Engaging with inactivity , but not switched off

Reading the fascinating account of a hedge layer,who lived in a caravan and travelled around farms in Dorset and Somerset “Thorn and Briar” by Paul Lamb which I noted in my journal of READS as a ‘SHEER BEAUTY OF A BOOK, I  started off this year by tackling my boundary to the allotment and attempting a DEAD HEDGE.

Since then it seems that every article in botanical missives seem to think these a a wonderful and innovative idea for providing a habitat that is beneficial to the biodiversity of a piece of land . I thought this up all my own I tell you, but Paul Lamb got me thinking about what a useful thing any hedge is for a boundary. 

I am as all my friends and reader know an utter maverick on our allotment site.  

1. I have a ‘wild ‘ meadow strip planted 12 years ago, and just strimmed every August or September after  the seeds have set.Im still hopeful for wild orchids, but have dozens of species of flowering plants and grasses, frogs, grasshoppers , and last year my first lizard was spotted . The insects and spiders are too varied to count. I read of naturalists on the FBOG page who can tell the difference between 38 species of bees in Filey Churchyard. I know they fly here too , especially when my Lavendar hedges are flowering.
2. I aim to have some plants flowering during every month of the year, welcome Dandelions (if you are one of my fellow gardeners on the plots be aware I do not let them set seed If I have time to dead head them ), and tolerate creeping Buttercups, Hogweed flowering now , and Scarlet Pimpernel is in profusion, along with all the usual pollinators beloved of us botanists. My big success is to encourage my favourite wild flowers Crosswort  and Tufted Vetch which now thrive in swathes in my more wild areas of the plot . My Woad plant flowers from April to June, from my time (now finished as have given away my spinning wheel )of growing DYE Plants. It is a brute to get rid off, and have just got my daughter to cut it right back before the seeds take over Filey. Ten years ago I was cautioned nicely by the chairman of the allotments for growing Echium  wildpretii as my resident pollinator. Growing over 10feet tall, they must have alarmed the sedate ‘grow in rows ‘gentlemen on neighbouring plots. Now they are popular and am asked for seedlings. It seems most people now had seen them on One million years BC 1966 film with Ursula Andress , which must have been filmed in Lanzerote where the plant is a native.That dates the demographic of the plots then , but not now, as lots of young families and younger people now are on our site.Old Films are popular again.
3. I have a Szechuan pepper tree in a pot , which had red peppercorns
4.  I Follow Bob Flowerdew who leaves his weedings as mulch .At present Im not able to go on site much as am not able to do much after 10am when all household chores are done and beloveds lunch ready. I hope the wonderful Dr Sharma will sort me out soon. So meanwhile my wild plants are grown so prolific I’m actually seeing if some are really edible , like Fat Hen, and Hedge Mustard.I do promise that as soon as I am fit again I will thin out all my plants growing in the wrong places.
5. The frogs are everywhere , my own slug control, and this years tadpoles in my nature pond have already got their  back legs. Last year was so hot that the pond got algal bloom and I had to start again.I thank friend Paul for giving me lots of his UK weed and a dose of a pond treatment .
6. My greenhouse roof has partly collapsed now , this structure was rotten when I got it , and will have to be dismantled now.The family wont allow me inside. I shall find someone to deal with it and am saving to pay someone .Do not worry fellow allotmenteers , Im not repairing it ,but will do something when Im well again. Here I admire those fellow plot holders who are such great DIYers. They never cease to amaze me.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Theatre of the not absurd

I would like a posh one , but at present am not able to wield a saw , a plane  or even a hammer really. My theatre will do for me , cobbled in a corner of my backyard using bricks, bits of bricks and sitting resplendent atop an ageing coal bunker.

My start of the day  has an updated routine now

• feel if I'm alive
• take life prolonging meds 
• do Lectio 365 
• see if spouse is alive
• make us both a cup of tea
• do ablutions
• collect daily washing ,start washing machine
• GO INTO BACKYARD & LOOK AT AURICULA THEATRE
•  peg washing on line
• make porridge for spouse
• prepare breakfast for self
• go to Wydale  or Filey Parish on Zoom (weekdays except Tuesdays)

Daughter no1, son in law, friend Liz  and I have been discussing the collecting and displaying of Primula auriculas.  Though recorded in Elizabethan times, and popular in the 19th C when specialist Flower Societies were formed , son in law tells me Geoff Hamilton popularised them , but for me Chelsea Physic Garden first brought a Theatre to my attention. 

An aside

Spouse and I love the Chelsea Physic Garden, we went every time we were in town , and in the days when members got in at the front door and had to sign a book, and the gardens were more or less free from the hoy palloy. Now its open most days, and spouse knows he might not be able to visit again. We will have to put the membership in my name. I think being there  without  spouse might be one of the hardest visits I will ever have to do.

