This gallery contains 37 photos.
It seems the appropriate time to write a post with this title. Since it was 8 years ago, in the first week of May on a hot sunny day, that we visited the garden of artist Claude Monet at Giverny. … Continue reading
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Let’s get the melancholy bit out of the way. I finally heard ten days ago that we have a potentially wrecked engine (blown turbo on the way back from a lovely day trip to Highgrove to see the gardens. After … Continue reading
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The first swallow arrived on Monday morning. Summer’s nearly here? Tuesday saw four chattering enthusiastically as they checked out the barn to see if the accommodation was up to last year’s high standards, and changing to a more alarmed “Look … Continue reading
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Around the time that the Ice Crystal appeared, we’d been fortunate to experience another event so special that I have to mention it on the blog. I’ve frequently referenced other inspirational sources or ideas, that get the creative juices flowing. … Continue reading
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I don’t often do urgent, short(ish) posts – they’re not my style. But something happened this morning which was so bizarre, even by the sometimes magical and unexplainable rhythms of life here, that I really had to slot in a … Continue reading
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We feel fortunate to have been spared the heavy snow in the latest blast of this extended winter. But the freezing Easterlies are with us again, and after feeding and sympathising with the sheep and poultry on Monday, I thought … Continue reading
This gallery contains 39 photos.
I’ve just come in and peeled off the water proofs after the morning stock round on a bitter, miserable morning. Lashing rain and gale force cold South Easterlies. No sign of ‘March going out like a lamb’ as I catch … Continue reading
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Winter will return next week, but for now we bask in the after glow of 3 dry WEEKS, and much new life bursting onto the scene. The frogs have dodged or diced with death via the heron, otters, and last … Continue reading
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Over a week without rain, so the blogging takes back seat to the logging. A long winter has taken its’ toll of our wood stocks. But a huge amount has happened in the last 2 weeks. … (Can anyone tell … Continue reading
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Few tasks a gardener undertakes are likely to leave a mark in a century or more. Unless you happen to be a part of one of those all too rare gardening dynasties (Think perhaps of the Banks family of Hergest … Continue reading
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As I write the text, all the snow which features in the images below has finally melted, and been washed away in further deluges, preluded by a brief power outage inducing storm on Saturday, with savage thunder and lightning which … Continue reading
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After taking the hair dryer to the ice encrusted satellite dish this morning, and getting connected again, I can write this post and feature an Ice Vase. Until last weekend, I didn’t know that such structures existed. But I’d been … Continue reading
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It’s now over 7 weeks since I set up ‘The Reactor’, an external compost bed designed to heat the ‘inner zone’ in our 14 X 8 foot cedar framed greenhouse. Thanks again to Fiona’s patience and wizardry with Excel, I’m … Continue reading
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So, Christmas has been and gone for another year. And in this part of Wales, as in most of the UK, it was a very soggy grey time. In fact to date we’ve only had 3 rain free December days. … Continue reading
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Having been caught out by the severity of the last 2 winters, we were a bit better prepared this year, when the cold weather arrived early. The last week has been very cold, but the carrots we lifted at the … Continue reading
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To put everyone out of the suspense left after my last post, I’m going to show the starting point of the mystery image. Thanks to Carolyn for having a go at the identification. As you can see it’s an image … Continue reading
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Most of this post will be devoted to the detail of constructing ‘The Reactor’ – a compost bed designed to help to heat the greenhouse and keep it frost free over the winter, but before that just a few images … Continue reading
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As the light seeps from the grey wet scene at 3.30pm, I’m taking a pause from work on “The Reactor” to catch up with a blog Post. More about this project later, but first a few of the gorgeous and … Continue reading
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I always loved my university courses in physiology and biochemistry. I didn’t find them easy, but even all those years ago there was the realisation that life wasn’t just amazing at the whole organism or species level, but almost more … Continue reading
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The last swallows have finally fled, the sun hasn’t showed for the last 3 days, the forecast shows more of the same and the nights have really drawn in, so I thought it might be appropriate to explore a topic … Continue reading
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Butt, Tip, Slype, Wale, Scallum, Back, Belly, Rod, Dark Dicks, Light Dicks, Bodkin……. The lexicon of a new activity had to be assimilated quickly, along with practical skills when Fiona and I headed off last weekend for an intensive course … Continue reading
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“Gosh, I LOVE your fabulous hips“……. “Would those be mine or Fiona’s, you’re referring to, Rosemary?” Not the conversation I was anticipating with our lagging glamorous garden guest on Friday, as we enjoyed the sunshine on a post prandial garden … Continue reading
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I had great expectations for Monday morning. A new day, week, month (just) and season. And the fact that summer had ended with an appropriate Blue Moon on the penultimate day of August seemed a good omen. (For those unfamiliar … Continue reading
This gallery contains 33 photos.
