Spring in the garden
Spring is here, and the star of the show in the back garden is this Cherry Tree coming into full blossom.
Close up. (more…)
A rose amidst the gloom
It is mid November and the last flowers of summer have mostly faded away. This particular rose is defying the bleakness of the season to provide a last pink flower.…
The joy of compost
This past year I’ve been doing a bit more gardening. In particular I’m quite proud of my compost heaps. I used to just put things in a pile and it would take years to rot down (too dry). But, I bought three compost bins and have sought to keep it the right moisture and mix of materials. Producing good compost is almost as satisfying as growing a good plant, and any kitchen leftovers get put on the heap – every scrap helps – as they say in the manual of organic gardening. (more…)
Photos of Waterperry Garden
Some photos from Waterperry Gardens, just outside Oxford, where I visited earlier this summer. It was a grey day, but the wonder of modern technology helped get some decent photos.
The ‘Quiet’ Garden.
There was a sign asking people to be quiet in this garden, so I sat in a corner and meditated after a fashion. It was spitting with rain, and I didn’t get much beyond seeing the shrub in the corner and thinking how it could do with its top half trimming. Not the deepest meditation, but still nice idea to have a quiet garden.
The funny thing is that my five minutes of quiet was interrupted – by a family coming in and talking very loudly about how this was a quiet garden and you couldn’t use your mobile phone.
Singing to yourself
I cycle into town through this local Oxford park. It is far from the tourist trail, and is a nice place for locals – popular with dog walkers and people taking a short cut into town.
I was full of the joys of a slightly dull, misty September morning and, as I was cycling slowly through the park, an old man with dog said out loud:
“Shut up”
At first, I thought he was talking to his dog, but then realised his dog wasn’t saying anything, he was talking to me.
I was singing to myself and obviously had strayed into being audible. I hadn’t realised it, which is just slightly disconcerting; I hope it’s not the first signs of madness. He must have very good hearing.
I am trying to learn a few songs of Sri Chinmoy at the moment, and they seem to pop into my head whilst cycling into town.
As irritating habits go, singing aloud is not the worst, but I did admit the old man had a point – I probably would have found it a bit annoying if he was singing to himself.
But, I couldn’t help observe that it’s not very British to actually articulate minor irritations like this. We usually put with worse than someone muttering a half-hearted bit of singing in a public park. (more…)
Cyclamen flowers
Cyclamen is a perennial flower, which is native to parts of Europe, such as Turkey. In September, the small flowers suddenly appear (before the leaves). It is a time of the year, when many other plants are finishing flowering, so their arrival at the beginning of autumn is very welcome. (more…)
The flower that refuses to die
Last November and December I went through an orchid spending spree. It was the combination of the grey, miserable British winter and the ability to buy beautiful plants for excellent value. Orchids are a particularly robust plant, which excel on calculated neglect.
The only trick to growing orchids is not to over-water them; don’t leave them standing in water. Apart from that, you can water every 5-14 days; so even if you go away for two weeks, they will barely look out of sorts.
(more…)
Wildflowers by the roadside
I am continuing with my cycle training this month, but am paying as much interest to the wildflowers by the side of the road.
A field of wildflowers near Charlbury.
I caught a glimpse of this field through a gap in the hedge. (more…)
Photos of wildlife in the garden
Some of the wildlife in my garden.
Bees are my favourite. Here the lavender is rich pickings for the bees. (more…)
Wildflowers at Aston Rowant
I often do hill climb intervals up the Chiltern ridge. There are numerous different climbs, which make a varied and testing training route. Today I tried a quiet road, which I had not been on before. After 500m, the road petered out and became a farm track, so I stopped the hill climb interval mid-flow. I was going to do a u-turn and search out the next hill, but felt inspired to take a rest and went into a nearby field. The field happened to be a nature reserve with a profusion of wildflowers; I have rarely seen such a rich diversity and carpet of wildflowers in Britain.
The site is just next to the M40 motorway. I have been on the motorway hundreds of times, but you never get to see any wildflowers, just some green fields from a distance. (more…)