Christmas Cake, Leaves and Landscaping

It’s been an exciting week. The landscaping was finished and looks lovely. What a transformation. This area of the garden was covered in old crazy paving. It had sunk and was uneven and covered in moss and weeds. Now, it’s sleek, sophisticated and easy maintenance. Here’s how it looked before. Here’s how it looks now.Continue reading “Christmas Cake, Leaves and Landscaping”

Sunlight, Planning and Painting

The garden is winding down. Not much colour now except for a few tiny stray roses and the last of the asters and marigolds. Meanwhile, the evergreens are doing their job of providing year-round colour and form. The blue-green grasses and the conifers give some structure to the fading garden and still please my eyeContinue reading “Sunlight, Planning and Painting”

Autumn Planting and Creative Urges

Halfway through October with misty mornings and sunlit days. Leaves drop and drift around the garden and collect here and there in damp, scenty, heaps. The acers are changing colour in a lovely way but usually hang on to the leaves until next month, when they shed them suddenly. The fruit trees are losing theirsContinue reading “Autumn Planting and Creative Urges”

Autumn Colours and Parsnip Wine

I missed writing my blog last week and yet the time has flashed by. So here I am again with all the latest. Lovely autumn days, which are sometimes wet and windy, fresh mornings and early nights, are upon us. The garden is full of changing leaves, seedheads and berries. The asters are just beginningContinue reading “Autumn Colours and Parsnip Wine”

Scrummy Cakes and Garden Pleasures

That Autumn feeling is in the air. The scent of golden leaves underfoot and a certain change in atmosphere. So difficult to describe, yet a sensation we all know so well. From September onwards, the perfume of apples greets me when I fetch garden tools from the shed. Now and then a ripe, juicy plumContinue reading “Scrummy Cakes and Garden Pleasures”

Sausages, Squash, and Fading Beauty

Our Queen has been laid to rest in a moving ceremony. Time perhaps for us all to move on and think positive thoughts about our own lives. Time to appreciate those things which really matter. Regular readers will know how much I value my home comforts, creative pastimes and self-sufficiency. As Winter approaches once again,Continue reading “Sausages, Squash, and Fading Beauty”