I can appreciate why P. auriculas were popular with the working classes in Victorian times. They are easy to cultivate,  tolerant of afternoon shade and take up very little space , are mostly kept in pots and are just displayed once a year when they flower, April and May . 

In our last holiday together in 2019, and with family who are seasoned navigators and bargees, on the Staffordshire and Worcester canal  we passed a famous garden centre, Ashwood Nurseries, which I unashamedly recommend  for Primula Auriculas. I am going to buy only 4 new varieties a year, on the phone  of course, so that my delight doesn't become an obsession or I a frightful bore.

This year my favourite is called SVR. I had to ask the salesperson what that meant . Guess it !   *see bottom of post

When daughter No 2 next visits from East Sussex she is bringing me some more P. a's from the nursery she works in. They are all different again, not doubles but more 'edges'.

My readers will know that I love Echiums, as I have written about them several times.You may not know I also too love to grow Coleus from seed, just so that you know I have an eclectic taste. Daughter no 1 loves to grow onions. She has 82 on her allotment , and counts them every day. I grew Loofahs  last year,  but have decided I don't love them. I am growing lots of sweetcorn this year, of the coloured  heritage variety.  I'll let you know what I think in October.

Meanwhile enjoy my Coleus....

*SVR Severn Valley Railway

Insomnia 4

Echiums  Burton Agnes

These Echiums look how I feel, able to see out  and feel the cold but wanting to be in Madeira .

Saatchi  March 2009

Things to do, places to go..

The Security light outside the back door, below our window ,has been going on and off relentlessly in the gale  and so I have been up for hours. We have never really worked out what triggers it, frogs , rats, branches or lurkers. I am however enjoying watching the dawn and having a catch up. I have already wiped round the kitchen (sort of) and put a load in the washing machine and looked thro all the Tweets to the Parish Twitter, @FileyParish and my own @margaretkiaora.

I have not been on the PC much  since getting my new toy. Since #cnmac I have just about assimilated the stuff I learned. I have therefore put the Parish on Facebook following the advice from famous blogging Bishop. Consequently I spend time looking at Facebook and Twitter on my new Smartphone, which it certainly is, all sync-ed and clever, I keep the Parish Website as up to date as I can, and have really neglected my first love .  The honeymoon with the new toy is over now, as I heard Parish Secretary say of hers -They're quite addictive aren't they?

I am back to being me with words now, the touchpad keyboard is fantastic on my toy, but it is not solid and homely like this one, I am not able to sit and drink tea next to me , putting it up and down on my Echium Mat from the Chelsea Physic Garden , or leave the words and come back to them when I've fed the cat , answered the phone or powdered my nose. This feels right. I can say more . 

So the news is this-daughter is buying our house when  she sells hers , and we are moving to our cottage  round the corner, hopefully by April. Spouse has promised to carry on being a Fileygardener here, as the cottage has only a yard. I am getting rid of EVERYTHING to good homes. 

For the last few weeks I have been making almost daily trips to the great Charity Shops of Filey with all my clutter,and hundreds of novels. All the paperbacks have gone. Not the well loved favourites of course, and out of print Arthur Upfields. Anne Tyler has gone, Carol Shields has gone, Agatha Christie has gone along with Georgette Heyer and PD James. My first Editions are going round the family. Leo Walmsley went first. Donna Leon is about to move from Venice, via Filey  to Sutton on Hull.  My First Day Covers have gone to the Christian Bookshop , who sells them, and my Victorian Doll to the Salvation Army Shop. 

Furniture anybody? Will find placements for all I am sure.  It is so FREEING. So If anyone wants my grandmothers Edwardian  Dressing Table it will be free to a good home in the Spring. I must have somewhere to keep the national collection of Bridget Jones' p's till then .

MORE than just #cnmac

Make a few days of it we thought. Take up M's offer of using her Putney flat, get cheap deal with First Class +complimentary food on Hull Trains, get Netbook ,do #cnmac, factor in visit to progeny and aged aunt, try out a Sussex Premier Inn and blog it when home.

We did and I am.

Lovely to be back in our favourite part of London: south of the river, and Chelsea , lovely to have Peter Jones ,the Saatchi. Chelsea Physic Garden and the Kings Road  part of our Friday with a bus pass from Putney on the No 14. Oh! too  the 39 past the road where C was brought up , and the road where I coped with 3 under 5s with no Washing Machine. Great to be near Arding and Hobbs and the Junction and recall all these years of  teaching ,off the Northcote road . Its not changed very much , just gentrified and twee'd up . 

