Diary catch up #3 - Windy Acre cottage through the years

Looking back through my September photo library I noticed that I had taken some shots of the cottage from a particular angle - from somewhere I don't often stand in the garden and look back...and I wondered to myself why?

Then I remembered that around the time we created the Time Capsule, the Engineer had gone hunting about in the massive box of old slides that grandma had left for us to 'caretake' (along with a great deal of other similarly old but much less useful things...), and had found several lovely old shots of the house from back in the 1970's.  So I had wandered out to photograph those same angles to put them side by side.  I had posted this on my personal facebook page for friends and family, but never got around to putting it on here. Time to rectify that, I think!

Above, this must be sometime in the early 1970s, the kitchen (single storey extension) still looks pretty fresh and new! But the surprise here is the flowerbed in the foreground - absolutely no sign of this at all now, just lawn here where the tennis games and cricket is played in the good weather.  Not fantastic lawn here either - dries out the fastest and goes brown very quickly in extended dry spells.  Oh the joys of the island bed! All that edging to be done...urgghhh.

Apologies for my brother-in-law enjoying his paddling pool! That dates this photo to 1971 probably as he looks about 18mths-2years. Again, yet more flowerbed extending out where there is nothing but lawn now, straddling the little slope.  The interesting thing I find in this shot is you can see that grandma and grandpa are obviously in the throes of removing the old pigsty building which used to stand where the little square patio in the circle bed now sits - you can see the wheelbarrow abandoned mid shot and the half de-constructed old stone walls.  Could that be our magnolia already in place and full grown immediately behind the stone walls? In which case it is of a venerable age now.

It also looks like a little vegetable patch or cutting garden perhaps used to extend between the old pigsty and the amazingly glorious looking greenhouse!  What I would give now for a fab greenhouse like that - it would cost a fortune.  And how illustrative of the ever changing fashions in gardens - here they are labouring away to remove what they saw then as an 'eyesore' of a decrepit old bit of agricultural building...now I would love to have that old collapsing romantic utilitarian ruin, around which you could create a gorgeous naturalistic planting with the stone walls as backdrop...Oh well.

Looking up the driveway in 1976 - the boys and a friend from round the corner. Note the newly planted wee trees and hardly any conifers!  The one visible in the middle right of the shot is now the same height as the chimney... Old porch and the original boiler house visible behind.

Same view Sept 2014 - garage extended and no longer half made of timber, new porch, no more boiler house, and a generally profusion of conifers over 20 feet tall

This is one of the oldest photos of the cottage that we have - apparently grandma and grandpa took it on the day they bought it at the auction, in December 1968.  You can see both tie bars here (the right hand one is now hidden inside the roof structure of the porch).  Look at those Crittal windows!  The boiler house is there, half hidden by the shrub in the foreground, and there appears to be a patch of lawn in the middle of the drive.

Here's grandma with my brother in law as a toddler - the corner pillar and old open apple store have been filled in, so this must be shortly after summer 1969, though the pigsty (which we saw being dismantled in the photo above) is still standing here, just visible in the shadows mid left of the photo.  Dew on the grass and young leaves on the trees - could be late spring/early summer 1970?  That would make Simon about 10-11 months old.  Taken from underneath the horse chestnut trees in the South west corner of the garden - you can see the leaves just overhanging the corner.

This looks like the closest I could get to the same angle - the massive pyracantha growing up the south wall is hiding the window visible in the earlier photo, but there is the well still, but the pigsty, shrubs and young trees that had obscured the view of the west side of the house have all gone.

It's so strange, but also nice, to have the luxury of being able to place these old shots alongside the new - and see how much has changed but also how much is still the same.

We have a painting hanging in the upstairs hallway, which someone made of the front facade looking from the driveway dated 1950 - 20 years earlier again even before our earliest photo in 1968.  Tomorrow I will try to photograph it and perhaps add it on to the end of the post here. I like it - it is by no means amazing artwork but truthful and simple - perhaps painted by the house's occupant at the time?  I must ask grandma where she got it.  It shows the walls the yellowy ochre limewash colour that I found on the walls when I was repainting the south wall in September, and had so desperately tried (and failed!) to find a match for.  It is a naive simple rendering but so full of the feel of the cottage, even though much had changed even by then.  It looks welcoming and homey.  It is the picture I look at when I am reminding myself of what we are trying to do - to return the place to being simple, welcoming, and homely.  Sadly the 1970s and 80s do have a lot to answer for in that the fashions and 'new technology' did a lot to somehow spoil the old rustic simplicity of this type of buildings.  I'm not blaming anyone - they were doing what was thought to be the right thing at the time - and doubtless in 50 years time others will say the same thing about what we are doing! Plus ca change...

