Homes & Gardens

This tiny box of a house is home to a large family.   The parents work from dawn 'til dusk to keep their family fed.      They live deep in the countryside, so one would imagine it to be a rural idyll, but there are predators everywhere, hungry eyes watch and wait.

When I am out in that part of the garden I can hear the little ones in their box, and so can the cats.  Millie the ginger cat (not really a hunter) openly goes and sits under the tree to listen .  Sparky, the huntress is leaving them alone for the moment.  She will wait until the babies take their first flying lessons.

The other nesting boxes are busy, too.  This is the one I can most easily keep an eye on as it is only 20 feet away from the conservatory, so when I stop for a drink I enjoy watching those busy birds at work.

The chives are prolific and all the other herbs in the garden are flourishing,  the rosemary is particularly beautiful this year. 

We had a few days of sunshine and real warmth, the gardens have come back to life.

This French lavender was over-wintered in the polytunnel and seem to have enjoyed themselves there.  The English lavender, which we left outside,  is still a long way behind.

The two quince trees have been covered in pale pink scented blossom.  The metalwork, which you can just see in the photograph, is a protective cradle which we have had to construct around one of them.












Those pesky kids from next door (grandson and his father!)  keep kicking their football into that part of our garden; the tree won't stand a chance of producing any fruit if we don't protect it from such brutality...   😉

So far, so good. 

Meanwhile, over in the vegetable garden, the Chinese cabbages are coming along nicely, they are netted now - birds/rabbits have been nibbling the outer ones.

Runner beans and mangetout are starting to take grow and spread themselves around.

The polytunnel is filled with tomato, cucumber and chilli pepper plants, with parsley, chives and marigolds to help provide some natural protection from pests.      They are all being treated to music through the daylight hours - some days they listen to classical music, other days it could be Michael Jackson, Clannad, or Demis Roussos.


Owl Wood is looking wonderful.    On warm days the cow parsley seems to stretch and reach for the sky, a  Maytime delight, frothy and very beautiful.

It is essential to keep walking along the trails, miss one out for a day or two and it is almost hidden from view.   

Blackbirds, wrens, robins, the Jackdaws, pigeons, pheasants and collared doves make up the bulk of activity there, the woodpecker seems to have gone quiet - perhaps sitting on some eggs.   

Just over in the vegetable garden the activity is provided by more blackbirds, chaffinches, greenfinches, blue tits and yellow hammers.   One of these days I must see which birds visit the main gardens, I know the beautiful bullfinches come to visit but I need to take the time to sit and watch that area properly.

Last year we had a lot of work done to remove  some trees from the roadside of Owl Wood.  We hated having to do it, but there were safety issues.     Luckily we had plenty of healthy young saplings ready to take their place. 

The light, life and energy that has been allowed to penetrate  some of the dark areas of woodland have really had a powerful impact.    I have also made some interesting discoveries...two apple trees which we didn't know that we had.

That sounds as though we are really dim - how could you miss an apple tree?   Easily, the other trees were towering over them, insufficient light ever reached them, they didn't blossom or fruit.   It was a real surprise to find them this year!     I wonder what their fruit will be like, time will tell.

This is what has been keeping me fully occupied for the last week. 

Weeding is every ongoing, so is grass cutting, talking of which - there is a lawnmower waiting for me to fire it up and get to work.

'Bye for now!









A day or two ago we got word that our dear friend, Terry, has died. 
He was a lovely man with wonderful, old fashioned good manners and a ready smile.    He was never happier then when he was outdoors, preferably sitting by a river, fishing.     He endured three years as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, something he never talked about.    R.I.P. Terry.xxx