will be no more to do as there are none left on the trees. Whilst tidying the courtyard in front of the house I noticed a wasps nest, now they're not my favourite beasties but even I must admit to the beauty and industry shown there. We debated as to whether wasps will reuse an old nest but none of us had an answer, so we decided to leave it there just in case.  Lunchtime saw us celebrating Alyson's birthday, not only with cake but also the first taste of the Norton Conyers cider lovingly made by us in October, astonishingly it's really rather good! This bodes well for the Christmas party scheduled for the 21st where I have a surprise for everyone one up my sleeve too, more then........

Norton Conyers "No Problem" vintage cider!

"By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property"
Voltaire

A Big Deal

More of the same at Norton Conyers this week which doesn't make for very interesting blogging, but the weather was glorious again too and as it was just us girls working today we enjoyed getting stuck in as we chatted the day away having our usual laughs. At one stage we were visited by a flock of long tailed tits with their delighted trilling and diving which put me in mind of ourselves but airborne!
The big deal was about me driving our new car for the first time, OK it was only to the end of the private drive at Norton but it was the first time in over twelve years and I didn't hit anything so I'm well chuffed. I will need some refresher lessons before unleashing myself on public highways once again but it is a start. The day ended with a beautiful sunset which I tried to take a photo of from the car, it doesn't do the colours justice but was truly glorious to see.
"when I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my heart expands in worship of the creator"
Mahatma Ganghi

Shades Of Autumn

We had a hard frost first thing on Saturday morning, the ground being too hard to work we were back on leaf collecting duty until lunch time, if we don't remove them from the grass it will die so unfortunately it is a necessary evil. Despite the nip in the air it was a beautifully clear day with bright sunshine which really picked out the russet colours of autumn, good days now are few and far between so we pressed on in high spirits. More digging and cutting back followed as we gradually work our way around the garden, it certainly looks smart when we have finished an area, weed free the rich earthy soil looks smart against the barks and skeletons of shrubs, a thing you can only appreciate at this time of year.
"The rich colours of grass and earth were intensified by the mellow light of a sun almost warm enough for spring"
P.D.James

Time Flies

As the length of the days gradually slip towards winter our list of  tasks in the garden becomes shortened too, it is also dictated by the weather meaning that just about all we could hope to achieve on a wet morning was leaf collecting. There is not much point in identifying the worker in the photo as we all looked pretty much identical dressed in soggy waterproofs. Much to our amazement the rain did clear after lunch turning the temperature much colder with it, first thing this morning was really quite mild but later on we could see our breath misting the air. Cutting back the borders continued in the afternoon seeing us make good progress, only the round garden, peach house and main border to go now meaning we should be finished in time to begin the woods work in January. This will be my third winter working outside, how time flies!

"Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail, but man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly"
Ivan Turgenev

Heavy Weather

Intermittently foul weather meant a patchy days work at Norton Conyers yesterday. We managed a couple of hours cutting back and digging through the borders before a heavy shower saturated everything. Next we cleaned up the mowers by scraping the compacted grass from the cutters, I never knew fermented grass could smell so disgusting! Lunchtime brought another heavy shower when we attended a party at Gardeners Cottage where the tenants are moving on to pastures new, I always find a glass of champagne is very pleasant but not conducive to an afternoon of hard graft! However we did manage to prune the currants until home time. Consequently I didn't manage to take any photos, so instead you have one of my new Sorbus living up to its name of 'Olympic Flame', it really does light up the garden at this time of year.

"Bad weather always looks worse through a window"
Tom Lehrer

The Dahlias

We had the first hard frost of the year this morning, it was cold enough to warrant wearing my hat with ears again, at least until leaf collecting in the stable yard warmed us through. Inevitably the dahlias had been knocked back hard by the low temperatures, they looked blackened and soggy as the stems are hollow and watery so we decided to dig them up for winter storage. This job took the rest of the day due to the number of tubers to store but Shandy seemed content to sit in the sunshine and snooze while we did all the work, no rabbits were caught by old lazy bones today!

