Drummer Lee Rigby; Son, Brother, Husband, Father, Soldier

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/drummer-lee-rigby-killed-in-woolwich-incident

 

"I can't call in sick on Mondays when the weekend's been too strong.
I just work straight through the holidays, sometimes all night long,
You can bet that I stand ready, when the wolf cries at the door,
And I'm solid,
And I'm steady,
And I'm true down to the core,
And I will always do my duty, no matter what the price.
I've counted up the cost,
I know the sacrifice.
And I don't want to die for YOU but if dying's asked of me
I'll bear that CROSS with honour, cos freedom don't come free."

 

Seemingly, the Help For Heroes website crashed Wednesday night, so many people were trying to buy tee-shirts and donate.

Get your plastic out, people.

Let's crash it again.

Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.

Quercus petraea: Sessile Oak

I woke myself up this morning with a nightmare.  It's one I've dreamt before; no doubt I'll dream it again.  I'm strangling someone but with insufficient conviction.  I hauled my sorry a***, racked with a filthy head cold, sore throat and aching ankles out of bed and made a cup of tea and a couple of maxi-flu paracetamols.  An hour or two later and I'm feeling perky and ready for a longish walk and some fresh air.

 

Driving down the A38 listening to Classic FM on the way to the National Arboretum and the weather is cold and blowy with occasional snow flurries.  Perfect Easter Bank Holiday Monday weather.  And then this came on the radio ---->

 

 

And we walked all through the trees and as always here, found new memorials and plaques of remembrance. One tree on the outer edge of the Merchant Navy Convoy Memorial was dedicated to a teenager, a little naval apprentice who spent his 18th birthday floating on a raft after his vessel was bombed, and where he died 10 days later. 

This memorial is densely planted with 2,535 Sessile Oaks representing every British flagged merchant vessel lost to enemy action during the Second World War.  The Sessile Oak, Quercus petraea, is native to Great Britain and mid-Europe. Significant botanical differences with English Oak include the stalked leaves, and the stalkless (sessile) acorns. It is found more frequently than English Oak in upland areas that have a higher rainfall, but also the lighter soils, which it prefers.  The Royal Navy was once said to be founded on “Hearts of Oak” – a reference to the stoic nature of British seaman.

Rose Balling: Rosa Eglantyne

 

What causes rose balling?  Rose balling is an annoyance that dominates in a damp, cool summer exactly like the one we endured in sunny Derbyshire in 2012.  Flower buds develop normally but fail to open fully.  Wet weather saturates the outer petals and when the sun finally puts in an appearance and scorches the flower dry, the outer petals are fused together preventing full opening.  These fused petals dry to a crisp, brown appearance.   

Rose balling can be a problem if you've planted roses in a partially shaded site, and you've got a penchant (as I) for roses with a multitude of thin petals.  Rosa Eglantyne and Geoff Hamilton are particularly vulnerable in my garden, whilst my peonies and camellias appear to be thus far unaffected.  Clearly the site is the predominant problem. 

 

Standard advice seems to be pruning to open up a lovely goblet shaped bush thus enabling good air circulation and rapid drying of the flower buds after rainfall; watering in the evenings only (laughable advice last summer); removing balled buds promptly before grey mould sets in and infects both host and nearby plants with a whole new set of problems; and rather drastically, removing or cutting back overhanging shrubs and trees.

 

Reading this advice last year on the RHS website finally prompted me to tackle my knackered old Warwickshire Drooper plum tree, stalwart of hundreds of jars of my world famous spiced plum chutney (thank you Delia.)  More of that in a forthcoming post.

On Stalking Helen Yemm

I know, I can't believe I've written that post title, either... 

 All photos Daily Telegraph

Something else I can't believe is that Helen Yemm IS FINALLY BLOGGING AGAIN.  Well, not really blogging, just turning in her annual copy... Click on this ----> OMG!to read her latest article about her most recent book, Gardening in Pyjamas. This book will appeal to those gardeners, myself and all my charming, witty and erudite readers ofc, who like Helen, are, 

"Keen enough, daft enough, to get out there in all weather first thing in the morning (usually inappropriately dressed, hence the title) but didn’t quite know what to get on with and how to go about it – and why."  Buy it here...

