Garden Antics

The cutting back and clearing of the borders resumed yesterday and Giles was clearly in a droll mood. I glanced down at a particular plant and did a double take, the colour didn't seem quite right and on closer inspection it turned out to be plastic! I called out to him if he wished his plastic plant to be cut back with all the rest? He replied that he was glad I had noticed, thankfully a years study with the RHS has qualified me to tell the difference! It was certainly a day of mixed weather as we basked in sunshine one minute and were pelted with sleet the next, but we had the antics of the garden robins to keep us entertained. They are becoming quiet cheeky now and will almost sit at our feet waiting for us to turn up worms, but as soon as I get my camera out they fly off. One brave fellow has started to follow us into the orangery where Giles is now sharing his cake with it, I wonder if it will eventually eat from his hand.

"No bird soars too high if he soars on his own wings" William Blake

A Richer Life

As the old year ebbs away I find my enthusiasm for being outdoors leaving with it. Now is the most difficult time to be a gardener, the effort required to leave a cosy bed and stand at the bus stop in the clammy pre-dawn darkness requires immense willpower! The garden tasks become more arduous too, pruning the climbing roses was never a favourite job of mine, teetering up a ladder with blade in hand is not the most comfortable position in which to spend a morning, but at least that's another thing ticked off the list. The day length is ever shortening and as four o'clock approaches we hurriedly pack up the tools and head for home, lingering and chatting are spring and summer luxuries. Garden beauty is at a low too, but if you look hard enough  you can still find little treasures persisting, and of course a striking sunset is always a bonus. The one thing that does lift my spirits is the comparison between my occupation now and what I would be enduring if I still worked at the supermarket. Instead of only one or two snatched days off at Christmas amidst the retail nightmare I may now embrace a two week break and become almost as dormant as the garden. This feels in tune with nature and even if I don't earn any money I will not feel the poorer for it!

"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you" Oscar Wilde

Secrets Revealed

The weather took a very seasonal twist for us yesterday, a light dusting of snow enhancing the spectral beauty of the plants, their dark decaying colours highlighted by the stark whiteness. Some of the garden plants however are only now taking their turn in the spotlight, thank goodness there is always something like Mahonia to brighten the dullest of days. We resumed cutting back the borders, soon amassing great barrow loads of vegetation to add to the huge steaming heap of cooking compost outside the garden walls. It is amazing what you notice when all the debris has been cleared away, you can inspect small shrubs and spring plantings for growth and general health, only now revealed again after being smothered by their more vigorous neighbours. My favourite finds are the birds nests, little works of tenderness and comfort for the precious babies now long since fledged, they are tucked away deep inside prickly bushes or holes in the walls, safe from our eyes until now, a hidden world exposed.

"Secrets are made to be found out with time" Charles Sandford

Sunrise And Sunset At Norton Conyers

It was leaves again on Saturday morning and this time there was no Nikki with her chatter to keep the monotony at bay. However it did give me the chance to pluck up the courage to reverse the tractor up the slope of the compost heap whilst no one was watching, it's quite a tight space to get into and I managed to do half a dozen times, so that's another fear laid to rest. At least it was a beautiful morning and lovely to see sunrise by the house before work started. Afternoon saw me pruning the redcurrants, they fruit on last years growth so all the new wood must be cut back to maintain a compact shape. I thought it would be nice to listen to my personal radio as I worked, but in the end I didn't turn it on as the silence was so therapeutic, only being disturbed by the gunshots and cries of a distant shooting party. So I worked on in silence and solitude until the sun slowly dipped behind the garden walls, a whole day spent outside in December is something to be savoured.

Norton Conyers Garden will feature on the Mark Forrest show today on radio York at approx 10.30 - 11.00am and can be caught up on BBC iplayer if missed.

"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music"
Aldous Huxley

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