"I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of time"
Robert Browning

Many Medlars

Having become used to mild weather these past months it was something of a shock to feel cold again this morning, although I don't know why considering that it is now November. We continued on with cutting back the herbaceous borders until lunchtime when a spell of heavy rain put paid to our efforts, there is no point paddling around on wet soil as you cause more harm than good. The afternoon saw us picking medlars, a somewhat strange and unloved little fruit that has to its fame the fact that it is available in winter, it also needs to be bletted (browned by rot) before you can eat it raw or make it into jelly. It makes a lovely pinkish jelly which is quite delicious so Alyson and Giles say but I've not tried it myself. D H Lawrence didn't seem to have a very high opinion of it however as he wrote of it "Wineskins of brown morbidity, autumnal excrementa....an exquisite odour of leave taking"! So maybe I'll reserve judgement until I've tasted them myself.

"Since golden October declined into sombre November, and the apples were stored, and the land became brown sharp points of death in a waste of water and mud"
T S Eliot

Harvest Festival

Whilst the rest of the country was being pounded by strong winds and torrential rain, we fared much better at Norton Conyers. It was a dismal start to the day I'll grant you, but after a couple of hours cutting back the salvias in the shelter of the peach house, the rain dried up and we were blessed with watery sunshine. We then had fun preparing some vegetable boxes for the big house where the Grahams are expecting guests tomorrow. They like to share the produce from the garden and as we are rather proud of what we have achieved this year we wanted to make them look as nice as possible. So after a bit of scrubbing and arranging this is what we came up with, all that was missing was a rousing chorus of 'We plough the fields and scatter'!

"We thank Thee then O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health and food"
Matthias Claudius

Everything In Reverse

The beautiful vitis coignetiae showing its autumn colours

The clocks go back tonight, and our work in the garden today reflected the swing back towards darker days. Now instead of planting, sowing and planning begins the task of cutting back, protecting and tidying. We started with the Salvias, as many are not reliably hardy those we wished to keep for next year had to be potted on and stored somewhere frost free for the winter. It seemed strange digging up plants that were still in full bloom because of the mild weather, but we are on a tight schedule and if we don't get a move on the winter conditions could catch us out and we could fall quickly behind. One plant in particular was looking splendid, Salvia confertiflora is very late flowering and doesn't often perform well if our weather turns harsh early on, but this year has suited it well and it is positively glowing.

We are warned that Monday could be a bit on the wild side with a storm forecast by the papers and weather reporters, whether that will come true remains to be seen, but as I've lost two working days already this month I suspect we will be making the best of it at Norton as ever!

"Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow, we will stand by each other however it blow"
Simon Dach

Apples Again And A Few Pears Too

Just lately I've begun to feel rather overwhelmed by fruit, in particular apples. Every day at Norton Conyers has been dominated by them this month and with such a bumper crop we have been harvesting non stop. Saturday saw us make another batch of cider and juice, fun the first time but after a few hours of pounding the flesh to pulp it gets a bit tedious. Today we had to pick a crop for the apple lady who makes jams and jellies, we filled seventy crates, that's a lot of bending and stooping as many were windfalls. We did have a bit of fun with the sheep in the paddock who took quite a shine to us when they thought we were shaking the tree for their benefit, I've never known them to be so bold, they were even attempting to pinch them from the crates.

Just about then the heavens decided to open, making our task even less pleasurable, and by the time all the crates were loaded into the van we were all thoroughly soaked. Then we moved onto the pears, luckily there were much less of them. The pear is a rather strange fruit in my opinion, particularly around harvest time when it refuses to ripen so you go away and leave it for a few days only to find it has gone over whilst your back was turned! That thankfully is the end of the fruit harvest for this year.

"Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe"
Voltaire

Scrumpy!

The crop of apples at Norton Conyers has been bountiful indeed so we decided it might be fun to try and make some cider. Whilst the girls were mowing this morning I picked up hundreds of windfalls to clear the way for the lawn mower but also to select the best ones for juicing. It just so happens that there are many Polish varieties in the garden that aren't that great for eating, they have a rather woolly texture but the taste is fine, so we decided to use those. Meanwhile Giles was hard at work building a press out of odds and sods gleaned around the estate. When all was in readiness we began to pulp by bashing the fruit, of course bits were flying everywhere into our hair and eyes but it was seriously good fun!