Here's the painting - I photographed it this morning, the light is terrible as it's pouring with rain, but it hasn't come out too bad:

Our painting of the cottage here at Windy Acre in 1950, artist unknown

Meet Polly, our first bee!

Named by Evie:

Polly Nation, our first bee and official mascot

Apologies - but 10 year olds enjoy such puns...

I brought Polly back last night from my last Theory session on Introductory Beekeeping.  The lovely people at the Beekeepers Association made it a special last session with lots of lovely honey cake and flapjacks, but some amazingly clever person had made lots of these little bees from icing and decorated all the plates with them.  Inspired, I thought - but I had to beg to steal one to bring home for Evie as I knew she would be very taken with her.  A typical reaction from Leo: "Can I eat it?"...hmmm, boys....

She has, for now, been saved from such a fate but I don't know how long that will last.

Meantime, I move on to start my practical training sessions in April, and who knows, equipment gathering dependent, there may be bees being welcomed to Windy Acre by the early summer? If I'm brave enough and lucky enough.

Diary catch up #2 - snippets from the rest of September 2014

Crucial achievement by the Engineer #1 - at last the creation of my much-longed for 3 bay leaf mould heaps!
I fear these may in fact need further adaptation and reinforcement when bulk quantities of leaves prove to be weightier than we at first envisaged, however, something is better than nothing.  And they needed to be ready before the autumn and the Great Leaf Deluge which will come...

September achievement #2 - the last replacement stone being put in the wall...Our lovely builder Graham advised me of his ritual of putting a Time Capsule into each wall he completed - he always offers the householder the opportunity to do it and choose the contents, but if they aren't interested apparently he feels it is important so he usually squirrels a little something in of his own anyway.

So we set to and each one of us put in the little tin something which was important or precious to us.  The children chose to put in some loom bands, a nerf bullet and some lego, and I put in a little drawing and a written page about the history of the house as far as we knew it with our family, starting back in 1968 when Grandma and Grandpa bought it.

Then we popped it into the space in the wall that Graham had found and felt was a good place, before he fixed in the last stone.  Now it's on to the repointing and the home stretch for this phase of renovations.

Placing the Time Capsule in the wall

Here it is, tucked in safe - a boiled sweets tin wrapped in a plastic bag to keep out the damp

 Even though the weather is still incredibly warm and dry, there are signs that the moisture of autumn is silently creeping up on us and the season is turning.  One of these was less welcome - the appearance of a few random patches of this weird stuff on the lawn:

 It was the strangest thing. Almost like efflorescence, and if you poked at it with a stick it turned to dust almost.  Naturally I turned to google to diagnose...what did we used to do before the internet?

My diagnoses was assisted greatly when a day or so later it looked like this:

So I was able to state categorically that it was the gorgeously (and indeed aptly) named 'Dog's Vomit Fungus'...Seemingly innocuous and spores present in the air and soil simply activate when conditions are just right - which they obviously are, as there have been a couple of other patches here and there in the garden. But I just left it and it turned black and sort of disappeared.  Not that there was much else you could do - if I tried to scrape it up to wrap in newspaper and put in the bin it sort of dissolved.

And we had a visit from this colourful wee chap:

Pale Tussock caterpillar

Who is a Pale Tussock Moth caterpillar (Calliteara pudibunda).  Apparently he eats tree leaves including elm, birch, hazel, lime and oak.  I think he must have had to change his diet to ash, horse chestnut, beech and walnut to survive in this garden!  I didn't fiddle with him as his hairs did look suspiciously unfriendly but I think he must win the prize for the most outrageously attired village resident so far this year.

Diary catch up #1 - Back to August and the Big Tree Felling Day

It was the Friday of the August Bank Holiday Weekend, and all began quietly at Windy Acre....