Lightning. Thunder. And Fifty Shades of Grey. Followed by sunshine, and the strangely vibrant Fifty Shades of Green that are the very stuff of August Welsh landscapes. Pretty much every year, but in this year more so as the weather … Continue reading
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The challenges of the rural blogger….As I sat down this morning to write this post, with heavy rain and strong winds forecast by 10.00 am, the screen went dead – the power was off. Ah well, into the greenhouse as … Continue reading
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As I waited for the first home grown Tomato and Nectarine of the year, quite a lot more thoughts and ideas on tomatoes have gelled over the last couple of weeks. Before we’d headed off on holiday I’d installed reflective … Continue reading
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We’re just back from our annual week’s holiday. Strangely for reasons I won’t bore you with, we can’t actually choose the week we’re away and so this year it landed in early July. Hardly the best timing for keen gardeners, … Continue reading
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Intrigued by the email mentioning the Basket Making event held last week at the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW), we headed down and thoroughly enjoyed the display and demonstrations in the marquee by various basketry and rope work experts … Continue reading
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So, the nights are drawing in…Having just passed the longest day, we’ve also now notched up the wettest month in 2 years (even though we’ve over a week to go in June, and well, it’s JUNE, for goodness sake.) 273 … Continue reading
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The day began well with a pristine Green Silver-Lines Moth resting up on the barn door. I’ve only ever seen this moth 3 or 4 times before, so when we had a phone call a couple of hours later from … Continue reading
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It started with Time. And A Watch Ad. And another full-page colour supplement Watch Ad, 4 pages further in and both were featuring sponsored aeronautical display teams behind the shiny complex watch face. And both, no doubt, were hugely expensive … Continue reading
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All I gotta do, is take a look at you….. (As Phil Collins sings on Groovy Kind of Love). A busy 10 days and more cold wet weather. But at this time of the year even rainy days and Sundays … Continue reading
This gallery contains 30 photos.
‘Dewi’ the cuckoo should have stayed in Cameroon. After getting a mention in my last blog for making it back to the UK ahead of the 5 tagged birds from East Anglia on April 16th, Dewi wasn’t heard again until … Continue reading
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A special day last week when on the 16th, whilst concentrating on some log splitting, I picked up a faint but distinctive sound from the far side of the valley. And paused. Was it a cuckoo? As is often the case, … Continue reading
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Every year the Canada geese fly into the valley sometime during February or March to breed. I guess that the 5 or 6 ponds in the immediate surroundings of the village are a sufficiently good draw. This last week I spotted a new … Continue reading
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The last week has seen our first garden visitors of the year, happily visiting on days of glorious sunshine. But the most dramatic event was on a very sunny Sunday 10 days ago when we ate our lunch outside under … Continue reading
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How to begin this week? Moral Capitalism! (Actually this post has been delayed by a bout of glyphosate induced illness, so the text might seem a bit out of date, but the issues with using this widely promoted herbicide will wait … Continue reading
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It’s been one of those spells since the last blog, when the rain has held off, the days have lengthened, and the blog takes back seat to all the other tasks and events going on. One of the major outdoor jobs … Continue reading
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Another blog, another torch-light discovery. A consequence I suppose of no TV to while away the dark evenings and the appearance of a new trial rabbit burrow amongst the snowdrops, primroses and hellebores. So trying to spot the culprit, I nipped … Continue reading
This gallery contains 29 photos.
So last week was the time for Caroline Spelman M.P. and Environment Secretary to gather the movers and shakers for a drought summit. Why? Because many parts of Eastern, Southern and Central England are at risk of severe shortages of water over the summer … Continue reading
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Ready for a ramble? Visual and verbal? A lot of thoughts have churned around the simple word “green” over the last few days. Kicked off by a couple of necessary long walks to work off the slight excesses of a Valentine’s day meal. … Continue reading
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I decided to slot in a quickish blog to record a trip out after cabin fever was descending following the rigours of the recent cold. A planned all day electricity outage for another cold, but as it turned out slightly sunny Tuesday, made … Continue reading
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So the “Beast from the East” has swept in after all. The initial derision on Radio 4 of newspaper reports of a Siberian blast approaching at least alerted us to the risks of proper wintry weather, which has hit Gelli in a very … Continue reading
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My order for writing these posts seems to have developed into consistently being ….. ideas, research and taking photos, fix a title, write the text and finally upload the images. So 2 days ago when I fixed on the title, it was going to be … Continue reading
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Just in time to save our sanity the sun returned to this small part of Wales and reminded us of the delights of winter. It really turns our days’ activities upside down after all the greyness. Frosts, mists and the … Continue reading
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A cacophony of climate confusion perplexes me as we head into a New Year. December 2010 saw the coldest UK December on record, autumn and December 2011 the warmest on record. In between, a record-breaking sunny, dry and early spring; extreme drought in Shropshire, … Continue reading
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In a typically unrestful lead up to Christmas, chance comments with friends led us to embark on retro fitting of extra insulation to part of our home. Also typically, it will take us at least 3 times as long as initially … Continue reading
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So its official. Wales (and Northern Ireland) have had the warmest autumn ever recorded. This certainly confirms our impression. But its been a very strange year weather wise. The PV inverter record for the year confirms the very sunny and bright … Continue reading
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Its taken 3 or 4 days to find a chance to start writing this post. This might seem strange since the days are now so short, but it’s been tidy up time after the efficient chaps from Lampeter Tree services came to … Continue reading
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A fortnight ago we set off for a rare holiday, and en route stopped off at PenPont house outside Brecon to collect a Welsh Blanket, which by some fluke I’d won in a questionnaire raffle a couple of weeks earlier, after … Continue reading