We then began the pressing, layering the pulp in cotton sheeting and piling the bundles up about five high before applying the pressure. We were amazed how much juice came out, we managed to fill a five gallon barrel, that's an awful lot of cider if it turns out to be vile! Fingers crossed we end up with something drinkable despite the rather Heath Robinson equipment and the less than five star cleanliness rating. I have high hopes as the juice actually tasted rather good.



"Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful"
Mahatma Gandhi

Look we've nearly got cider!

Peony Palaver

Today was the day we moved the peony border, a bothersome task given that we had to dig up each variety, carefully divide it, go through it with a fine toothed comb extracting bind weed root, Circaea lutetiana enchanters nightshade and any other nasties we could find. We then soaked each tuber and dug out any weeds left inside, a rather gruesome job as the tortuous shapes rather reminded me of old bones. The last stage was a thorough blast with the jet wash before re-planting could begin. Still we managed to finish in good time and we now wait to see if we have eradicated the weed problem that plagues the old border. It will be a while before the new site will grow to be as full and beautiful when in flower, but when it does we will weed kill the old plants and put that area to grass for a few years, and when it too is clean we will probably repeat the whole process!
Meanwhile as many parts of the garden display are beginning to fade one or two plants are just coming into their own, notably Aster 'Violet Queen', looking stunning against the autumn foliage of  Gillenia trifoliata and the cheery orange lanterns of Physalis alkekengi which we have hung in the peach house to dry.

"The autumn wood the aster knows,
The empty nest, the wind that grieves,
The sunlight breaking thro' the shade,
The squirrel chattering overhead,
The timid rabbits lighter tread among the rustling leaves"
Dora Read Goodale

A Secret Corner

As this year begins to ebb away our thoughts turn to cutting back and mulching in the garden at Norton Conyers. This week we have cut back and weeded the iris border, a bit hard on the knees but worth the effort as it now looks very tidy, we do this to cut the wind resistance of the fans down in case the tubers get torn from the ground. The rest of our time we spent weeding the red currants and gooseberry bushes preparing for when we put the mulch down, there is no point in placing a weed suppressing layer over entrenched thugs like bind weed! This is all very well but it doesn't make for very interesting reading, so I'll tell you about my visit to Harlow Carr yesterday. I thought I knew the place pretty well having studied there for two years but on Friday I discovered a secret corner. I was making my way through the woodland happily indulging my passion for fungi, rummaging around under conifers and getting my new jacket well and truly caked in green muck when I came across a little path previously unexplored. It is way up behind the old bath house, beyond the bird hide and along the course of the stream that runs down the valley, and there I found a charming little shelter set amongst some lovely trees. I got the impression that nobody goes there much which seemed to make it my little place, see if you can find it too when next you visit.

"The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep"
Edgar Watson Howe

Bonkers About Conkers

I quite like it when it's my turn to use the petrol mower, it's an automatic response as you chug along behind it which leaves your mind free to wander and contemplate as it will. This morning unfortunately I was pondering about how much my feet hurt as I attempted to wear in my new winter boots. Having learnt the hard way last time I had sensibly and slowly accustomed myself to the feel of them over the last couple of weeks, until last Monday my window for wearing the summer ones ran out when I spent the whole day with sopping wet tootsies thanks to a heavy dew. So with the best socks on that money could buy and heavily blister plastered I was plodding along in some discomfort, until that is I noticed that the conkers were ready. Mind suitably distracted I realised that there are few things that can take one straight back into the joys of childhood as instantly as the patina of a newly hatched conker. Better than the art of the most skilled of cabinet makers is the veneer of the humble horse chestnut, its shiny beauty brings nostalgia to the old and a hunger to the young, it's not bad for soothing aching feet either!

