More Garden Clearing, More Flowers, 14th April, 2009

Path and Stream Clearing

It's been a very busy couple of days in the garden. I've been carrying on with our new 'path' and 'stream' project. It is just full of brambles and stinging nettles and my poor hands are a mess, in spite of wearing supposedly bramble proof gloves. I tell you B & Q, they are not!




Pile of rubbish, trees on the bank and old fashioned pussy willow trees at the top left











Where you can see the lower patch of blue sky is the boundary of our land, the stream runs right to the top then runs parallel with the boundary.















Jim snipping the willows, lots still to trim as you can see from the tall ones behind him.











This dead tree was has been freed and placed on the bank. Where I've cleared all the nettle and ivy, you can now see through to the mini orchard at the top of the vegetable area.






The Dam Builder

Yesterday I paddled up and down the stream as it was much easier than walking on the area I've de-brambled, which is looking a little like the Somme! Luckily my wellies are waterproof. I was pulling ivy and brambles off the bank to clear that too. I did get a bit carried away and reverted to my childhood. My parents used to have a caravan on the Isle of Sheppey and my brother, sister and I used to make dams in a stream that ran down to the sea. It was really pure mud and clay, but we loved it. So, I made some dams in our stream! They were great for washing your wellies in!! What fun I had. Jim threatened to bomb them and was singing the theme from The Dam Busters Film. How childish!!




















I stayed outside until it went dark and then lit a bonfire. It wasn't wonderful as it had rained the previous night, but I did manage to reduce the pile a bit.

Dinner

When I went indoors, Jim had been on the phone all evening, so we ended up having dinner about 11pm! Spag Bol too, which was lovely, followed by rhubarb crumble and cream, also delicious. We had to stay up quite late to work off the food.

Tuesday

Today it was quite sunny most of the time and I once more set about tackling the would be path. Jim did some mowing of the meadow paths, built another cold frame and kept me supplied with refreshments. What a fine husband. By this evening I had almost reached the boundary of our land. It's hard going up there, wall to wall stinging nettles and brambles which I had to mattock out. I also trimmed some of the willows while I was at it. The next run to meet up with the top path is just as bad and looks daunting. Still, we'll do it I'm sure.

I started the bonfire a bit earlier, while it was still light in an attempt to get rid of as much of the rubbish as I could. It took ages to light properly but once it caught, it went like crazy. I managed to burn most of the rubbish and really we only have the piles of cut willow left. We may use some of that for Jim's super willow fences. As it was getting dark, Jim brought me a warm hot cross bun and a coffee. Then Buster returned and wanted some of course. He stayed out with me for ages, eventually settling down on the pile of cut willows, near the fire. I was really tired by then and lay down on the willows next to him. He then climbed half on me and we snoozed a while. The sky was clear and the stars twinkled. All I could hear was the trickle of the stream and the dog's gentle breathing. His warm body kept me warm too, plus the heat from the bonfire. It was bliss.

Dinner

As it started to cool, we went inside and had dinner tonight at 10pm! That's the trouble when it stays light until late. Chicken pie, broccoli and roast potatoes with gravy awaited me and we topped that off with a Magnum ice cream. Delicious.

Garden Colour

Before I started work in the garden, I couldn't resist taking some more photos as parts of it seem a riot of colour.




These 2 ferns are growing out of our steps










This yellow broom is fully out and smells amazing. This is on the Fairy Hill











Pretty variegated bugle in flower (plus lots of daisies).













Cream tulips, these have several heads on one stem. I love their subtle, soft colour



















Look at the pieris forestii now

















This is a variegated pieris





















Raggy Tulip almost fully out


















perennial alyssum












Tiny yellow and white spring bulbs, not sure what they are, maybe a kind of tulip








The Fairy Hill with old farm machinery to the fore










The top of the Fairy Hill, taken from the side view













Tulip Heads













Tulips, narcissus and Magnolia stellata












Red/Orange tulip in the sunshine


















The Disintegration Project

Most of you know I'm involved in the disintegration project where I had to make a 'bundle' of papers, pictures, whatever I wished and put it somewhere outside until May 1st. This is what it looks like today, after some serious rain:




Looking decidedly raggy






















Even the bee's turned his back on us














Seth Apter's blog can be found here:
http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/
and there is a photo of my parcel when it was first placed up the tree on that page.

Gina Rescues a Shrew

I heard Sandy making a horrible 'I've caught a mouse' noise, so went to investigate. He had caught a tiny shrew and it was still alive. I thought it might be worth rescuing, so called Jim and we managed to keep the cats away and caught the little chap in a flower pot. He seemed none the worse for his adventure so I took a photo of him:



Do enlarge the picture by clicking on it and you can see his cute little nose.










