Middle of May

Cant believe it has now got to the middle of May , and the middle of another week. Yesterday it was pretty hot here, getting up to 18 degrees and wasnt surprised when Jack came into tell me my bees had swarmed and were hanging on a post off the deer fencing. Would love it if they swarmed when it was a bit cooler as with a bee suit on it is pretty hard work with the sun beating down on you. I managed to get most of my 'pots" out into the garden which had been cluttering up the summerhouse since back end - back end is what we hear in North Yorksire call late Autumn. I havent got a green house here at the moment so bring them all inside to keep the frost off them . With my infrequent watering they all seem to have survived.6 large fuschias are already flowering well. The Olive tree has been out all winter and looks not very blooming, so I thing it will probably have to be taken from its pot and dug into the ground and a good feed of Tomarite. I give Tomatite to eveything, even my lemom trees which I have 37now of varying sizes and about 60 which are about an inch high ones .I must start to think about selling them or not planting any more pips -they grow like rattle . Or maybe I could give them away to guests.I even managed to get the Bird of Paradise out too. It is so big the pot it is in has to be rolled rather than lifted out. It has one flower on and another in the making .Last year it had 4 on . All the plants seem to love going outside. They were moving their leaves about and I dont think it was a wind causing it .I often says isnt nature marvellous. My chocolate mint is coming on great guns and I am pleased to see the tomato plants which I planted so late will be giving me a late harvest. I seem to have little plants all over. But nothing beats bluebells growing in our woods. It takes forever watering them and as I run out of space I even have some in the bedroom on the window sill. I think my dad will be keeping his eye on me I wonder if he has got the Head Gardener's job up in Heaven yet.

The birds are singing their hearts out and the woodpecker is still around and coming more frequently so guess it has a nest somewhere in the poplar trees. Last year it hatched 5 off so there was quite traffic flow of wood peckers in the garden when they started to fly . I have 8 artichokes and hope they do better than last year so popped them in down an aspargus bed . The asparagus will be ready next year so how about scrambed egg and asparagus for guests breakfast . And I have apricots too,lets hope they dont get into the squirrels mouths like the peaches did last year before we have time to pick them The flowers are not the only ones enjoying the sunshine. Cows and calves are enjoying it too.

Green Fingers and 2 weeks of gardening

I know it is rather early to tackle the garden. We have had amazing weather ,blue skies and sunshine. What nicer way, however exhausting, to get on top of all that needs doing in the garden. I kick myself now that I had not taken before and after photos. The vegetable garden is all dug over, ready for when it warms up a bit to get planting. A good sprinking of ash from the fire on it too - potash ash all for free. The roses are pruned and I nearly got quite carried away as I was just asking my Dad where there was a saw to cut a very spindally tree down. He gave me one of those looks that was as much horrified crossed with the

look you got when you raced to pick up the phone when you were young when it was his place to do that . The tree in question was actually 80 years old and was slow growing. Plenty of mulch on the rhubarb outside. Inside I have a bit that I brought inside a few weeks ago . Did you know rhubarb is the perfect diet food?. Even with sugar on as long as you only eat it and nothing else for a week or two. A few years ago I sickened myself of it but did lose quicte a lot of weight. I just tend to boil a whole pan full and run the juices off to add to a glass full of ice and gin. I keep a lot of juice from boiled fruit fruit to mix with gin .I am sure it must count as one of my 5 a day . The green plant do you know what that is .... it is my very special yuzi tree which a very kind Japanese lady and her friend posted me from London. It was after they saw I had a collection of lemon and orange plants all grown from pips. Only my lemon tree has produced fruit so far this year The cuttings that look like little fir trees are rosemary cuttings that I took from my best friend's home as she moved the other week. A rather late housewarming present butthough it would be nice to have something as a keepsake. Hopefully out of those at least half of them will grow. Under Fathers instructions I have planted seeds- cabbages, cauliflowers ,leeks, broccoli and onions although he perfers onion sets .I prefer buying a sack full ready to use. I know it is very early, but it looks like I will be having a very busy year with guests so need to get the gardening out of the way. Carrots, beetroot, koli rhabi and other similar seeds will be plented directly into th eground when the soil warms up . Oh and what you will all be glad to hear as I went to feed my bees on Saturday, that all 4 hives have survived winter and hopefully will go on to be busy this Summer. I did have over a dozen hives at one time but they are so time comsuming and I havent a pipe and beard - the typical thought of a bee keeper. I have to wear a suit to protect me from getting stung. Believe me you wouldnt want to buy a sauna when you can wear a bee suit in the height of Summer.

