17 April: Chaffinch

Yesterday early evening I went out to water the newly-planted seedlings in the back garden - lobelias and calendulas. The potted trees needed a drink too, and as I was watering the gingko something moved in its branches and startled me. It was a chaffinch, and he sat there while I was standing right next to it.

Birds don't normally do that, so I wondered if he had flown into the window and stunned himself (they do that). I said Hello - he just looked at me. Eventually I reached out a hand and touched his tail very gently; he still didn't move. It was only when I mentioned he should be careful of the sparrowhawk that he flew off.

23 March: More spring creatures

This morning I watched a wren in the back garden, busily checking for insects in most of the usual places, plus a few more unusual (the potted pine tree for one).

And the bumble bee I saw yesterday was again floating round the hellebores and the comfrey, which has just started to flower. The comfrey is a favourite of the wren too, as there are lots of little spiders on it.

24 December: Cactus

On the kitchen window sill is is a Christmas cactus -


Probably not really a cactus, and doesn't often flower at Christmas. But this year...

15 December: Ice wave

The snow and ice are gradually melting away (except on the pavements locally).

The heap of snow in our back garden is making some strange shapes as it thaws. This one is rather interesting -

29 November: Snow

Another snow picture.

Our garden bench, in the sheltered corner. I knocked some snow off the shrubs and trees in the garden and topped up the bird feeders, while my Dear Husband dug the car out and cleared the front drive.

Our estate is always difficult when it's icy and snowy, so I waded up to the main road to see what conditions were like there. Just about passable, though there was an abandoned vehicle. The were buses getting along OK but cautiously.

Very few cars have even tried to go up our street, but there are plenty of people out, all cheerful in adversity. And a day off work, from the look of it.

Plenty more to come. How fortunate that we have a large supply of woolly hats, mittens and scarves.

1 November: Apple Ginger

After drying out clothing and equipment from yesterday's Roving Mark and Novelty Clout shoot (aiming arrows at pumpkins about 150 yards away across a deer park), I spent the morning slaving over a hot stove trying to reduce the huge quantity of apples from our 2 little trees.

There was a recipe in a 1940s booklet of my mother's which looked interesting, so 3 lbs of apples have become 5 lbs of Apple Ginger.

Having plenty of ground ginger and none of the root ginger listed in the recipe, I substituted, guessing the amount. Well, even if there's too much for other people, I like ginger.

22 September: Grey Shetland

The last skein spun from the grey Shetland fleece from Woolfest was drying when we went away for the weekend. When we were at Wicken Fen, I bought a lovely basket, woven by Nadine Anderson from rushes from the Fen. Here they are together in the garden -


The fleece was spun in the grease (and dirt!) and the skeins washed after plying, using M & S's Wools Silks and Cashmere non-bio laundry liquid. The fleece was different shades and different softness in different areas, so I mixed bits from various parts together. There is a pleasing variation in the colour.


There's 653 gms altogether, and I have no idea what it will become, or when.

12 September: Busy

It was a hectic week - 2 long journeys in search of archery equipment, then for me a day demonstrating spinning; and yesterday I went to a Guild workshop, while my Dear Husband went to an archery competition.

The spinning demonstration was fairly quiet, and I got plenty of spinning done - I had dyed 3 pieces of fibre and they were spun randomly, then plyed and wound into this ball of yarn -


It's 121 gms, with a further 3 gms in the small skein, all about 19 w.p.i.

This morning I was doing some trimming in the garden, and decided to use some of the leaves to experiment with solar dyeing. There are leaves from the rosemary bush and a Japanese acer in this jar, along with about 30 gms of wool fibre. The jar is on the sunny windowsill in the conservatory, and will remain there for some time - don't hold your breath!

18 April: Spring

The lawn has had its first cut of the year. Some flower seeds have been sown in pots and trays, and two or three plants that seem not to have survived the winter have been threatened - start putting out shoots, or go straight to the compost heap, do not pass Go, etc.

There's been time for some inkle weaving -

These are all in handspun wool, 3 plain weave bands and one, the green and yellow one in merino, a very time-consuming pick-up pattern which makes it the same on both sides.

That one was still in progress when I went to the Guild's monthly workshop day; out of less than a dozen people there, 3 of us were working on inkles! Must be something in the air (apart from volcanic ash, of course).

And a parcel of fibre came from Wingham Wool Works, some merino/tencel blend, some wool/linen blend, and 3 little Estonian wool batts. So far I have spun up one of the Estonian batts and a bit of the wool/linen, which is quite heavily textured - that's "lumpy" viewed from the other side. Not sure what they might be used for, perhaps an inkle or two?

But with the lighter evenings, archery has moved out of the sports halls and onto the playing fields. After shooting at 25 yards all winter, it's wonderful to have a target a hundred yards away. And this week the summer schedule starts, with shooting 3 times a week instead of twice.

2 April: Gardening begins

The event that really marks the start of the gardening season is -

digging out the compost bin!

Which was done this morning, much to the delight of one robin, who actually dared to come into the garden while I was there (very unusual for our local robins), and later on a varied selection of dunnocks, blackbirds, tits and chaffinches.

It is clear that eggshells don't biodegrade as quickly as expected, though the little red worms cluster round them even more thickly than other compost components - we seem to have a very healthy and growing population of little red worms.

The first primroses are coming out, yellow as well as purple, and the hellebores are doing well -


- and the miniature daffs are at their best -

1 February: Woodland walk

The hard frost last night meant that all the clarty bits of the path through the woods were frozen. In the trees we were sheltered from the wind, which was still chilly.


