Season's greetings

 

A line or two to say hello and wish you the very best the season has to offer. Are we all well? I do hope so. 

I have been working hard here, nose to the grindstone etc, so not much has been done in the way of festive preparation, but no doubt there will be enough.

Nothing much to report, although the urchins tend to keep me on my toes. Except, one exciting garden thing - a new visitor to the bird feeder...

A ring-necked parakeet! It's the first one I've ever seen, although the eldest and the middle one had seen them a little further north and I know they're quite common in London. I think it might be a female as it doesn't have a particularly visible ring around the neck. Sorry about the blurry photos, but I was a long way away and the eldest has spirited my long lens away with him.

Another new visitor is a squirrel, but not quite as exotic. And no photos, because the dog caught on and did a huge amount of barking. Even though Bertie was inside the house, the squirrel wasn't taking any chances. Funny, because the ones on the dog walk, of which there are many, are very tame. I think they understand the concept of a dog on a lead as well, because they saunter across in front of us very casually sometimes, as if they know he won't be able to chase them.

So that's more wildlife to add to the garden list. Still no hedgehog though, but I feel it's only a matter of time.

I hope everyone has a lovely few days. Look after yourselves, CJ xx

In search of a romantic acorn

 

An assortment of photos, mostly dog walks, with a random Van Gogh thrown in for good measure. The middle boy and I went to see the big exhibition at the National Gallery. It was completely magical. 

As suspected, I grew too many chillies. They are in bags in the freezer, awaiting the return of the middle boy from uni. I'm not sure I'd bother again. I sowed them in January and harvested the chillies over ten months later. It was a lot of work and it turns out they're too hot for most of the people here, including me. 

It was quite fun to see them develop though. The pimiento de padron plants were 2 metres tall and had loads of chillies on them. Maybe they are less hot if you pick them sooner. Mine were hot and they're supposed to be a mild chilli. They're the fatter ones in the picture. The long slender ones are Joe's Long. They're pretty good. A smaller plant, with very long chillies. 

I have been in search of an acorn over the past few weeks, and there isn't a single one to be found. I had an idea to grow some little oak seedlings, and I thought it would be nice to have acorns from a tree I walk under every day with the dog. A romantic acorn, if you will. Except, this year is most decidedly not an acorn year. I have searched under pretty much every oak tree in a mile radius and all I found was one bad one. 

I looked it up, and apparently some years are like that. And some years are bumper years. Most years are somewhere in between. Oaks are wind pollinated and if there is a wet or cold spring, then sometimes it just doesn't happen. 

I do have some silver birch seeds which I'm going to have a go with. They are a bit trickier to germinate and need complicated things like stratification, or a period of cold in the fridge. Anyway, I'm going to give it a go. They're very good for wildlife, second only to oak for the number of species they support I think.

I planted some tulips and fritillaries in the grass a couple of weekends ago. It was a devil of a job. I know that Monty insists you need to throw them randomly across the space so that they look natural, but I was worried I'd miss one and the dog would eat it, so I didn't do that. 

As it was, he was intrigued by the idea of me burying things and dug up a tulip bulb and ate a bit of it before I could stop him. It was only a very small tulip, and he only had a bit, but they are toxic to dogs and it was a tense 24 hours, I can tell you. I knew it wasn't enough to do him serious harm, but it could have had an effect if you catch my meaning.

The next day I was sat working hard at the table and I saw out of the window a magpie come along and pull out the plug of earth from a hole, whip out the bulb, throw it across the grass and on to the next one. I mean, why? So it's anyone's guess whether anything will come up. If they do, they will no doubt be in some awkward grid formation and not stylish naturalistic planting. 

I bought some crocuses as well, but I'd had enough of crawling across muddy grass by that point, so they're in pots. I am waiting for something to come along and dig them up as well, to be honest.

How are things are your end? All good I hope. Let me know if you've seen an acorn this year, I'm intrigued to know whether it's a local shortage or more of a national thing. It's got to be disappointing for the squirrels. CJ xx

Of butterflies and moths

A little more Wales, which seems like a while ago now. A storm moved in and whipped up waves on the lake. The castle is Conwy Castle, built between 1283 and 1287. I can't imagine how, it's completely amazing. The old town walls are apparently some of the finest and most complete in Europe and are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I'd love to visit in winter when it's quiet and have a really good look round.