August and we are into the 8th month

Can't believe where time has gone this year. The garden though I must say is about as good as it has ever been and guests like to sit up in the raised patio as it is sheltered and west facing so the best way to end the day. Although it has been known on more than one occasion that breakfast has been enjoyed up there too. It is getting to look more as I want it now and less of a plain shelter. I have mixed flowers and vegetables and fruit so from lavender to rhubarb there is something popping up every few day. I have harvested the angelica and collected so many seeds to grow on .It is a very easy plant to grow and looks quite exotic so if you are coming to stay and would like to have some seeds, please think to ask me for some when you are here. The strawberries are more or less finished now. The raspberries have been a poor crop as only got 2 good pickings from them this year. I am disappointed with the tomatoes too, dont think the bees got to them enough to pollinate them. So glad my Dads supply of tomatoes is more plentiful. I think I must have put too much Tomarite on the flowering pots as they have gone leggy and rather out of shape but hey ho they are full of colour and the bees dont disapprove. Minty, our little cocker spaniel, is enjoying the garden too and the attention from guests.She enjoying following the hose pipe about as I water the pots .For those of you who love herbs I cant recommend the Daisy Plant Centre,just off the roundabout at Kirkbymoorside, enough. As I am far from green fingered, I dont take any gift of gardening from my parents, but the herbs seem like to living here and are in abundance under the dining room window. Hope you are enjoying all your gardens and if you havent a garden then the parks. It is hard to believable that in London with all the parks and balconies that bees produce more honey than they do out here in the countryside. We have the benefit of heather on the Moors and as the bees fly is less than a milehere for them to collect the nectar. . The Moors are a carpet of purple at the moment and well worth a visit. When I was a child, we used to go in my Dads little black Morris Minor, RWX 872, with its split windscreen up to the Moor. Choicing a big sprig of heather then sticking it into the chrome radiator cover next to the chrome and yellow AA sign. That little Morris Minor used to have red leather seats. Swinging our legs from the seats, on the way home we used to sing 'Show me the way to go home" little did I know that the words drinking meaning someone had had too much to drink rather, I thougth it was drinking water as we used to stop down Wass Bank at the spring that comes out of the woods and cup our hands together and drinking the ice cold water.Happy Days.

Happy Easter

It has been a busy March. Getting ready for lockdown lifting and welcoming guests again. And moving furniture about.Glad I have had a strong man to carry things about to do most of this. But not one to be stuck and wanting it done now rather than later, I sometimes did as a carthorse would do when I was small when backing a cart... put my behind on it and pushed. .I havent mastered carrying a fridge yet but had help. So now can revel that when you come to stay with us we can offer you a room with its fridge,microwave, toaster and enough bits and bobs to make snacks and small meals. During lockdown we have realised it is not altogether about going out to eat, but to be able to get a take away, some nice deli food and enjoy local bits and bobs suffices. I know when we have had holidays abroad in the past how much I enjoy shopping and eating local produce. Live like the locals so to say. So true is the saying a change is as good as a rest. And if you want a delivery just say, you order what you want and I will stack it inthe fridge for you ready for your arrival. I have also been busy getting plants growing ready to put in the garden as it warms up . It has been over 20 degrees here for the last 3 days but as it probably wont last for too long I have commondered my Dads passage way to grown my seedlings on as I have run out of windowledges here. Also it helps he has far more green fingers than me and they stand a better chance of surviving . My first planting was rhubarb seeds,they have grown really well.They say when you become a gardener you dont say rhubarb for example you would say Champagne or Victoria. Potatoes are not potatoes, but Maris Piper, Charlottes and Kind Edwards. I have even bought a white peach tree and it is treated much as a baby in a pram, take it out on a nice day, bring it in as the day gets colder just incase there is a frost. A white peach but with lovely pink blossom I am tempted