He scuttled off into the field and I felt good.

That's about it for now. Sorry if you're sick of tulips. The black ones will be out soon. The Judas Tree isn't yet in flower but you can be sure it'll be well photographed when it is.

Messing about in the River and Tulips 10.4.09

Yesterday was a bit of a non gardening day, Jim went shopping to Ennis and I stayed home and cleaned up and did my ironing! Yuk. It rained so it was an indoor day. In the evening Buster decided he needed to sit on Jim's knee and I took a few photos of them:



What a pair of softies













Then Buster fell asleep. He was absolutely out of it! What a dozy dog he is.












Oh, and Stanley's chimney decided to catch fire. Jim poured water over it and luckily it went out. Today Stanley had a de-coke!

Anyway, what a fun day we've had today. The weather was much improved, it rained this morning but as we missed most of that it didn't matter! So it was breakfast and then off into the garden. First I took some photos in case the sun disappeared. They will come later. Then Jim and I decided what we should do next. There is a path between the allotment and the field next to it and it is very boggy, so we decided we needed to put some drainage in. Jim cleared a channel from where the water was gathering on the surface to the little stream that runs along the bottom of the fairy hill in one direction and up to the top of our land in the other. The water poured away in a rush.

Where the water was gathering, is the end of a path across the field to the avenue of silver birches. We've always had trouble with it. It has planks of wood down like duck boards to walk on but they disappear under the mud and water at times. We lifted them up and more water flowed down into our drainage system. Basically, we've decided we might as well make that 'path' into a stream. Now that's fine, except we still need a path up to the top of the land. Jim suggested we make it to run alongside the stream. Hmm, all very well but it looks like this in one direction:





















but like this in the other:


There is water under the brambles


















and this is where the path has to go












The section above runs alongside the stream. To the left is the willow plantation and they have grown so tall in the 3 years we have been here, as you can see. So Jim left me to paddle about in mud and water while he decided to tackle the willows, ie, cut them to about 2 feet tall. I put some drainage pipe in the channel then filled it all with stones to keep the mud off the piping.




This is the soggy section, now a 'bridge' of stones with drainage underneath. The plank is from the old path, which is shown below















Here's the old path, now a stream and the plank on the left again.
As you can see, it's already pretty wet. We'll scoop out the mud and then it'll have a nice stony base.












So I reckon that's me sorted for the next few weeks!! Lots of brambles and nettles to tackle. I got nettled today and my hands still sting. I actually love that sort of job. Something to get my teeth into, in a manner of speaking!

This evening at 8pm, Jim's 2 great nephews, Luke and Sam Burgess, were both on television playing rugby league against each other! It was quite a tight match and it was good to see both brothers on the field together. Sam's team, the Bradford Bulls, won but only just. Luke's team, Leeds Rhinos, had 3 tries disallowed, so I'm sure there'll be some arguments in their house tonight!

Since then it's been food, fire and fun on the computer! Talking of computers, did I mention that the builders cut through our Broadband cable?? Well, they did. Jim thought he'd have a go at a temporary mend as it'll all have to be moved when we eventually go into the extension. This is our Broadband connection now:







Well, it works!!












It's ok, Grandpa Scarecrow is looking after it! And the snail on his head.






Now the bit you've all been waiting for, the flower photos. Oh, first I must tell you about my Judas tree. These trees flower in the spring on bare branches. I have looked each spring so far and no, no flowers. But guess what? This year they are there. Well, they are little buds at the moment but they are definitely flower buds. I'm so excited. When we first moved here we could hardly see the Judas tree, it was about 1foot tall and covered in grass. I put sticks all around it in case the deer decided to eat it! Well, baby, look at you now:




It doesn't show very well against the earth as it hasn't any leaves yet, but you can just see it, and here are some of the flower buds:















The flower buds are what looks like a little bunch of grapes with a twig next to it! I'm dying to see what they look like fully open. The leaves of the Judas tree are also lovely, like big pennies.









A dandelion clock
















Gorse behind and blackthorn blossom to the fore


















The 'hairy' tulip is almost fully out


















Beautiful narcissus, and below
































red and yellow tulips




















saxifrage, I love the colour of this variety


















This orange and yellow tulip has spiky petals

















As does this red one. These are very tall too.















This bi-colour tulip from the other day's blog is almost going over but isn't it stunning?
















Finally, a yellow tulip, for a change



















I have also been making some more ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and here are a couple I made in the past few days:




As Happy as a Pig in .....?





















Gold Leaf











Until next time
xxx