Installation at Saatchi !

I remember how  our dear Aunty Ann , who had worked at Morganite Carbon of Battersea from aged 14 to 60 spent her retirement years taking buses from the Junction (Clapham) to the termini of all the bus routes, Peckham Rye to Richmond on the 37 etc, etc. Well ,we were doing the same in a way, planning our sorties from Suburbia to make full use of the privileges of Age. 

Chelsea Physic garden has always been our treasure in Chelsea, especially as Colin can get in on his Friends  ticket when no one else is about, and we can feel it just belongs to us.

Chilli Theatre

Echium Wildpretii

Getting to #Cnmac11 was easy for us . The 14 bus to the  Royal Academy, then the 38 to Rosebery Avenue, Sorted.We knew we were going the right way and just followed all the young men with rucksacks and earnest faces.

It was great to meet our blogfather Simon Rudiger, now in Aylesbury, and put real faces to remembered Avatars. I have blogged about this on the Parish Blog.

# cnmac 11

Note to Daydreamer
I have seen Fr Cloake in the flesh and he looks just like his picture.

Putting the bubble wrap back

It has happened. I am sounding like my mother. Where did the Summer go? She always said that in September. I know that nights have drawn in, because I had a burn up in the incinerator as soon as it was dark yesterday, which was just after dinner, which was just after Neighbours.  I had a productive morning getting everything ready for the accountant  , and was able to finally throw away 2008/9 and bring 2009/10 out to thrill HMG s Tax Return . I love fires , and apart from smelling like an Anglo Saxon went to bed knowing my conflagration had robbed the Stig of the Dumps from accessing my old bank statements, Huge dividend notices( My  Fairtrade Acc netted 00.18p) and Pension notices.

Here in Yorkshire we call it Back End in the garden. 

I am trying to make my Sweet Peas last til Christmas as I did in 2007. I take off every flower, and dose regularly with Tomorite. The Runner beans have been good, but the Hurricane winds last week knocked them nearly over. I have had only 1 Tondo Courgette (round). The Chard has been good-my family are getting tired of Spinach and Rice Pie however. 

  I am ready to use Nicandra Physalodes for Christmas Decorations. Last year when it had dried out it looked great in a vase hung about with baubles and Chocs. They are all about 4'high now and about to turn brown. What a find they are. No need ever to even buy a packet of seeds.

C is thrilled as his Yucca is about to flower for the first time. He wants to know if it will die now. I think that's an urban Myth.

So the bubble wrap is about to go back in the greenhouse. The tomatoes were a disaster this year, so have been removed already. The grapes were made into wine in July. The Ipomeas all came out white and none blue. I should have  remembered all the F1 genetic talk I heard at school.

I am  ready to protect my precious Echium plants and try to get some through the winter.I will bring some in to the top of the house where it is light but cold and hope some will survive. The potted rest will go in the Greenhouse and the large E.pininana x wildpretii (about 15 of them)  will have to chance it in the garden.

Echium spp

Shoo Flower

If you look closely you can see black spots on the cotyledon and  early leaves of the Shoo Flower plant. Thats how I always know what it is , even when only a cm high. My beloved Echium seedlings however have spots on their first but not cotyledon leaves and hairy leaves, very Jacob and Esau.

  I have had a Shoo Flower plant in my various gardens since 1981 when I was given the first one to keep in the greenhouse because it kept white fly at bay , hence its silly name.  The seed capsules (like Cape gooseberries) are very easy to store and filled with hundreds of seeds, like other members of the Potato family. So back-end I just fling the seeds all over the garden and wait for the spring excitement of seeing where they come up.

Whether it does repel white flies I don't really know ,as I always seem to get white fly eventually , especially here in the Frozen North as ventilation of the greenhouse is a delicate business. It might be 29 degrees in Brighton but it will be 21degrees in Filey. When the sun is out and the greenhouse reaches 29 degrees I am probably in Beverley and even forgot to open the door and have to do rescues when I get home.

I love this plant. Mine are all about 4'high now so I only have a few. 

AsideWe have a tiny garden and I have half a dozen 'Only the lonely ' Tobacco Plants, already each is 2'across. I have dozens of Echium pininana x wildpretii  plants all growing inches over night it seems , tall and sturdy . I want to get them through the winter, well at least one of them so that I can brag about it on my Facebook Site. I have 6 different varieties of Echium at the moment, . Only one is  hardy, my E. lusitanicum spp polycaulon. 

Back to my Nicandra , My best Shoo Plant. If I am very careful and manage to dry it properly it will be tall enough and branched enough and interesting enough  and light enough to be the Christmas Tree substitute in the downstairs sitting room .