to buy another one. Tom has been busy digging up some of our most robust bushes as I want to create a framework of greenery around a very sparse looking covered over sitting areawhich looks more like a bus shelter at the moment. I have some hops which are very delicate at the moment. Again they have gone to my Dads for that extra bit of care and it didnt help that Dorothy - the young cat, like to sleep in the same plant pot as them here. It is nice to see that there is some grass now for the deer to eat, as they had a very lean time over winter. They are regualr visitors although we can't guarentee them coming every day. They do come more late afternoons onwards and come within 20 to 30 foot of the house. Just dont eat my magnolia bush. It will be nice to see the grandchildren over the Easter holidays as they are around just before they go back to school. No doubt it will be hectic as the sugar rush of chocolate will be rocketing. There is something about Easter eggs that taste different to a bar of chocolate. It is ok this on line shopping lark, but to me nothing beats going into the shop and seeing and sme ling what is on offer. Oh and just incase you have forgotten, I prefer milk chocolate -thank you Well I must crack on ,the birds are beginning to sing and the sun is just getting up .Jack is in for his breakfast as he has been out with dogs and ready for something to eat and it isnt 7am yet. I dont know about you, but lockdown I hardly known what day of the week it is, and clocks well my body clock is all out of sync. I look back on the year and think where has it gone. Nicholas is busy on the farm with lambing and hatching as eggs are coming by post for him to put in his incubators. And he has just hatched out a pair of alligators Happy Easter, and sorry no alligators just Aprils Fools Day

Man with chainsaw

Man with chainsaw makes more space in the garden . Another part of our exciting 'Lockdown' programme .

Can't wait to see it finished and all climbing plants surrounding it .Place to sit and stare and breathe the beauty of the air .

I love using a chainsaw ,well who doesn't. But today again I had to leave it to the professional.  I said goodbye to the remnants of my beloved pear tree. Three firs which were planted out as little Christmas trees over the years and grown far too high , the rest of the the laurel that Jack took out to try to let sunlight to a bedroom window and also  a few self seeded bushed.

My vision for this is to create a sitting /eating area cocooning us with sweet smelling and colourful climbing roses, passion flowers and clematis and any other bits and bobs that I come across . Maybe a bed of sunflowers next year .Some of you may remember when Jack planted half an acre a few years ago to brighten things up . Any suggestions are welcome .

Hope your day was as productive as ours

Blowin' In The Wind -Bob Dylan with Lyrics

Bob Dylan originally sang a two-verse version of this song during its first public performance at Gerde's Folk City on the 16th of April 1962. I was only 6 years old when this record came out . It is an old favourite  of mine, so when I laid in the sunshine yesterday under the trees as the wind blew the leaves ...listen you can hear them ... and the words came back to me . And the little birds are singing too 

https://youtu.be/G58XWF6B3AA   for the song 


 and then what brought my thoughts to the record .  The Answer is Blowing in the Wind..

So you can see how when we have all this on our back doorstep why there is no need to stray too far, even though lockdown isnt as it was .We would rather be safe than sorry. 

 ps I haven't started tree hugging yet but Jack is a bit worried I am talking to my tomato plants ..but I just do that to wind him up .  And I must say for one who doesn't like cats by the time I got up this morning he had taken it out into the garden and put it in one of the wire penthouses we have if we have to have a dog in for any reason and there they were both side by side both enjoying the sunshine . 

Woodpeckers still around

We usually see woodpeckers on the bird table - the black and white one which have a flash of bright red on them ... a bit like the red lipstick I used to wear, No 14 by Chanel ,which they don't make anymore . That makes for another story.

But we will stick to the greater spotted woodpecker that graces our garden. In winter we see a pair regularly. Guests  eat their breakfast  roughly the same time as the woodpeckers come to have theirs. You have to be very quick to get a photo of them and not too near a window ,but they come as regularly as clockwork. Now the garden is buzzing with them as they must have again hatched off a brood. They come like day trippers for a quick wizz round. The lockdown doesn't worry them as they are very timid and quick they self social distance whereas the robin,sparrow and blackbirds nearly eat out of your hand. I think it is their colouring that makes them look so exotic. If you don't see one, you will not be long before you hear one.

 I looked it up on Wikipedia.. and they call it drumming we call it tapping .Quite like a pneumatic drill at times. You can't believe such a little bird makes such a  big noise in the trees which surround the house. I have any idea where the nest is based as they always seem to head home in the same direction sweeping around the end of the house. It is in one of the Poplar tree plantation to the north of the house. The Poplars are a great height now but if we have the North winds they shelter us from them. We had one brach leaning too far over for my liking so last week when the men were here taking the ash tree down the young lad went up and took a limb out for us. I didn't want to get squashed by it as i needed the hot tub to be moved nearer the the east side to get more sun as the trees to the west block out the sun far too early in the day. The hot tub does get very hot as it is fueled by logs and I keep stoking it up . Had it up to 104 degrees one summer and felt pretty wobbly when I got out. Now you think oh ...hot tub let me explain it isn't your usual hot tub it is my hot tub built to my specifications . It is a 150 gallon cattle trough which has been fitted with a coil pipe which as it gets hot by burning logs around it heated the water up inside and works on hot water rises and has it comes out of the pipe the cooler water circulates . 

