Bird Box

We have finally got the bird box up on the shed - only thirteen months after I made it!   But as I look at it while I'm doing the washing up, it strikes me that the hole is really not very big at all so I'm not sure if anything will be able to get in and out?   The instructions clearly state that the hole should fit a family of blue tits.  Given that it's not been up long - certainly way past the time the birds would be nesting - there seems no point in checking it this year.  Perhaps we'll leave it for a whole year to see if anything happens and if we've had no activity this time next year, then I might drill the hole out a bit bigger?

I was really anti this task at college last year but we needed to do it as part of the sustainability module.   I had a proper strop.   However, when I got going, I really enjoyed it and felt a bit of a fool for my tantrum earlier!

It was a really collaborative project, with everyone helping everyone else.  It was great fun.

Don't we all look pleased with ourselves?!

Cromer Folk Festival

I had no idea that Cromer had an annual folk festival - I don't think these things are always very well publicised, perhaps because they're a bit "niche" and the people that go to them have been going for years, so it's all a bit word of mouth?

Anyway, last year was the year I was determined to go and see/ listen to more live music and got myself a ticket to the festival.

The festival runs for a whole weekend and, while there are various smaller venues around the town - the main venue is on the pier - somewhere I'd not been before.  

It's a great little space and the sound was fantastic.   I had mainly bought my ticket to see Richard Digance, who must be about 175 by now!  I had seen him maybe thirty years ago now?   In the Fairfield Halls in Croydon.   And I know he's massively popular on the folk music circuit so bought my ticket early.  I have to say that he did a completely acoustic version of Mark Knopfler's Local Hero theme - my most favourite film ever - and the ticket money was worth it for that alone - I actually had goosebumps.

A really wonderful evening - in such an iconic venue too.  

Hethersett Plant Fair

I do realise that I'm frequently banging on about never typing up posts quickly enough and here is a case in point - this was fourteen months ago!  (However, due to a surgical procedure next week, I've got some enforced sick leave coming up - hopefully I'll feel up to typing up a few blog posts and hopefully catching up somewhat!)

While at college last year, I signed up for free with a number of local gardening groups - but, for the life of me, I cannot remember the names of most of them, which is a terrible admission.  Last year, while studying, gardening and learning about plants was all consuming - now that college is finished and I'm using my knowledge practically for all my garden customers, it would appear that everyone has exactly the same plants in their gardens, so I only really need to know about quite a small number of shrubs.  And, of course, the internet is a wonderful thing so I can look up anything if I need to.  One of the gardening groups I signed up with - Heritage, I think? - hold two plant fairs a year so I took Mum and Dad along to the spring fair.

I seem to recall this is where Dad went a bit mad and bought a load of hollyhocks and anemones!   

There were about twenty local plant nurseries exhibiting and it's always really useful to speak to the experts who are so keen to share their knowledge with the punters.

I really must do something about signing up for membership again, albeit at a charge now I'm no longer a student!

Other People's Gardens - June 2019

All the gardens I work in are currently blooming and are overwhelming their owners, which is where I come in.  While my own garden is currently having the same effect on me, I can be completely relaxed about the gardens I work in.   My customers frequently express surprise at how much I get done for them, but that's because I am completely focussed on what I'm doing - in my own garden, I get distracted by my 'phone, by the kettle, by Finn, by TV and I think that's what happens for my customers in their own gardens too.  

This is Mum and Dad's garden - all I've really had to do for them this month is a bit of weeding and trying to keep the mares' tail weeds down in the gravel drive.  It is a menace!   

This is absolutely brilliant - I do love clear instructions and they don't come clearer than this.  I was emailed photos of the conifers that needed chopping and, once printed off, my customer set about the photos with the highlighter pen - anything pink had to go!   Perfect instructions!

I did have to stop with the Euonymus though once I'd found this nest and these eggs.   This will have to wait for a few months now.

Here I am looking very pasty - this was taken a few weeks ago - I'm looking much more leathery now!

And these two photos pretty much sum up what happens after a gardening job - sofa snooze and a beer!

Seeds and Stuff - June 2019

Flaming June has been anything but - we've had cold, rain, monsoon floods, the rain has been biblical!

Andy was up here at the beginning of June and was given many jobs to do, inside and out, but the garden jobs included putting up the birdbox (and it occurs to me that I haven't even written up the post about the making of the birdbox yet and that was a year ago!), and my fabulous plaque, which was a present from lovely Mo and John, following the news that I had gained my RHS Level 2 Diploma in the Principles and Practice of Horticulture.   Letters after my name at last!

Despite the strange old weather, the garden has been looking particularly lush - although much less so now.  I really do need to get out there and pull up all the Digitalis and Aquilegia which have gone over (although I will, of course, be saving seed from them), as the Agapanthus and Lilium are about to burst into flower and I need to make room for them.

I had meant to dig up the Passiflora cerulaea and move it, to make way for my birthday Wisteria sinensis, but too late - it's already flowering and has covered the whole of the pergola and the apple trees.   Darn it!   I hate cutting things back while they're in flower, it just doesn't seem right - I may need to come up with a different plan for the Wisteria in the meantime?

I got back from my holiday last weekend to find Auntie June's Hebe in full flower - it's bigger than me now!   All family members were given a cutting of the Hebe by Tim, after we went back to 267 after Auntie June's funeral - and I clearly have had green fingers for longer than I realised, as this is now enormous and I'm now taking cuttings of it for others!   It's absolutely stunning and brings back lovely memories every time I walk past it.