And there was sunshine! We had intended just a short walk for some air, but it was so pleasant we went further, so it was getting gloomy and cold by the time we got home. An unexpected chat with a man walking his dog delayed us more, and we needed our nice cup of tea when we got indoors.


In the garden earlier, when I was sweeping the remnants of yesterday's snow off the path, I noticed several bulbs pushing strong fat shoots above the ground.

17 January: ....can Spring be far behind

The snow has cleared enough to get down the path to the compost heap. On my way there this morning I saw these -

Couldn't get nearer for a clearer picture, I'm afarid, but you get the idea.

28 November: Wildlife friendly

We like to think we run a wildlife friendly garden. There are snags. Slugs and aphids. The odd mouse and rat. And when you feed the birds, it's not just the little pretty ones - it's also the ones that eat the little pretty ones.

This morning the sparrowhawk breakfasted on our lawn. All that was left was a small scatter of tiny grey feathers. When she'd finished eating, she sat on the fence and cleaned her feet and her beak. Then she dozed a while and digested. She was very beautiful.

But I hope she eats elsewhere for a while.

24 November: The birds

It was so dark this morning that the birds had only just got up when I was in the kitchen, so I was able to see the flock descend. It's funny how they all seem to move from one garden to another all together.

A robin and a couple of blackbirds were first, followed by lots of tits, great, blue and coal. Two starlings spilled enough seed from the hanging feeder for the blackbirds and the dunnock, and then a few collared doves arrived to clear up. Our friendly neighbourhood mouse will polish off anything left.

A charming wren checked out the potted trees on the paving, giving me an unusually clear view. Then some finches swooped into the birch tree, and a greenfinch came to the feeder; of the two goldfinches perched on the fence, only one visited the feeder. They do seem to like the mixture of seed that has extra mealworms and suet pellets.

Yesterday the local sparrowhawk was perched on a neighbour's roof - it was very quiet while she was there.

And then later on, from a traffic queue on Milburngate Bridge in Durham, we spotted a grey heron roosting on the roof of the Passport Office. Perhaps it was the one seen standing by the weir when the fish were going upstream recently.

24 October: Garden

The rain eased, the sun came out. There were a couple of windfalls visible under the apple trees. As I picked them up, I spotted these on the lawn near the birch tree -
Having fetched my camera, it seemed a good idea to see what else was interesting. This nasturtium is a slightly unusual colour, mahogany rather than orange or yellow -


The rain has knocked all the leaves off the little acer. They have been glowing red in the gloom of the past few days, but no more -

And closer, all the colours -

20 September: Flowers and frolics

Summer is over - the house martins have gone, and my Dear Husband has washed the droppings off the porch roof.

There are still a few flowers in the garden -


-and even some bees still about -


While he was hosing down the roof, I was busy with the spare threads from my miscalculation on the previous tablet weaving. The perfect opportunity to try out another pattern -


This time the errors are being called design features -

5 July: Staindrop

In aid of funds for the Parish Church, Staindrop residents had an "open garden" day today, when 20 gardens in the village were open to the public.

And they were lovely - some quite small but perfectly formed, several much larger than expected, all very different, even though there were a number of plants which featured in most of the borders.

The justifiably proud garden owners were very friendly, and willing to talk about their work - one kind lady even looked up her records for us to identify a plant in her border which is the twin of one we bought as an unlabelled stray 2 or 3 years ago (centaurea macrocephala).

Tea and a most delicious array of sandwiches, scones, sausage rolls and cakes were available in the Scarth Hall, where the tables had proper tablecloths and flowers too.

It seemed intrusive to take photos of the gardens, so we didn't. There was, however, also a scarecrow competition, so we felt they were fair game.

Rapunzel was overlooking the main street -


And outside the bistro was this chap, reminding us that Le Tour started yesterday -


But no maillot jaune for him, perhaps.

3 June: The garden

Many of the garden plants are doing well after the recent sunshine. This year we have some potatoes in bags on the paving -


and some runner beans that have not been wiped out by slugs and/or snails! This time the beans were planted in pots in the conservatory, and were only put out in the garden when they had 2 pairs of leaves.


The spring flowers have gone over, and the summer ones are showing up, like these dianthus -

and the Buff Beauty rose -


Not all in the garden is lovely though - those roses give me a rash; and the little oak tree has a problem too. In one area some of the leaves have these galls (?). This is the top of one leaf -


and this is the under-side -


Other examples are paler or darker. What, if anything, will emerge from these growths?

23 May: NGS

Today we succeeded in doing something I've wanted to do for ages, but somehow never achieved - we visited a garden open for the NGS, the National Garden Scheme.

It was interesting to see how the planting had been arranged, and how the rather difficult site had been used. Quite steep banks swoop down to a stream, and large trees stand in a group in the middle, shading the flatter part of the garden. On the other side of the house the bank has been made into a rock and gravel slope planted with alpines, and a lawn curves round to the little valley. Lots of unusual trees have been planted, and I was particularly checking out the shade planting for ideas to take home.

This colourful bed was in a walled area-


And these misty blue flowers, with a white birch behind them, were at the top of the bank down to the stream -


Other people's planting style is always different, and the plants chosen are always different from what you might choose, and this makes for fascinating viewing. We'll try to visit some more gardens over the summer.

9 May: Fledged!

The local pair of robins have successfully raised at least one youngster - it was foraging in our back garden yesterday evening, on its own, all round and bright and spotty - totally delightful!