So tonight we have woodpeckers, poplar trees and water tubs  so you can see how my mind works most of the time 

                                             

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Damper Bread .... dedicated to the Watson Family.

No I haven't been rolling bread in the grass  As damp is usually associated with damp weather or when the dew falls on the grass .. it gets damp. .Sorry this is what becomes of being a farmers daughter and my interpretation of damp.

If you read my blog last night you will know of my love of cookery books. I have run out of space in the usual places you keep books and have resorted to keeping them under the bed. So it is like take your pick when I reach down and rattle about trying to find some suitable night time reading. 

I pulled one out and as I scanned the pages I found a recipe for Damper bread. I had never heard of it before. A photo of it being baked in a flower pots lead me to have a go at baking it. I thought if I do a trial run how nice it would be if it was a success and next time we have a long table party if each guest had set in from them them bread baked in individual plant pot.

The ingredients are minimum, flour, salt, butter, milk and water. Better still no yeast is needed .

I had plenty of plant pots to go at as only a couple of weeks ago I had been given some by Judith Almond. Her late father was Don Watson who along with his wife had run the flower shop in Helmsley many years ago.   I used to go with my Dad when I was very small, I can hardly remember, to  his garden nursery business in what is now the Helmsley Walled Garden to buy vegetable plants. 

Don was a happy  man with rosy cheeks Judith has taken those genes on too. He used to wear a blue smock and in Summer a straw hat.  She has a lovely garden too with lots of very healthy looking herbs . She told me that as the Lockdown had made her have a clear out of plant pots she no longer wanted and  I had gone along thinking there was only 3 or 4 .She added they will have been there for years and  they would have been her Dads.  I am very sentimental so to have some of Don's plant pots meant I was holding on to a memory, a  bit of Helmsley as I knew it as a child. I can still smell the flowers as you opened the door and went down a step into the shop. It was always cool ,that would be to keep the flowers fresh . My Granddad used to buy huge chrysanthemum blooms which were wrapped up in brown paper which we took home on market day. They were put in the Chapel for the Sunday services and then my Grandmother took them home placing them on top of the piano or in the front window for all to admire .

Another memory of the family was of Mrs Don as she was known. She had been at a party and on Monday she took one of the other party goers to the doctors. The lady who remains anonymous  hadn't felt very well and had a rash, Mrs Don

had thought was shingles. The young doctor had studied the rash and was rather baffled as he didn't really know what to  think. One of my Dads friends let the cat out of the bag. Apparently she had got so drunk and somehow she had landed on some cocoanut matting and didn't want to go home .So some of her friends decided to pull her up but they too had been quite drunk and pulled her across the matting which of course was very rough which had caused the markings around her middle..

Anyway back to the Damper bread I have done both sweet and savoury . My first attempt was with herbs out of the garden and extra wild garlic which is still in the woods despite it now flowering and getting over grown by nettles .The sweet I made with stewed rhubarb and sultanas. For the latter I didn't use as much liquid. Served up with custard Jack and my Dad liked it .

I liked the story of damper bread too .... Damper is a traditional soda bread, historically used for swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travellers. It consists of a wheat-flour-based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire or in a camp oven

Showing me how it is done

I must say say I dont get the same pleasure from gardening as my Dad does. As he approached his 98th birthday he is quite happy to accept a bit of help in the garden and as it is this Coronavirus lockdown time his friends that would normally lend a hand aren't allowed to come .So it leave me. It is more of a toil than a pleasure but i would rather do things for my dad when he is here as cry when he isn't.
He grows most things from seed and today it was time to plant the onions out . He had already planted a row before I got there.He has planted over 200 now and so here you see him taking them out of the seed trays and putting them in a bucket ready for me to pop in the hole . He uses his walking stick to make the hole but before that he paddles up and down the row so that it makes the ground firm so that the soil doesn't drop down and fill the hole before he pops the onion plant in . he entrusted me to plant the second row but insisted on filling them in with the soil himself as he thought I might just not get it right. Then it was into another garden to how his other onions and between his strawberry plants and turf some prize dandelions out .
He had already been to take some potatoes up from the green house. Wonder if he has beaten his mates to having the first new potatoes of the year . I pulled the mint and it will be him that cooks them There is no way he would entrust me to cook the perfect new potato. And new potatoes definitely want cooking with some mint. I forgot to mention the peas are coming along well. You can see the prize dandelions before I hoed them up .
Dad added a tip if you think your onion sets have got a bit too leggy before you plant them out you need to cut the tops off with a pair of sharp scissors as if you try to nip them off as I did the first one I picked up you bruised the whole plant it it will rot off.

