I need to get myself a cauldron. The dandelion brew which I made, for cleaning the windows, etc, is so good that I should really go into production and market the stuff!
I found the recipe in a stray page of a very cheaply produced recipe book which probably dates from around a hundred years ago. My daughter was sceptical but she has requested a bottle of the brew now she has seen how well it works.
A cauldron would be great fun, I could have a small fire in Owl Wood with the cauldron on a tripod ready for brewing the dandelion mixture. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea! I could become the village witch...
Many years ago I had a cauldron. It was when I was 'The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe' - on a carnival float. I was about 15 or 16 years old - so that makes it almost half a century ago!
One of the props was a big black, three legged cauldron, you can just see it in the bottom left of the picture. That's me in the yellow dress, my younger brother was Little Jack Horner. I'm not sure he ever forgave my mother for making him wear that outfit - the big white collar and bow, the daft hat, but hey, I had to wear a mop cap. Mortification all round.
Other teenagers were doing music festivals and having fun!
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Meanwhile, back in the here and now.
The primroses have been quite wonderful this year, these steps lead up to the old herb garden. The brick structure is all that remains of what used to be the privy for the main house. It had become unsafe, so we dismantled most of it but turned it into the herb garden. Chives and rosemary are doing really well at the moment, everything else will catch up in time.
The first tulips are out, but the ones I am really looking forward to seeing again are those crazy parrot tulips. Terribly bright, loud, flashy, not my usual style at all. Yet I really like them!
Foliage of every colour, but down at the base of the old birdbath the first of the forget-me-nots are appearing.
A little play with the macro setting on the camera and their sweet beauty is revealed.
They will soon be bursting into bloom here.
The colour of these grape hyacinths is beautiful but, sometimes, all I really need to make me smile
is a daisy. I love to see them dotted around in the lawn!
As you can see, we don't keep a bowling green lawn. This part of the garden leads on to Owl Wood, you can just see the top of the hens gazebo to the middle left, though you would probably have to enlarge the photograph. The old herb garden is on the right.
There is quite a way to go but spring is beginning to to brighten up the place.
Talking of brightening up the place - our beautiful daughter-in-law, Poppy, is flying in from Shanghai tomorrow evening.
We are so looking forward to having you home, Poppy!