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older"
Tom Stoppard

Endings And Beginnings

As the end of September quickly approaches we were treated to a beautiful sunny day more fitting of summer again than redolent of mists and chilly fingers. Giles has now shut his nursery business and his last trading day at Newby Hall tomorrow will see the end of all his commercial plant sales, apart from here at Norton Conyers. So if you are looking for quality unusual hardy annuals next spring you will have to pay us a visit here. We spent the day looking through the stock he has brought with him and tidying it up for storage over the winter, many of the plants were new to me and I await with interest getting to know them better through next years growing season.
We also made a start on the new peony border, having weed-killed the grass a couple of weeks ago it was time to plough the ground over to break up any large underground roots or pans. October is the ideal time to move peonies (Not that any time is really ideal), so we must get a move on as the job will be very painstaking, we must wash each root before replanting to ensure no weeds travel with the move. Plans are afoot to build a greenhouse in the yard where we can propagate plants from the garden for sale next year, continue with the spring garden renovation, fence off and prepare the new vegetable garden as well as managing the woodland and tree planting. We are going to have a very busy winter!

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end"
Seneca

Garden Time

Things happen slowly in the walled garden at Norton Conyers, this is only right when you are a slave to the seasons and each one suggests its own work schedule. Last year we decided that a sun dial would look good in the centre of the round garden and so we installed the plinth and started to search for something suitable. Finally Alyson came across a perfect match and today brought it in to see how it looked, it is certainly in keeping with our very own style of elegant neglect and even managed to get tea-break time spot on! Our main task today was making a start on renovating the spring garden, this is also an ongoing project from last year, now that areas of it have been weed-killed we were able to dig it over and remove any bulbs for re-location. The idea is that both paths will be widened to allow wheelchair access and a rectangular paving area complete with bird bath will grace the central bed, watch this space for future developments.

Finally today we harvested the crown prince squashes, they have been merrily swamping last years compost heap with its rich bed of horse muck and have given us a bumper harvest, 57 at the last count! Including one that has wedged itself against the pig crates and is impossible to free. I think the horses deserve a few apples as a treat for their Stirling contribution. See below for the picture.

"Clocks slay time.....time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels. Only when the clock stops does time come to life.
William Faulkner

The Big Cut

Well somebody answered our prayers for some decent weather today, thankfully it remained dry even if it was a bit on the blustery side and we were able to crack on with cutting the yew hedges. We were at full strength in the garden for once with the usual crew plus Adam wielding an extra trimmer, and Susan one of our volunteers who worked as hard as any of us gathering up the clippings. No photographs of the proceedings I'm afraid though as I was just too busy to stop. I'm not sure how many trips with the wheelbarrow I took but I'm guaranteed a solid nights sleep! Everything went very smoothly this year and we even finished with time to spare, just enough in fact to pop up to the clock tower for the last half an hour to do some weeding. I'm so glad we did as I spotted some giant puffballs on the south lawn, I've seen small ones before but these were beauties!

"Those who can do. Those who can do more volunteer"
Anon

Butterfly Blessings

All day today there have been clouds of butterflies around the garden, I wonder if they know the bad weather is coming and have been making the most of one last warm sunny day. They  certainly cheered us up as we went about pruning the plum trees, a long and rather laborious task that took us most of the day. Luckily we were working in the sunniest place against the old walls so it almost felt like summer again, maybe we were enjoying a swan song too before the autumn storm with gales and rain arrives tomorrow. We dug the last of the potato harvest first thing and were pleased with the results, Setanta did especially well with large well formed tubers, although that does cut down on our fun of the 'who finds the oddest shape' competition!
Monday will be one of the busiest days of the year as we cut the yew hedges, the clippings must be bagged up and sent away to be turned into a cancer busting drug, so big breakfasts will be needed to help us last the pace and prayers for a dry and not too windy day please!

