A mellow moment

I'm having one of those lovely mellow pauses in the day:

I've just taken both dogs for their main walk - short ones today because of the horrible weather. On route checked the hens & feed them great armfuls of goose grass & veggie. The dogs have been feed & are now lying in their beds washing their paws getting ready for along snooze. (This is a tip I got from a Cesar Milan book - feed directly after a good walk & the dogs fall into a deep sleep - yes it works every time). http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/

I'm listening to some chilling snippets of music sent to my in-box via dailyom.com - today it is Guitar Meditations, Volume IISoulfood, featuring Billy McLaughlin 2005.

Sat here with sleeping dogs & Mr Poppy M out drilling a hole in some thing, I'm reflecting on the fascinating things that have occurred over the last few days..

* While I was hacking my way to the brook to get some water for the horse I saw a kingfisher - a piece of brilliant blue travelling at an incredible speed along the water's surface. My first siting at this location. (picture from Flickr Rosa Gambóias)

* Mr PoppyM came back from tending the hens with a great tale. He drew-up to the pen & noticed 3 rooks in the veggie patch adjacent to the hen pen. He watched them for a bit to see what they were doing - they are normally trying to steal grain from the hens. They were picking caterpillars from the cabbages!! Those crows can stay as long a they like if they'll keep on doing that!

* As I walked along the margin's of an un-cut hay field I disturbed lots of butterflies - dusky brown ones. I stood still to see if I could identify what they were feeding on - it was the grasses. Now that sight will remind me that grasses have flowers to - it's odd how I'd forgotten that as I'm a hay-fever suffer (tho tree-pollen & moulds are my big problems)!

* Buddleia- the butterfly bush - I don't think I've ever seen so many or such large flower heads as I've seen this year. Their very strong, sweet honey-scent has made my evening walks to the horse a real pleasure. And during the day, the bushes have been covered with butterflies - including Red Admirals - one of my favourites. And outside my home - the little cuttings I planted out this year are looking really healthy & the ailing bushes from last year are just about to flower - success!! (picture from Flickr doc.holiday41's photostream).

* The pumpkin & courgette plants have outgrown their bed are are now making their way across the grass! I knew they'd get big - but I didn't expect them to be this monstrous & it's only mid-July -opps.

Right - that's the mellow moment over. It's wet & windy out there, still, so time to think of something nice & warm for tea - yes it is the middle of an English summer!

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A coffee morning

Earlier this week I had a morning out with a friend. Nothing odd in that you may think - I didn't think so either until I realized that this is something I have not done for nearly 2 years! I've had plenty of "outings" & plenty of cake & coffee but not WITHOUT Mr PoppyM.

We visited Hereford Museum & the Cathedral. The Museum is well worth a visit - right in the centre of the shopping area & free. It's a wonderful old "black & white" building that was moved to it's present location on rollers - a process Mr PoppyM had a hand-in. One of the exhibits was of particular interest - a huge iron-banded box that used to reside in the ruined church that we have just brought.When the church was closed one of it's medieval bells was sent to a church in London - it's name is Gabriel. According to "The Bell"by Iris Murdock this is a traditional name for a bell, as a bell is the voice of God!

And onto another series of links - we also visited the Cathedral (of St Mary the Virgin & Ethelbert the King) - what a magnificent building. For me the high-light of the visit was the Audley chapel housing the new stained glass windows by Tom Denny. It is a series of 4 windows dedicated to the 17th century poet Thomas Traherne. (Picture above from RJE Foster - Flickr). It's a while since I have looked at a piece of art & just known that the creator was truly inspired & totally at one with his subject. I was speechless for quite a while - go see them for yourself. The link is ...when my grandmother died my aunt, who is a Deacon, had commissioned a stained glass window. And of course, our ruined church had one - how wonderful it would be to replace it.... And for the next visit - there's the Mappa Mundi & the chained library, and the secret gardens.
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This week seems to have been about change. What you take for granted now as normal, fixed or even boring may be rare, fleeting & exceptional in the future. So live very much " in the now" & appreciate as much as possible! I must be getting old & mellow!

Our normal English summer is back!

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Good news - for a number of years a solitary Pyramidal Orchid has grown on a grassy verge - this year there are three! According to a local, the original plant has been growing there for about 7 years. From a bit of research, I gather that 7 years is not a particularly long maturing time, the Common Twaybane can take 15 years to set seed! The Pyramidal Orchid is such a pleasing plant - an elegant over-all shape, a rich even pink colour & intriguing individual flowers. What a beauty!

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The Pyramidal Orchid is pollinated by moths & butterflies & I was thinking that this year I have seen lots of butterflies - brown ones in particular. I've checked a few web-sites & I think that they are Ringlets, Meadow Browns , Tortoiseshells & Gatekeepers. In lesser numbers I've seen Orange Tips, Peacocks, Painted Ladies & Brimstones. A few days ago Mr PoppyM saw a Red Admiral. I've noticed that a nearby allotment has been visited by the Cabbage Whites - lovely big plants full of holes. I'm on "butterfly alert" - they are not getting my plants this year! (Visit this web-site for some great photos & info http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/index.asp ).

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Moles - until this year I've not really given them much thought. I've seen the occasional dead one & read Duncton Wood - but that's it. Well that's all going to change! My garden & vegetable plot have become a home to a mole or moles - new hills every morning, hills everywhere. As I walk across the grass between the beds my feet sink - the other day I planted out some brassicas & hit a tunnel a few inches below the surface, & I've had to prop-up a big container as it is about to subside. Little blighters. The beautiful straight rows of seeds now have great empty patches where moles have thrown-up hills & we have smoothed them out. I've re=planted those with radishes. There must be some humane way of encouraging them to move elsewhere!! More in this in a later post.

