17 January 2005 - A Lovely Christmas
We had a lovely Christmas, surrounded by family, wonderful food and
excellent wine mostly thanks to the generosity of my parents at whose house
this all happened. All the children joined us and during the week were
further joined by lovely girlfriends. Daddy decided we didnÂt have enough to
do and managed to fall over the black Newfoundland on Christmas Eve, but
beyond a brief sojourn at A and E everything went according to plan. Leeks
pulled from frozen ground tasted particularly good with our own ham on
Boxing Day. My brother Nick and his wife Janet and her parents came for a
few days and made us large and lively bunch. Angus and I decided to
celebrate the occasion by getting engaged, with plans to marry in may
hopefully with a beautiful garden as a backdrop for the day.
I find it hard to believe that we are so close to the end of January and I
am still talking about Christmas. We managed to finish planting our 12
thousand bulbs for our Floral Firework display the week before Christmas and
even succeeded in clearing some major borders that needed a face-lift. We
have been very mild here, with an opportune falling of snow on Christmas
day, but otherwise friendly temperatures for gardeners.
This year, like last we are trimming back our gallica and alba roses as we
move through the garden tidying up. They are already budding up and
suffered no ill effects from chills last time. The worst that very
occasionally happens is a little die back in prolonged cold spells, but we
have so much to cover between now and spring that pruning and tying them in
has to be done this early. The fruit trees in the orchard and the soft fruit
is yet to be started but I have every faith that we can turn 24 hours into
36, do without sleep and work by torch light. I am so confident indeed that
Angus and I are flying to France for a weeks break.
We are a little anxious at the total lack of communication from anyone over
there whilst we had hoped that our little cottage might be enjoying a make
over. No panic as it gives us an excuse to visit friends and enjoy French
hospitality for a while. We are very excited at the prospect of a home in
France and have had wonderful times at the sales. As someone who has never
been to a sale I was hooked in the first few minutes and I am sure we will
find a use for all the flights of fancy Angus couldnÂt stop me from having.
My to be brother in law, Hamish has been bullied into driving a van over
with our purchases and he will hopefully come back with some of our cahors
wine from our rows at the Latuc vineyard. We do not plan on creating
another piece of Britain over there and have every intention of using French
materials and goods but a few old favourites need to join us.
Back in the garden it was a delight to find some nivalis snowdrops and one
called Florence Baker in flower two days before Christmas, and now three
weeks later they are to be found everywhere. I have yet to get my favourite
going, she is called Primrose Warburg and is showy and yellow, but other
lovely ones are clumping up well and promise a fabulous show this year. The
hellebores are well advanced too and some of the very deepest black ones
have produced huge clumps that will need splitting this year. We may sell
more this year if I can bear to let them go. Primulas are showing flowers
and the early shrubs have blossom. Spring has begun to show and I for one
love all the opening hints.
One thing we felt that we learnt last year was to start the seed sowing
under cover earlier in the year now that there is a definite shift in the
temperatures. We use fleece to protect from temperature fluctuations at
night- and to deter mice of which we have a lot! We have sown all our
onions, tomatoes and some herbs into trays and will follow with carrots
direct in the polytunnel and many of the salad crops will join them with
added fleece. On the subject of mice, they made good inroads into our
autumn broad beans but have now mostly been dispatched with the help of
peanut butter and our kittens. And on the subject of Annie and Millie they
are growing, are nearly housetrained but have destroyed what the boys had
left of a sofa in the playroom.
They adore their mistress Amy and have the loudest purrs we have heard, but
I wish they would stop sleeping in my spider plant in the kitchen. Jessie
has yet to be trained but shows all the signs of a good dog with the natural
instincts of a sheep dog. Already she has made our lives easier with the
flock. They incidentally are due to start lambing in a monthÂs time. The
cross Suffolk/Cotswolds should be first, followed by the pure Cotswolds and
then the Jacobs. I love lambing time, except for the cold nights and it
still feels like a miracle to see the lambs emerge. The children, however,
are far more laid back and I suspect see lamb chops of the future, but I am
always proud to see how sensitively they can handle the stock when it is in
need and they loose sleep and free time for the care of a weak newcomer.
Christmas saw the arrival of three new friends in the shape of Beauty and
her heifer calf Lizzie and Tizzy. They are our new Dexters and promise to
be a great love. We hope that garden visitors will come to see them and
love them too. Both Beauty and Tizzy are due to calve and there starts
another learning curve for us. Any advice welcome!
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