ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
When I was writing this yesterday afternoon it was 8°C and raining, as it had been all day. It was also getting brighter, like it was going to brighten up just in time to go dark. Thanks a lot. I didn't fancy going out in the rain with my camera and today I'm off gallivanting…
OK, you planted a bunch of step-over apples nearly ten years ago because they were fashionable then and to be honest they’ve been a disappointment. Maybe they don’t get enough sun, maybe they weren’t pruned quite right. Some good varieties among them too, like ‘Saint Cecilia’. According to the National Fruit Collection this is a…
If we had a well defined winter in this country I imagine there would be months of nothing at all happening followed by a relatively quick transition into full on growth. It seems that one season starts before the last one has finished and the acceleration into full growth runs at about 0 to 60…
If you wanted the clearest possible indication that not a lot is happening in the garden it's the fact that I've spent most of the last week decorating. Hanging wallpaper and painting. The last few days have been cold though we've mostly escaped frost. Nevertheless I scurried round on Wednesday afternoon tucking things up, then…
There must be gardeners who never grow things from seed, just like there are gardeners who don’t compost stuff. If gardening is about growing stuff you simply cannot get more engaged with the process than by sowing and growing seeds. I have a list of the seeds I hope to be sowing in 2019. It…
Last six of the year. Taking inspiration from Jane's king parrots last week I have been trying to take pictures of garden birds. We hang a couple of feeders of sunflower seeds out for them and mostly get flocks of goldfinches hoovering them up from dawn to dusk. I started taking pictures from the house, through…
I have to admit I'm not highly motivated to get out into the garden at the moment. My task for the week has been to sort out the 18,500 photos of Camellias I took in 2017. Done, phew. Now for 2016, not so many, just under 10,000. It would not be true to say that…