But not for long!

First of all the Engineer was witnessed erecting this Mary Poppins-like contraption onto one of the posts around the Veg Patch...

A time lapse camera (with Heath Robinson sunshade) in order to capture for posterity the day's events. (Although we got to enjoy these, I have no idea how to go about uploading the film onto here, so stills from my camera phone will have to serve).

Old 80ft Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress) in centre, with baby Ash tree nearest to house - too near!

Our lovely tree surgeons 'Special Branch' (yes, really) arrived with their man toys and proceeded to calmly slice and dice the Ash tree a limb at a time, until it looked like this:

...and then took it out to the ground.  I felt a bit sad about this, as the ash was a lovely tree, waving at me from the ensuite bathroom window and giving us a nice sense of privacy from the school buildings next door. But it was only 4 metres or so from the foundations of the north wall, (not at all popular with the insurance company!) and as only a baby still it could only have grown bigger and bigger.  My plan when re-doing this area of planting will be to make sure I include a back layer of native types of multi-stemmed tree/shrubs which can be periodically coppiced and which do not grow over 15 feet or so ultimately, giving us the nice naturalistic look coupled with privacy and dappled light, without the threat of having to do such major surgery again.

But this was just the warm up! And it only took them 45 mins...

Next came the turn of the huge leaning Monterey Cypress which used to creak alarmingly in the wind.  As the trunk was bare for over  half it's length, all the branches were at the very top and it looked like a top sail that could threaten to go over onto the school buildings (if not our roof) in a bad storm.  And it wasn't pretty - it loomed over the house and garden too tall and thin.  We will have to keep an eye on the smaller Monterey Cypress alongside to ensure that one doesn't eventually do the same thing.

This was an impressive felling.  One minute it was there:

A quick climb, whip off a few likely troublesome branches, secure some guide ropes, stand well back while the chosen one carefully chainsawed a wedge out of the trunk at the bottom...We all had a guess at how long it would be and where exactly it would fall and had to stick our marker in the grass.

And the next it was down and we had this huge expanse of blue sky instead!

The stump was enormous, and actually took longer to grind out than felling and chopping both trees together.

In the foreground is the pile of chopped ash:

And here is the pile of the Monterey Cypress, just cut into rounds for Andy to chop and stack himself. Interestingly, here I am writing this catch up entry on the 11 March 2015 and that pile is pretty much still in the same location! Piled up and tarped as best as we could, but basically waiting for it's permanent home to be constructed - soon hopefully! as a sort of Boy's Wood Heaven area, around the old Horse Chestnut stump where the Engineer will have his log chopping station and we will also have a bonfire/BBQ pit.

It was a big job, which we are still clearing up after - and which ultimately had a slightly negative effect on my precious stone potting shed, as I will reveal in a later entry - but it needed to be done.  I don't like taking down trees completely.  But I am sure when I have replanted the area it will feel and look much better.  And there is nothing A likes more than a nice pile of wood to play with.

Early March pickings and promise in the Veg Patch

Weather a bit on the grey side yesterday, so I decided I needed to refresh my 'It is Spring really!' kitchen window display, which gives me something more cheerful to look at while washing the pots.

Narcissi Tete a tete, and an unknown variety of hellebore from the garden

There are alternative 'bouquets' coming out of the garden too, but equally as welcome!

Latest haul for tea from the Purple Sprouting broccoli patch

They always look such ungainly plants for me - in other people's gardens they look robust and handsome, but not here...fortunately the harvest looks fine and tastes lovely

One of my usual scraggy specimens of Purple sprouting strapped to its supporting post like a drunkard leaning on a lamppost...

The leeks are definitely on their last legs now, I really need to harvest what's reasonably edible in the next few days - a few have already developed their flowering stalks so I think I might leave them to flower as a treat for the early insects and perhaps try to collect my own leek seed as an experiment.

The chives are beautifully perky at least, cosseted underneath their little plastic cloche.  The first fresh herbs are so welcome in my lunchtime omelettes.

Last of the leeks!