 

Although I have to tell you, Helen, I know exactly what to get on with, armed with my secateurs and assorted WMD... indiscriminate pruning! 

 

Here's a lovely shot above of Helen pruning an offensive cat out of its lair.

Here's a lovely shot of Helen crushing the evidence.

Here's a lovey shot of Helen about to spread the crushed evidence around the roses and top fruit.

 And this is just a random shot of Helen being fabulous. 

 

You know, it strikes me that if Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller had had a certain someone in his squad, he'd have found those WMD...

 

 

Slacker Diaries: Part 22

I love this picture.  It's Paula Hamilton falling through a window at a fashion shoot.  Because sometimes life is just like this.  Even when you're down, you can still make a few people larf. 

Photo: Daily Telegraph, photographer unknown

Caudwell's Mill In Light Snow

I'm thinking cassoulet.  What about you?

Hoar Frost on Bay Tree

On Separation And Loss... All Change!!

I've always had a bit of an issue with Separation and Loss.  Although I am ruthless about work-based separations and loss, (I never look back; once I'm out of there, I'm out of there) and house moves, (onwards and upwards, and anyway, I always take half my old garden with me to the next; I dragged my mulberry in a pot through three house moves, until I felt I had the right garden to plant it properly/forever...), I find some friendships very difficult to move on from.*

 

This requires no comment from me, stunned as I am. 

This required a comment from me, stunned as I was.

This beggars belief.

 

I've been reading Helen Yemm for years, and have loved everything she writes, except of course her liking for cats, which we all know really are the d****'s familiar.  I may yet fill the balloons with H2SO4...  As for Phantom and Angela, I think theirs is pretty much the first blog I stumbled into, and am utterly delighted that they are back blogging again after decades of neglect.  And the other thing is a real bollocks.  As I said, I've always had a bit of an issue with Separation and Loss.

* I know.  Never end a sentence with a preposition, jackass!

New Year's Day 2013: Run Hide Fight

With thanks to Michael Yon for the heads up.

 

We are instinctive creatures.  If we think something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  If we think something just isn't right, it probably isn't.  So let's move forward into 2013 becoming more aware of our feelings and instincts.  Just be aware though, that if we have a gut feeling something isn't right, it could just be indigestion...

 

 

New Year's Eve 2012

Don McCullin's Desert Island Discs

My love affair with Don McCullin continues...

The following is taken from the Guardian interview with Carole Cadwalladr outlining McCullin's return to Aleppo, and the documentaty McCullin due to be screened January 1.  Catch the full article here...

 

CC:  What do you think of photojournalism these days?

 

DM:  It's had it. Nobody wants to look at spreads of dying children. They want to see higher heels. It's all gone celebrity, hasn't it? Celebrity, looks, fashion. If I see another picture of Gwyneth Paltrow, I think I'll put my head down the lavatory. Fake tans, Beckhams, Jamie Oliver. I can't take any more of it. That's why I'm going to Syria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/c3d7aaf1#p009mhn5

On Eating Roses Whilst The Kettle Boils

You know that old Christmas joke about finding yourself standing at the kitchen sink eating roses for breakfast as the kettle boils? Except we know it's not a joke, don't we...

In my defence, at least I haven't taken to greeting the postman drink in hand; even I baulk at hard liquor before martini o'clock.  The last autumnal traipse across the Chunnel coincided with SuperU's deal on Bombay Sapphire; 70cl for 12euro and I managed to get the last 6 bottles by clambering onto the bottom shelf and stretching to the very back of the top shelf.  Clearly lesser mortals, locals and les rosbifs were too embarrassed to clamber.  Me?  I'd climb Everest for a deal like that.

 

My new favourite clients and I are planning to restock their rose beds.  I'm gently nudging them towards a themed approach, having already surrendered all hope of enticing them into a mixed border design.  It's their garden, when all's said and done.  I'm thinking Song of Songs; I'm thinking Shakespeare; I'm thinking people they actually have in their address book.  I know; they are really lovely clients.  We'll be sticking with David Austin, as his really are the best and most deliciously fragrant English roses.

