Not A Good Day

Monday didn't start off badly, just the usual routine, up at six pack lunch to make and then off out into a bright frosty morning. The walled garden looked beautiful with its covering of ice, like sugar frosting painted on by a master confectioner. When the ground is frozen like that there's no digging to be done so Nikki and I settled down to pruning the summer raspberry canes, cutting out the old dying wood and tying in the new growth that will fruit next year. Whether it was a combination of the bright sunshine and the cold that brought on a migraine I cannot say, but by midday it had turned into a real humdinger. Giles kindly drove me into Ripon to catch the bus home to bed, unfortunately in my hurry to escape the blinding sunshine and my headache I hadn't zipped up my rucksack properly and later on I discovered that my brand new waterproof jacket was missing. I waited for the boy to return from school and sent him out to look for it but to no avail, making today a painful and expensive experience, oh well we all have them don't we.

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you sow" Robert Louis Stevenson

A Family Feast

As you may have noticed I've been AWOL this week, taking a breather with Dave and the kids at the coast, so it was with a certain amount of reluctance that I heaved myself into the frosty morning air yesterday. A week off made me feel chilly and stiff to start with but I soon picked up the rhythm again joining the girls in cutting back the round border, each of us trying to remember what needed our attention, what it was called and indeed what it looked like when in flower, not an easy job when all around you has turned to brown mush! Luckily for me it was to be an easy day again as we were celebrating Giles' birthday at lunchtime, Lord and Lady Graham presiding over a feast of hot and comforting pumpkin soup made from our own produce of course, followed by a beautiful iced chocolate cake. They do make us feel like we all belong to a large and rather eccentric family!

"Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast"
William Shakespeare

Gardeners Nose

The end of October is early in the season to be afflicted by gardeners nose, but when I observed a light dusting of snow yesterday morning I knew it was probably here to stay until the spring. Let me explain about gardeners nose, it doesn't matter how refined your upbringing, all fellow gardeners are troubled by a terminal drip at the start of winter, you might have a large mans handkerchief, a dainty scrap of lace or simply a piece of tissue, it matters not, you will not be able to use it. With hands encased in two sets of gloves, with fingers like sausages already covered in muck, there is no hope of reaching into your pocket and politely wiping the offending organ. Going against all that your aged relatives ever taught you, you either drip or swipe with the back of your glove if clean enough! So with snowy toes and drippy noses it seemed a good time to say goodbye to the cut flower border, confining the dahlias to the orangery and the annuals to the compost heap. winter has arrived too early this year.


"One kind word can warm three winter months" Japanese proverb

A Pudding!

I'm not sure what came over me yesterday, maybe it was the shock of losing yet another tutor from our RHS course, when we go back after half term we shall be having a new chap, that's the third since we began in September!!! Anyway I decided to cook a meal from scratch, as my family will tell you that doesn't happen very often and even more infrequent is the production of a pudding. I guess I've been shamed into it really as I'm overrun with apples, having had a hand in the grafting, pruning and general maintenance of two orchards it really would have been criminal then not to produce something with the end product. I chose to make an Eve's pudding, not too hard for a hopeless cook like me and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, but don't worry I'll not change direction and go into catering, I draw the line at making custard!

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"
Carl Sagan

The Coat

Monday was a really clarty old day, that's a grand old word and for those of you who don't speak Yorkshire it means dull and dirty. We were certainly the latter by the end of it, digging through the north border in a steady drizzle, thank goodness we had Shandy to help us raise a smile. Firstly she caught a baby rabbit and came trotting over to show us, we dutifully praised her efforts but had to put a downer on her day when she kept on trying to bury it in the patch we were digging over, somewhat disgruntled she eventually settled down to eat it in case we tried to steal it I think! Tea-break saw Giles produce a surprise for her from out of his basket, she has been prone to fits of shivering lately when she's run out of energy from critter chasing so Carol, Giles's wife had bought her a little coat. I'm not sure if she was too pleased to be swaddled up but we were all having fits of giggles at the expression on her little black face. A spot of apple picking in the rain was also enlivened by her antics later, when Giles climbed the tree and started throwing us girls an apple each to place in the basket she cried until every forth apple was thrown to her, she definitely is one of the team!

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments towards organizational objectives.It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results" Anon

Webs

October is spider month, I'm finding them everywhere at the moment, but after a year of being a gardener I find that I don't mind them so much any more. Much worse are the biting gnats that live under the apple tree in the spring garden we are renovating at present, they plague Nikki so much she has to wear a hat even on the warmest of days. It's been a big job but we finished it yesterday, each plant has been dug up and checked for weed, the worst offenders being thrown away, we must have unearthed at least a thousand allium bulbs which we must find homes for on Monday! The idea is to leave the area fallow for a year and if any weeds recur they can be blasted with weed killer before we consider a new planting scheme for 2014. But I digress, I don't mind the spiders because they eat the pesky flies but on a balmy October day their webs engulf us and there is nothing worse than finding your face entwined in gossamer threads, usually when you have your hands full and cannot wipe them away. But the baby spider lings must make their way across the garden to do their important work somehow, so I guess I'll just have to learn to live with the feeling.

"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

A Little Piece Of Parcevall

We took a field trip today thanks to our tutor Jo Makin, she used to be head gardener at Parcevall hall, a wonderful arts and crafts garden dating back to 1927, so she managed to sneak us in for free. The hall itself is now a religious retreat and I can well imagine how soothing to the soul it is to gaze out and contemplate life, when faced with the natural wonders that surround it in this peaceful Wharfedale valley. We had permission to take seeds and berries home with us for propagation, so I chose some Leycesteria formosa berries as the bracts look fabulous at this time of year, fingers crossed that they grow.

Leycesteria formosa

Enough of this rambling on, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

"That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful"
Edgar Allan Poe