This weekend I decided to take the mini polytunnel off the spring cabbages as they look to me like they should be able to withstand a bit of frost now.  Really I just had the tunnel on them to try and stop them being torn to shreds by the winter winds here when they seemed much more vulnerable a few months ago!  If my evil plan runs smoothly, then I hope I will be able to harvest from these after the purple sprouting and cavolo nero have given up and gone to flower...if it stays cool as it is at the moment I think I'm safe for a few more harvesting weeks from them, but of course if we have a sudden warm spell they will go whoosh...

August sown Spring Cabbage, intended for harvest as loose greens

Same decision for the Perpetual spinach that has been luxuriating under its little polytunnel all winter too - caught Cobweb the Cat sunbathing in there on top of them and suddenly realised how warm they were getting!  I don't want these to shoot to seed when I haven't even had a meal off them yet - some rain and a bit of chillyness should sort them out hopefully too.

I never actually got round to protecting the parsley with a little cloche - and just look at it! We have picked from this plant all winter and it is still providing fresh growth.  Again, it will probably jet into flower if a warm spell comes but I will definitely repeat last year's lesson - I didn't grow it from seed (I can never get the conditions right for it) but simply bought it in a pot from Lidl or Sainsburys for £1 and planted it in the bed.  Lot less hassle and worked a treat, as we can see...

Evie's chives and parsley plant, with autumn sown Perpetual Spinach behind

I promised smallholder friend Sue that I would investigate for her and try to identify these weird and wonderful iris which we found in her garden, and which are standing really well in her kitchen table vase.  I have never seen anything like them before but I was pretty certain they are some sort of iris.  Too tall for reticulata iris, but too early surely for sibirica types..although they are happily naturalised in her garden alongside the driveway which is also bordered by a stream, so i assumed a bog loving variety.

Iris tuberosa 

Well, how wrong can you be??? Turns out they are Hermodactylus tuberosus also known as Iris tuberosa or the Widow's iris, which hail from southern Europe and enjoy typically stony, hot dry locations with a good baking in the summer, like the bearded iris do.  Hmmm...plants can be weird can't they. I suppose the sun bounces off the driveway in the summer and bakes them, they are on the south facing side of the garden...and Sue says she thinks there may be quite a bit of old farmyard type spoil and general rubble dumped under the ground in that area.  But overall we are talking about a plot of land barely above the flood level on the moor!  Boggy and heavy are the usual words we use for her ground!!!

Either way, I have baggsied a bit of the clump when its the right time to fiddle with them, in late summer. Because they look very unusual and stunning in the vase at the moment.

4000 holes!

Well, maybe I exaggerate a little - not quite 4000 holes but 3 fairly sizeable Trial Pit holes dug on Tuesday for the structural engineer's delectation and delight on Wednesday do seem to have generated substantially more spoil than I thought they would...

Here we can at least be reassured that the kitchen (built 1969) does have proper foundations going down almost a metre on to proper concrete footings - hurray!

Kitchen north wall trial pit

 The second pit was in the lawn and so posed much less entertainment to our trusty builder chums, thankfully.  Unlike Trial Pit 3....

Lounge pillar corner West wall

This little baby proved somewhat more troublesome. After levering up the crazy paving stone slabs, builder Phil and I were greeted by the perturbing sight of lots of very solid concrete underneath the patio - an old path around the house, maybe?  Preliminary investigations involving cutting a 5 x 5 inch cube of the concrete cut using his trusty angle grinder thingy revealed that this 'path' or whatever it was is about 4-5 inches thick. This does not a happy builder make.

However, as the pillar corner is the most structurally suspicious it was crucial that this pit was dug here so teeth were gritted and major cutting work commenced....

Close up pillar corner West wall

Eventually we were able to see the base of the wall here - but yet more concrete about a foot out from the wall! Even harder this time, and discovered to be over the (blissfully no longer in service) old clay drain which used to run from round the corner from the old kitchen.  A bit paranoid that the remaining old cast iron gutter downpipe might still discharge via this one, I tested it with a watering can full of water and thankfully it did not appear here! Whew. Well, one nagging old doubt answered - the old drain is disused and so even if still present under the 'new' kitchen, is not functional at all.

Of course in the process of delving deeper into this hole we also started getting answers to some other nagging old doubts....The corner pillar sits on a sizeable old stone 'pad stone' (just visible as the more grey lump of stone in the upper right hand of the hole) which then simply sits on the clay.