Coming to Life In an English Country Garden

I wonder how many Aprils have been as dry and sunny as 2020.  Every morning we wake up to blue skies . We are totally blessed in this green and pleasant land even in this Coronavirus time .

We love to share our garden with guests so send you a few photos to say it is still here . The sights, the smells ,the sounds. 

I am also helping in my dads garden this year he is way ahead of me with vegetables having got over 100 onions planted they are coming up now. So are his peas and potatoes. 

My tomatoes look miserable specimens next to his but I am trying. 

It is still cold and frosty when the sun goes down and so I reluctant to put my geraniums and other flowing pots  out yet as they have serve me well through the winter and provided us with a  small show of flowers since I bought them in last Autumn. So they are all sitting in the porch way as it would be cruel to let them die now .

The  Clematis well out and another is climbing up a drain pipe It is a Jackmanii which is the earliest flowering one I know of and if rampant growing up the acacia tree too .

The last photo is of my bird of paradise plant but it will only go out in June for a couple fo months. We are lucky to get one flower a year which lasts for weeks but up to now has not obliged by opening

Gardening and how do your potatoes grow

Tt seems as if this Coronavirus is bringing out the green fingers in a lot of us . Having to stay at home and wondering what to do people with a garden like Kay is digging up her garden to plant vegetables. Jack is thinking of turning some of a field into a garden... ah yes but I reckon it will be Peter Rabbit thinking it is his birthday and Christmas rolled into one. We live too near the wood for us to grow prize vegetables .And green fingered we are not .But fear not my dad is so maybe we will try to grow some tatties but my Dad knows what he is doing . He has competitions with his friends to see who can grow the best, biggest and firsts of the garden.
"Mind thy 'ead"  as you go into the greenhouse to admire the potatoes ."I will have to get Robin Teasdale to come to prune the vine "said my Dad ..Now why he thought Robin could come as the restrictions were on I do not know. The secateurs were a bit stiff so as I couldn't find the WD40 to give them a squirt, so I poured some cooking oil on and hoped for the best.
I don't think I made a bad job .Lets hope that the vine produces as many grapes as it did last year less I might get the blame for  not pruning it right.
One is too sour for him and has pipes in . He has 3 vines.  I wondered if you can grow them from pips but he told me Peter Caselli his Italian friend had once told him you graft them like fruit trees. No doubt when my dad has time he will be looking up which are the best sweetest one on the

computer and a package will arrive shortly afterwards . And his rhubarb isn't doing too bad either . The pear tree is just coming into blossom lets hope there isn't going to be a frost

Red Gold ....one of the little pleasures in Life in these Coronavirus times

What has been your little pleasure today ... I am sure we are all not taking things for granted any more.
My Dad likes nothing more than to share what he has in his garden. My mum always used to say "George ,why do you grow so much " He gets great pleasure from growing plants especially vegetables in this garden although he has a good display of flowers too . And we mustn't forget fruit.. Well that is his forte too, Tomatoes are fruit ..
Today I was the chosen one.... to go and pick red gold .... yes red gold . We all know there is white, rose and yellow gold but this is red..   So carefully I cut 4 pieces all from different plants as not just to "rob" one . It is too early in the season yet to have enough to make a pie or crumble.

So may I present my first taste red gold of the season..... Rhubarb . Proper North Yorkshire Rhubabr none of this forced stuff. Fresh out of the garden which is doing well with a good dollop of muck out of the fold yard on it for fertiliser .

It was quite a good day despite the weather not been as sunny as last week when this arrived in the post this morning . I have been shortlisted in the Serviced Apartment Award 2020  as the Best Operator 1 - 50 Units categories . And what made it even better was the postman didn't see the stamp hadn't been marked so I can use it again. He has a nasty habit of scribbling over the top of stamps if they haven't been marked . Although we must grumble as we are grateful he brings our post. Over the last couple of weeks he doesn't open the door and put it on the table any more . I have put an empty Kitty cat food box outside and he now pops it in there . I go outside for it, take everything out of the envelopes ,put the envelopes on the fire and then wash my hand thoroughly .  Even little changes like this make me feel a little safer .
Keep safe everyone and when  you put the dustbin out as a dustbin man, one said that he touched around 2000 a day  so you need to be extra careful there too ,when touching the handle x