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.