Snowdrops at Chestnut Farm

It is rather ironic that on the day we enter winter (meteorologically speaking), I am typing up a post from LAST winter - all my efforts to keep up to date have fallen by the wayside.  Now I have a fully working and quick laptop, I turn it on even less than I did my ridiculously slow pc!   Hey ho ...

Back in February, the day after Amanda came back from New Zealand in fact, I headed off to north Norfolk to Chestnut Farm to visit a National Garden Scheme garden specialising in Galanthus (snowdrops).  At the time, of course, I was fully immersed in my college course so was manically trying to gather as many Latin names of plants as I could for exam purposes.  

Now I have booked the resit of the one exam I failed - due to re-take in February - I'm manically trying to remember everything I've forgotten over the summer!   This is definitely a Daphne!

These gardens are fabulous - it's not a huge site but it's been so cleverly designed with lots of paths leading you through that you think it's much bigger.   I love the circular paving slabs.

And this is an Acer griseum.   Beautiful papery bark - useful for small gardens and gives seasonal interest through the year - must remember this one.

Spring is my favourite time in the garden - I love all the spring bulbs - Eranthis, Crocus, Galanthus - but mainly it's because there's so much hope, with everything bursting into bud, everything springing into life.  

These Helleborus are absolutely beautiful - with papery thin petals, just gorgeous.

This is definitely a garden I will visit again, very inspiring.

Other People's Gardens - October 2018

Due to an extended holiday, I only really had one weekend to book gardening jobs in for October, but I did manage to get one photo of the work I carried out.

As it was coming up to bonfire night, one of my customers asked me to cut back as much of their fruit trees as possible so she and the children could wheel all the branches up to the village green for their bonfire party.  What a lovely idea!  

They have three apple trees which I don't think have been chopped back for a few years so I set about the branches with my new loppers, taking out the three Ds and two Cs as per college tuition - dead, diseased, damaged, crossing and congested - there was quite a lot of it!   It was very warm work and I spent a fab couple of hours - it hardly feels like gardening, it feels more like playing in other people's gardens - very productive and extremely rewarding.  

Seeds and Stuff - October 2018

The garden is still showing plenty of life, with lots of flowers blooming, even this late on.  I've had a little wander around the garden this morning and gave up counting the amount of Passiflora caerulea - blooming gorgeous!  But back to October .....

I've collected a number of seed pods for the Cercis siliquastrum - there are lots of them!   When these photos were taken last month, they were light browny orange in colour, but, right now, they're dark purple - must get out there again with the camera.  And you can clearly see the seeds within each pod - fingers crossed.

And here is the Passiflora caerulea - it's been flowering since about July and is covering the pergola and most of the hedges and apple tree.  I love it.

The Alnwick rose hasn't done so well this year  - I can only hope it's weather related and not the very severe haircut I gave it earlier this year!   I'm not cutting it this year and will keep an eye on it.

The yellow rose, however, (variety unknown) has been going great guns, and that one also had a major haircut at the same time as the Alnwick rose.  Who knows?!

Odds and Sods - October 2018

Since getting back from my holiday, it hasn't taken long to get back into the swing of normal things and everything now seems to be about Christmas preparation and hunkering down for the winter.  I've done lots of knitting - I mean LOTS - there'll be no IOUs this year, that's for sure!

I'm considering becoming a mill member for the John Arbon textile mill down in Devon and I have gone so far as to get a colour chart to make my choices for knitting projects next year!

On the lead up to my holiday, I was still in bare legs and short sleeves to go to work, but, since getting back, it's all been about coloured tights, and I've been trying to blend in with the fallen leaves and the autumn colours!

Finn and I have definitely been spending a lot of time snuggled up together, trying to keep warm - and I've been spending a fair amount of time sitting behind the sofa with him trying to keep him calm when the bloody fireworks have been going off.  I swear we get more of them every year, poor little man.

Made or Grown - October 2018

I'm sure that I wore more of my own stuff in October!  But for some reason, I only have three photos to show for it.  Hey ho, must try harder.

17 October 2018 - I came back from holiday and was straightaway back in tights (today I could have done with thermals!) - this dress is strictly a summer dress, but I messed up the zip so much that I always wear it with a cardigan so you can't see how bad it is!

23 October 2018 - this looks for all the world as if we're wrestling, but we were, in fact, cuddling!

30 October 2018 - not the best photo - I was distracted by something on the TV!