 

Just have a look at this new introduction for 2013, The Lark Ascending, described thus,

 

photo source: http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/Showrose.asp?Showr=6835

"A delightful rose that illustrates the great diversity that is now to be found among English Roses.  The flowers are cupped in shape with about twenty petals in each bloom.  They are medium in size and of a pleasing light apricot colouring, produced from the ground upwards in heads of up to fifteen, nicely spaced blooms.  They have a light fragrance that has been observed to vary form one flower to another.  Some of them are of Tea scent while others move towards the scent of myrrh.

The name is taken from Ralph Vaughan-Williams' piece of music, which was recently voted Britain's favourite by listeners to the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs."

 

 

Christmas Eve 2012 and a Miracle at Mass

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/track.html

NORAD tracks Santa again.

Louis Smith Wins Strictly 2012

Louis owns Strictly, with THAT hold 1.25 mins in...

Cerinthe Major Purpurescens at Blakesley Hall

 

I have coveted these beauties since I saw a stall holder at Bakewell farmers' market including them in her hand-tied garden flower bouquets.  Oh wow, I thought, why haven't I thought to grow these flowers.  Growing them couldn't be simpler, you just throw the seeds into the soil sometime round about mid to late spring, cover lightly then wait until they flower in earlyish summer.  And, as these little fellows are prolific self-seeders, you'll have plenty in your borders next year.  They'll need a bit of protection over a hard winter, given that they are Mediterranean evergreens, but these glaucous leafed delights are worth even this little bit of effort, especially if you treat them as a hardy annual.

The Cerinthe here were covered in bees, even in October, so you'll be giving your local bee colony an autumn treat if you get a bush or two into your garden.

 

The only difficulty I've had with Cerinthe is getting hold of the seeds in the first place.  You'll have to shop online (no great hardship), but if we are as a nation and a global community supposed to be taking action to reverse the global decline in bee colonies, it might help to shift these seeds into the budget range at B&Q.

 

 

And don't forget, December's farmers' market is held a week early for Christmas, on Saturday 22 December.  See you there.

Helianthus Annuus: Sunflowers

 

Given the atrocious weather we've had across the UK since the spring, these were just about the most productive flowers this year.  Too wet and too cold for the roses; ditto all the vegetables except the brassicas and lettuces.  They take a beautiful picture though, don't they? 

I planted these directly into the beds early April and just left them to get on with it.  After years of planting in rows of seed variety, this year I simply opened up a few packets, mixed said seeds and threw them into the soil then pretty much abandoned them to their fate.  I have to say, from midsummer onwards I picked flower after flower; Russian Giant, Choco Sun, Vincent's Mixed, Firecracker, Sunburst, Velvet Queen.

 

Unwin's have a lovely little seed planting wheel guide, catch it here.  Or if your life really is too short to click on links, here it is!  And thank you UNWINS!

 

 

 

First Sunday of Advent 2012

It's not that I've been slackering about for the better part of this year; quite the contrary.  I've spent most of this year with clients, my new favourite clients in particular. 

 

 

Here we are at the end of the year / start of the new year and we've restored huge tracts of their walled kitchen garden.  In the next month or so I want to make a start on a new orchard.

 

 This isn't their house - theirs is Victorian, this is Tudor; Blakesley Hall, a timber-framed house built in 1590 by Richard Smalbroke, a member of one of Birmingham’s leading merchant families.  I dropped in earlier this autumn on the way to or from Birmingham airport with the Irish rellies.  I rather like the juxtaposition of perfectly preserved and restored Tudor buildings, underneath the flight path of a major international airport...  Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens is as bad! 



 

One of the lovely young graduates working at Blakesley Hall has an Etsy shop, selling lovely, lovely, gorgeous things, and when she gets the mice-shaped Christmas tree hangings on there, I'm snapping the lot up.  Click on into her shop TheLittleLandOfMe and check for yourself!

Remembrance Sunday 2012

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

 

 

        They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

 

 

        Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon: For The Fallen