Dad.

Bewcastle

My recent  wittering on biscuits got me to thinking about my dad & how he loved to garden. So, I thought I would write about him because I miss him & know he would love to see what I have managed to achieve in gardening as well as the rest of my life.
I suspect that deep down my dad had a natural tendency to laziness which I have inherited, but he would never dream of letting such a trait surface. Indeed I think he constantly tried to prove otherwise.
From the age of 2 we lived in the wilds of Cumbria, right on the border with Scotland: indeed we had to cross the border to see our doctor. Climate & weather wise it was challenging to any gardener.
Dad was Head teacher at the tiny rural school. We lived in the school house which had a very respectable sized garden. Initially half of this was school garden where the older children were taught (up to the then school leaving age), but when they were transferred to Secondary School dad took it over for fruit & veg. It was still referred to as the school garden.  The aerial  photo above shows the school with the school house on the left & what was originally the District Nurse’s house to the right.
Dad loved his garden & spent the large proportion of his life there when not working. I don’t suppose we really appreciated it when we were young: it was just a place to play & which miraculously produced gargantuan amounts of fruit & veg. Much of this had to be given away & when we had the luxury of electricity much of the summer was spent freezing stuff. That really was a chore for us, particularly when we were old enough to be left when they went away during the summer with instructions to carry on freezing.
To be honest we didn’t help much in the garden although dad would have loved us to. I did spend some time helping him build a greenhouse. We had got about half the glass in when there was a dramatic storm: yes, you’ve guessed it, no glass or all glass would have been fine!
Dad was so keen on gardening that eventually he, along with some other keen horticulturalists, was a prime mover in setting up the annual Bewcastle Show so that locals could compete & show off what they had achieved in their gardening as well as baking & craft work.
Luckily I moved to a house with garden before dad died. He & my mum were about to move to Norfolk (from whence he originally came) so I drove up to Cumbria & filled my car with bits of plants from the garden. I think the only plant I have left from that trip is some Lysimachia punctata which has a slight thuggish tendency but I will not be parted from it as it is always a reminder of dad. He never really saw my interest in gardening blossom, but I often think of him when I am outside.

Mum & Dad The flower garden

Writing this has brought back many happy memories, all prompted by the words “Daaaaad, 10 o’clocks”.

The Lazy Trollop Catch-up (day 2ish)

Actually I can’t be bothered to catch up any more at the moment so here are a few flower pictures instead.

All taken in my garden within the last few days.

   

The Lazy Trollop Catch-up (day 1)

I am supposed to be writing myself a long list of things I must do this week. I have taken a few days off from my non-gardening work & so feel obliged to try & get on & do those things which inevitably get put off in the hustle & bustle of daily life. (Well, maybe not quite the latter.) However, being a person of the lazy trollop persuasion, my mind got to wandering.

Now in gardening this is the season of winding down, although if I  wind down much further I run the risk of being comatose, looking back at the year & beginning to make plans for the next year as you have more time & you are faced with the bare bones of your gardening efforts. As I was thinking about the garden I also got to thinking about this blog & thought perhaps I needed to put it through the same rigorous scrutiny. So, I have made myself a steaming cup of tea (sadly not accompanied by a biscuit of any variety) & here we go.

I started this blog in June, so luckily not much to look back on. I’m still not sure why I did it other than a curiosity to see if I could. In the past I have started garden diaries & never got very far so it is partly a way of keeping some very rough record of what I have been up to, both in the garden & out, & it is also good to have somewhere to post a few photos. It is no good trying to share these with Mr B as so often we are taking almost exactly the same pictures ( his are generally better than mine) & I have been weaning myself off message boards where I used to post pictures so people could “oooh & aaaaah”.

It might seem odd for someone writing a blog which can be read by all & sundry but I never really expected & indeed was not particularly bothered about it being read. It is however rather nice to know that there are  few rather odd people out there who do read it ( even though the large majority seem to have been doing a google search for ‘alien ears & antennae’).

So, enough of general clap-trap for today. I will continue this scintillating round up tomorrow.

The pictures were taken at Claremont Landscape Garden, a lovely little NT property near Esher in Surrey, taken last weekend.

What a load of c**p!

I am referring here to the real thing, not just my humble opinion. I really am sorry but I have to unburden myself….

Now one of the problems of working in other people’s gardens is having to deal with whatever other people’s pets have deposited there! Now I am not squeamish: I have always had cats myself. People do try to ‘de-poo’ & most of the time I just kick/flick these deposits out of the way, wearing appropriate protective clothing of course, & carry on with whatever I am doing. Part of gardening life.

Recently however I was working in a garden of a very good neighbour which I have been doing for a number of years. They have always had 2 cats (usual problems) but have recently acquired a Jack Russell. The last visit was OK but this time I had to give up after a couple of hours as I felt quite nauseous. Things were not helped by the fact it had been raining heavily. I won’t go on.

Needless to say I have not yet plucked up the courage to tell friend/neighbour that I gave up & why: he will be so mortified (& so he should be you may think) but as a good catholic he seems to carry about a huge burden of guilt about so many things in life that I don’t like to add to it. No related pictures thankfully: I will just add a couple of something much more pleasant taken during a recent socktastic visit to Kew gardens.

Do you want to see my bare bits?

Boring I know but I thought I would let you see that I have been making progress on my wannabe Hampton Court Flower Show planting scheme! At last it is as empty as it is going to get!

Now it is struggling round my garden, tripping over pots & bags of plants, both new & from the garden, so I can corral those that are to be planted.

Above is an ‘only just started’ picture.

A not very good before I began picture out of the bedroom window. Actually, I now see most of the bed in question is hidden. Still it places it in the context of the larger picture or some such drivel!