At the moment I've been enjoying the warm evenings, walking about the place with the dog as the sun sets. Windows are thrown open to try and capture a breath of air and lights are on as the evenings draw in. It's been lovely, although the afternoons have been a bit hot for my taste and I do love regular rain keeping everything green.

On the subject of green, let's talk about box moths. I don't know if it's the same across the country, but they have absolutely devastated box hedges here. There has been a little damage over the past couple of years, but this year, oh my. Below is a box ball a few weeks into the summer.

The other ten or so I have were in similar shape. Then in a matter of days, they were like this:

Shall we take a look at the culprit?

There must be hundreds of thousands of them. Big box hedges have been reduced to straw, it's astonishing. There were around eight box moths in the bathroom the other evening. 

I have ordered some yew plants to replace the box, but they'll take a while to grow. In the meantime I have quite a few empty pots. 

I've added a few acers and ferns though, which should be nice when they're bigger. I do like lots of green shady stuff. The back of the house faces south, so I put the shady stuff along the east-facing fence where it's not too brutally sunny. I have a prized acer at the moment (prized by me, probably not to anyone else, it's not exactly spectacular, but I have high hopes) and I am moving it round during the day to keep it out of the sun. 

Something that has surprised me is that a cloud of butterflies has turned up to feed on the ripe figs. There are a handful that are too high up to pick, and I have had red admirals fluttering around them every day, it's been lovely. No pictures, they've been too high up, but I do have a gatekeeper for you. 

I have also tackled the pond, which is a non-favourite job. Although the anticipation is worse than the actual job. Once I've got a grip of myself and plunged my hands into the murky depths it's quite satisfying. The frogs and newts have more space to swim about now that most of the waterlily and weed have been removed.

Not much news at the moment. I am working hard now the urchins are back at school and learning as much as I can about writing and self-publishing in my spare time. And also cooking the mountain of windfall apples that I have this year. I thought about getting a dehydrator and making apple rings, but I'm trying not to eat too much sugar. Although of course cooked apple has exactly the same amount of sugar, so I don't know where my logic is on that. 

I've noticed that People can be quite slow to take a homegrown apple out of the fruit bowl if it has a blemish on it. I usually have to rant at them a bit to persuade them. Ridiculous, because they taste sublime. Luckily ranting is one of my strengths.

Hope all is well at your end and that you have apples and butterflies aplenty. I'd be interested to know if box moths are as common and have done as much damage where you are. CJ xx

Barbara Kingsolver in Bath

 

Dubious flower arranging skills with some tulips received as a gift after the littlest boy rescued a neighbour's dog from the street after he had escaped. There was chocolate too but I haven't seen any of that. 

The grass in the back garden (unmown since April) is gradually attracting pollinators as the flowers appear. Also beloved of bees are the raspberry flowers, foxgloves and chives. In fact, bumble bees are living in the nest box now, which is lovely. I'm glad I spotted them though as I generally shin up a ladder and clear the nest box out in July by reaching up and in and taking out old nesting material. Imagine my surprise...

I had the most amazing evening last week when I went to see Barbara Kingsolver in Bath. I was partway through Demon Copperhead, her latest novel, when I happened to find out that she would be in the UK. By some miracle, three of the dates were not far from me. 

She is my joint favourite author (along with Philip Pullman) and what I've read so far of Demon Copperhead is just stunning. 

She did a brilliant interview, talking about how she wanted to tell the story of the opioid crisis in Appalachia but she didn't know how to approach it until she stayed at the house in Broadstairs where Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield. She sat down at his desk and pretty much heard his voice saying, 'You tell the child's story'. So she did.

I believe that some of the background is that it suited certain industries (timber, coal and tobacco) to keep the population in Appalachia uneducated, providing a constant supply of workers. The area is incredibly poor and I think the most badly affected by the opioid crisis. I read later that health insurance there really only buys a pill most of the time. Doctors were given backhanders by the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma to prescribe OxyContin to patients, an opioid that is very addictive and that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as utter misery for many more. I've been reading about it since and it is utterly horrific. American friends no doubt know a lot more about it.