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued is always just beyond your grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you"
Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Obstacle Course

Cyclamen hederifolifolium in all its glory at the moment

Nikky's daughter completed a tough obstacle course at the weekend and was understandably proud of herself, but after the day I had at Norton Conyers yesterday I began to think it would have been more of a challenge to spend the day gardening! It was my turn for the tractor again and despite the sunny start it was feeling surprisingly chilly, good job I'd remembered to bring a jacket I thought as I started the mowing. By break-time all was going well the temperature was rising and the only real problem I'd encountered was avoiding the cascades of apples falling on my head as I negotiated mowing under the trees. Back at work afterwards I noticed the sky darkening in the distance but assumed the weather would probably pass over, gritting my teeth I started another sortie onto the HaHa, this time making it all the way to the end. Just at the crucial moment as I attempted the three point turn the heavens opened. Now at this point I am the furthest from help anywhere in the grounds and the rain was so heavy I needed to wear my hood, but that meant I couldn't see to reverse, so I confess I gave up again. By the time I'd trudged back to the others I wasn't just wet I was saturated, that meant spending the rest of the afternoon in a pair of plastic over-trousers whilst my own attire dried off in the greenhouse. I couldn't do much about my sodden feet though, not the most comfortable few hours I've ever spent! Still every day is a lesson learned and yesterdays was that it is now time to carry all my clothing whenever I go to work so all eventualities are covered, as they say in Game of Thrones "Winter is coming!"

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all"
Helen Keller

A Day Of Variety

The tasks in the September garden are as many and varied as the flowers in the borders, sometimes you don't know just where to start. This morning we let the temperature dictate to us and as it was feeling pretty chilly we decided that digging up potatoes would be a good place to start. It certainly warmed us up as we dug and uncovered part of the crop, luckily there wasn't too many rotting ones to deal with, there is nothing more unpleasant than a stinky potato! We still have two more varieties to harvest but have cut off the foliage and left them in the ground for now, this stops any further blight worries. After a change of pace with some routine hoeing, we went to collect the bumper crop of cob nuts that Alyson had noticed last Monday only to discover that the squirrels had noticed them too, we could only salvage a meagre punnet, teaching us that next year we must pick them as soon as we see them. In the afternoon we cut back the willow hedge which was threatening to engulf the vegetable garden and iris border with its monstrous growth, we still left plenty of the more upright stems in place for their winter colour of vibrant red though. Right at the very end of the day comes the good part for us workers when we can help ourselves to whatever is ready, a bag of rosy red discovery apples, a swede and a shiny red cabbage all made their way home with me, a good contribution to tomorrows Sunday dinner.

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety"
Publilius Syrus

Winged Irritants

As September starts the garden is pretty quiet, we content ourselves with a little pruning and harvesting as the settled weather continues. Sometimes the harvest is wild as we found when venturing onto the Ha Ha to cut back the buddlejas , globosa and alternifolia are both pruned at this time of year as they flower on the wood produced the previous season, unlike davidii which is done in early spring. Anyway intertwined with a very large specimen were some luscious blackberries, so we had to pick them first. Two good punnets full all for free, sold to raise funds for keeping us in gainful employment through the winter! We nearly paid for them in other ways though, halfway through we had to abandon our task as a swarm of hornets descended to check us out, so we hoofed it back to the garden until they had dispersed. Nature doesn't mind if we take our share, but we must remember other creatures need some too! I must admit one of the things I look forward to about autumn is a few less winged critters, the flies were terribly bothersome that morning driving poor Nikky to wear a hat despite the heat.

I think my lens is fogged here but it does give a rather interesting effect

"Restless thoughts, like a deadly swarm of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone, but rush upon me thronging"
John Milton

September

If you didn't have a calendar hanging on your kitchen wall could you tell what month it was? We can all tell

the season easily enough but distinguishing between the individual months can be more tricky, especially in winter. Since I've been working at Norton Conyers I've become more in tune with what happens in each calendar month, although Nature can play tricks by fooling both us and the plants with inclement weather that can make the garden slow to bloom, and muddle the usual signs. Luckily there is one month of the year that is usually foolproof, September is here tomorrow with all her glowing colours. The blues and pinks of high summer suddenly give way to startling luminescent yellows, mellow bronzes and vibrant crimsons. I like this month almost as much as May, it can still be warm but the temperature is usually more pleasant, I appreciate the crispness of early morning with its hint of cooler times to come, and the early autumn fragrances of harvested onions, ripening tomatoes and fermenting apples, accompanied by the hum of drunken bees and wasps gorging themselves on windfall fruit. It is also one of any gardeners favourite times of the year as we get to collect free seeds, a bounty that needs nothing more than a dry day for the looting to start. Already thoughts of the potential plants one can grow next year are flooding our minds!