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It's pouring with rain on & off with thunder threatening & the plants are so happy - some of the leaves on my pumpkins have reached 2' across. I have high hopes for bumpers crops!!

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Gosh isn't it hot!!

Yesterday I took the small dog out for a short walk (too hot for a long one) - down to a little pond. It was beautiful:

*pristine white lilies & glossy deep-green lily pads,

* a small "flock" of the tiniest blue damselflies - "flying sewing needles"

* & in stark contrast, a whopper of a dragonfly - I can see why the big ones are called hawkers - just like a Hawker Sidley plane!

At home the leeks I have let go to seed are looking magnificent - one of them has burst open & the pom-pom is getting ready to come into full flower. I helped it along a little by removing the papery cap - it is the 1st time I've seen a leek do this & I am struck by how like a pixie cap the covering is! Is this where the pixie & fairy artists artists got there inspiration from? (picture from the flower fairy website http://www.flowerfairiesprints.com/)

Onto more prosaic matters - the time has come to "deep-clean" the kitchen & give it a lick of paint. Groan - it has to be done & I know we'll all feel much better walking into a sparking clean the kitchen. The "comfortable chair" & sofa need to go to - it must be the "solstice effect" - that or the fact that bright sunshine shows up all that's lain hidden in the relative-gloom of the rest of the year!

Happy Mid-Summer's Day

Gosh, hasn't time flown - half way through the year already.

It's been a busy few day between the summer solstice & mid-summer's day - the utterly improbable has actually happened. We now own our "little piece of England". It's taken about 18 months but it's ours!!! It's a long term project so I'm thinking about setting up a separate blog to chart the changes - from overgrown ruin to restored building/s with lovely gardens.

The hens are laying well but we are regularly selling out of eggs. So after much debate an order has been placed for 6 more pullets - all being well, they will be available at the end of July. In the mean-time our properly broody hen has been sitting for just over two weeks. I cant quite remember why, but she only has two eggs. Luck may be with us & we'll have 2 hens but to be honest I'd be glad if one healthy cockerel arrived!

Still on the theme of time passing - my little grey mare is soon to be 10 years old. I remember her as a spindly-legged bay filly - ahh. The poor girl has developed summer mud-fever again but it's well under control so should be gone in the next few days. The irony is we got through the whole winter without a hint of mud-fever - well I suppose it was a very dry one.

Plants, plants, plants every where!! The beans have made it to the tops of the poles, the sweet peas are in full magnificent bloom, the squashes are in flower & the pineapple lily has a very promising bud. The veggie patch is planted up & as the new potatoes (just being harvested) come out there is a waiting list of plants to go in! I'm experimenting with sweetcorn this year as I'm sure we are in for a long HOT HOT HOT summer. A combination of growing seeds in pots & being given some trays of plants means we have nearly a 100 brassica plants growing - not bad for someone who dislike a vast majority of the brassica family! But the hens love them as does Mr PoppyM - I'm way too soft.

The No Space Garden

Proving that for gardeners "where there is a will there is a way" !!

Late Spring Bank Holiday

It's that rare thing - a sunny hot Bank Holiday weekend! And nature is celebrating to.

* This morning I walked across a field full of buttercups. Buttercups as far as the eye could see (a bit of poetic license). Boots coated with bright yellow pollen. From the top of the hill - a shimmering haze of gold.
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* Through the buttercups - dragonflies darting. I think they were Brown Hawkers (see picture above). I checked on the British Dragonfly society page - well worth a visit - it has great photos & descriptions (http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/aegra.html).
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* Me & Mr PoppyM spent the morning digging over a patch we have been loaned. It is/was covered in nettles & couch grass so requires a fair bit of work to change it into a veggie patch. The soil is really good quality tho - the early potatoes we put in a while back are looking brilliant. A row - perfectly straight as "he who must be obeyed in digging matters" insisted - of early carrots.

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* I've found a great place to buy our veggie seeds - the old fashioned way - by weight (http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/index.html). So it's just a matter of choosing the varieties & getting them planted in the lovely new plots.

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* The hens - one in particular - really enjoyed scratching out almost everything we put in the wheelbarrow. She was joined by a few friends & we didn't have the heart to stop them - such simple pleasures..

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* Many hens spent the post-laying part of the morning sun-bathing & dust-bathing. Even Alfie the "I'm very important" cockerel sun-bathed for a bit. And the broody hen popped out from her nest to partake of the rays for a few moments. Great contentment in the hen-pen.

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* Mr PoppyM & me are divided on how to increase our flock. I want to give a home to a dozen hens that are due to be culled from a commercial, free-range flock not far from here (12 for £5.00 - what a heart-breakingly small sum for hard-working hens). Mr PoppyM would rather buy day-old chicks & raise them. There are pro & cons for both routes...time will tell which path we take. And of course in the mean-time out broody hen may raise a few her self.

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* Back home - the "Heath Robinson" cold frames I have "constructed"from old sheets of plastic roofing, string, bits of wood & plastic sheeting are holding together surprisingly well: no nails involved. The veggies growing in them seem to be appreciating them & look great - the 1st lettuces will be ready any day now. I have high hopes for pumpkins, squashes & courgettes & a bumper crop of tomatoes.

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* Yesterday the California poppies burst into flower giving the pots & containers a much needed boost. The spring bulbs are almost over & I can barely wait to get the summer bedding flowers etc that I have GROWN FROM SEED (very proud I am to) into the pots. Mini-sunflowers, asters, black-eyed suzies, lupins, nasturtiums, evening primrose.......

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