From what I've read of the novel so far, Barbara deals expertly with the subject, which might otherwise have been difficult to read about. I'll let you know what I think when I've finished it. But definitely a story that needed to be told. It was a complete privilege to hear her speak as well. Hurray for coming to the UK! 

I sat near a librarian who told me that she reads extensively and that this is the best book she has read in ten years. It has already won a Pulitzer prize and has been shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, to be announced on 14 June. I'm really hoping it wins.

Lovely picture of Barbara in the UK here.

Hope all is well at your end. CJ xx

Still waiting for a hedgehog

 

More holiday snaps, if you can stand it. I remember when I was little you'd come back from holiday and invite the neighbours round for the evening to share your holiday photos, often via a projector. There was usually wine and people got a bit pink and giggly, even if it was only the Isle of Wight. 

The dog and I climbed half a mountain, then I decided that the rest of it would be far too difficult for him (lots of big jagged boulders) so we sat on a tussock to wait for the urchins to return. To be fair, it was a beast of a climb, and everyone said the dog wouldn't have managed it. Some people said I wouldn't have managed it too, but of course I would, I was just thinking of the dog. 

I ate all of my sandwiches and said hello to the other walkers who went past on their way up. An eight year old girl and a three year old boy included. A young couple came past, him striding out, being all leader-of-the-expedition, her trailing slightly and interrogating me quite hard about how far I felt it was to the top. I said I hadn't been and I wasn't going, I was sitting and waiting and enjoying the view. She said longingly that that sounded like an excellent idea. He laughed loudly and on they went. 

Apparently the biggest boy told the other two several times that they were almost at the top. It was one of those mountains that looks like you're almost there, but you're not. But they did it, and managed not to fall out. I've noticed that when the chips are down, they do manage not to be too dreadful to each other. Unlike other times, for example, when they are all in the (small) kitchen together trying to make lunch and cricket teas all at the same time. Oh my, did that turn ugly. I found a falafel stuffed inside the oven glove afterwards. Least said about it all the better.

At home, my wildlife encouragement plans hit a slight snag when a rat wandered into the kitchen. You may recall we have already had a cat strolling round the living room, bold as brass. The middle boy and I were eating breakfast in blissful peace and quiet when there was a mad scrabbling in the kitchen from the dog. He had the rat cornered behind the bin. The middle boy escorted the dog away and I shut the rat in the kitchen temporarily while I scoured the house for things to block the escape route. It was fairly easy to shoo it back outside, where I think it is probably living under next door's decking. This is the mouse-poisoner and herbicide fanatic, so I fear things may not look good for the rat if he is discovered. The dog is rather pleased to have been upgraded from purely decorative to chief rat warden. All of a sudden he is a working dog! And we all know they have special food.

It's the first rat I've ever seen since living here, more than ten years now, and the day before I saw the first squirrel I've ever seen in the garden. I wonder if things are being dislodged by the drought. Did I ever tell you about the squirrel on the wires at the front of the house? It was tightrope walking all along the street. At first glance it was intriguing, so I notified the littlest boy, who adores all animals. After a while it became obvious that the poor thing couldn't get down though, and it was all horribly dangerous and after about half an hour I was really wishing I'd never pointed it out. In the end it did manage to get all the way up to the end of the street and round the corner, where the wires slope down to the ground, so we convinced ourselves that there was happy ending.

I must just say thank you for all of your brilliant suggestions for entertaining older urchins over the summer. I particularly liked Jo's tip of making a list of things everyone wants to do at the start. I am definitely guilty of thinking that we'll get dozens of trips in and then realising the whole six weeks has flown by and we've barely done anything. 

Right now I am waiting for cooler weather and fingers crossed some heavy rain, as no doubt lots of you are too. The children have been playing cricket all weekend, which seems like madness. As I type this, a few clouds are gathering in the sky though, so I am eternally hopeful.