"September; it was the most beautiful of words, he'd always felt, evoking orange flowers, swallows and regret"

Alexander Theroux

Funny Ha Ha (Not)

I was straight back in the saddle, or tractor seat actually today, having had three weeks off everyone else was pleased to pass the chore on to me! After a bit of a rusty start, only a small prang thankfully when no one was looking and with no dents detectable, I was soon feeling confident again. It didn't last long, I had to tackle the Ha Ha again, I've only had a go at cutting it once before and then Giles had to rescue me half way down. I wasn't much better today I'm afraid, I just get spooked having to turn around in such a tight space with the garden wall on one side and the drop on the other whilst avoiding large shrubs and sheep, so it was Giles to the rescue once more. I guess I'll just have to keep on trying, maybe next time I'll put the tractor in snail mode which makes it go so slowly even I would have difficulty losing control, I'm determined to conquer this!
It was lovely to be back in the garden and to notice all the differences that have occurred since I went away, especially how much everything has grown now that some rain has fallen. After being surrounded by tropical vegetation I really appreciated meeting our old cottage garden favourites again, this travelling lark is OK but there's no place like home!

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying "I will try again tomorrow"
Mary Anne Radmacher

Royal Island

Not a bad view to wake up to every morning is it?

Royal Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean is a verdant tropical dot on the map of the world that has been our home for the last two weeks. We were mightily pleased to finally get there after a nightmare journey owing to appalling weather. After landing at Male airport, the capital of the Maldives, we were unable to catch our sea plane connection as the whole area was being racked by ferocious storms. After a nine hour wait we were finally bundled onto a domestic flight that was destined to drop us of at another island near-ish to our final destination. Our joy at being able to proceed was somewhat tempered by having to fly through a raging thunderstorm which tossed the twin propellered aircraft around like a leaf in the wind, at one point we dropped a good fifty feet which sent the passenger seated next to me into a blind panic that saw him pray loudly for the rest of the flight, I must admit I didn't blame him in the least! Finally on terra firma once more we then had to endure a speed boat ride to the island, due to the heavy seas think James Bond movie chase scene rather than azure tropical sailing, it was 1am in the morning, chucking it down with rain, pitch black and our captain decided to open up the throttle just to show us what his baby could do. I really began to doubt we would make it! Anyway as you can see from the above picture we did, and once the weather settled down began to appreciate our beautiful surroundings.

For a gardener the island was paradise, lush vegetation of the sort you only find in expensive bouquets back home, banana trees and coconut palms abounded, the latter frequently being climbed by the gardening staff by shimmying up the trunks with a rope tied to both ankles in order to remove the coconuts so they didn't fall on guests heads! During our stay I was lucky enough to spend some time with Hema, the head gardener, proving that although we didn't speak the same language Latin plant names are indeed universal. He proudly showed off his propagation area where he keeps a thriving chilli garden of the hottest varieties just for the staff, as well as cuttings of many of the islands plants some of which he has even managed to bonsai. His speciality however was orchids, they were all over the island, each and every one tended lovingly by him, exotic and beautiful I just wish I could reproduce their fragrance for you here.

We exchanged e-mail addresses so we can keep in touch and he sent me home with my very own orchid cutting. I'm sure the poor thing is feeling rather disgruntled at being ripped from its tropical home to now reside on a kitchen windowsill in Bilton! However I'm going to Harlow Carr on Friday to get equipped with all I need to help it thrive. Just a word here about bringing home plants from abroad, if you do so you must declare them at customs in order to stop bringing harmful pests and diseases into Britain, I was given the OK at Manchester because it was only a cutting and was not planted in soil. Hema had made a very neat coconut container to keep it safe and all I have had to do is keep it watered.

My poor little orchid cutting!

So all in all we have had a fabulous trip and I'll not bore you with the usual holiday shots, lets face it who wants to see Dave in a mankini!

Back to Norton Conyers next week.

"When two friends understand each other totally, the words are soft and strong like an orchids perfume"
Martin Luther king Jr

Storm clouds over the Maldives