Alongside this old pad stone we can see the 1969 slab of 4 inch concrete sitting on 4-5 inches of hardcore...sitting on the clay.  No foundations here then.  Hmmm...structural engineer explained that this is why the inside is cracking - the differential movement between the 60s concrete sitting on the clay and the undatedable pad stone sitting on the clay.  And by god, what clay it is!  I knew the soil was clay based in the garden - it's much heavier than the old Stone Cottage garden soil.  But all the flower and veg beds here have been worked and improved over at least 35 years if not longer and so to actually see the raw unadulterated orangey brown clayness under the lawn and here under the walls was quite surprising.  But at least we know now.  Information can only be a good thing, surely???

All in all, the outcomes discovered from the holes weren't too bad - the pillar corner will have to be strengthened substantially during the extension works, but we did expect that really.  Probably the whole of the old pillar will be removed along with the offending west wall end and completely renewed, so the engineer was not particularly concerned about the other cracking in the west wall - it's all being knocked out after all.  I'm trying to train myself to breathe a little easier about the whole thing.  We are doing the right thing, I know it.  We just need to brace ourselves to pay for it!

Today, (Saturday) we experienced the Law of Holes....what comes out, never EVER will all go back in!

Kitchen north wall pit 'refilled'

Lawn pit 'refilled' - with huge quantity of leftover clay spoil

So our collection of unusable rubble continues to grow.  More sacks gathering at the end of the drive hoping some helpful farmer might take them away for use in his muddy gateways?

In a desperate attempt to prevent A from simply dumping all the clay spoil on my precious compost heap, I spent a stressful hour with him marking out my new cut flower beds just using stakes, so that he could barrow the clay spoil over there and basically tip it on as the 'base' layer, to have much scrummier stuff piled on top at some later date, just like I did last spring with the new no-dig veg beds....well, it worked for the veg, so fingers crossed it will work for the flowers too.

However, I still get that frustrating feeling that I am continuously playing chess with piles of 'stuff' both inside the house and outside in the garden.

What's blooming today?

I treated myself to a little walk around the garden today, to make a record of what is flowering this sunny first week in March - as it's the first time in a while I've actually been able to walk around!

The little bed by the front gate has been looking very pretty for a few weeks already, with the snowdrops I put in in the autumn being joined by masses of my favourite purple crocuses which grandma must have planted and then forgot to tell me about.  This combination of the purple with the orange middle is really one of my all time favourites.  

I have had to pull up a fair number of little speedwell seedlings from here - I expect they were in the leafmould compost which I spread over the bed after planting the hydrangea 'annabelle' and tidying up generally back in the autumn.  The bergenias are doing well, though I would like them to bulk up more during this season and form more of a defined 'edging'.  The leaves have coloured beautifully in the cold temperatures, even though I have no idea of the variety, I am happy with how they look.  

There are also a great deal of celandine leaves making their appearance - again probably due to my own fault in weeding and forking over the whole area in the autumn I must have broken up and disturbed all the little bulbils and helped them spread around even more!  Whilst leaning on my fork contemplating this, Hil passed on her way home from the doctors and having discussed the situation we came the the conclusion that they are fairly cheerful in flower in spring, and then disappear underground conveniently afterwards - out of sight, out of mind - so I decided not to make my life more difficult by any foolhardy attempt to eradicate them here. I'll just enjoy them and welcome them as one of the few things that seems to thrive is this inhospitable patch under the beech tree!

Front gate patch in early March

Close up of my favourite crocuses!

 This week the blossom has appeared on the ornamental flowering cherry trees which line the driveway.  Having done a bit of the old internet research it seems most likely that these are Prunus cerasifera nigra, known as the 'Black Cherry Plum' or Purple leaved plum.  Funny, I always thought of them as flowering cherries, and last year we did have cherry like fruits dropping onto the driveway.  Leo tried to eat one and regretted it - I would have thought it a bad sign that the birds didn't want them!

Prunus cerasifera nigra just starting to open their blossom

Close up! Very pretty single flowers, very oriental looking

 Every time I look out of the bathroom window and see the huge red hips on the arch I thank my lucky stars I am not a tidy gardener!  If I had followed grandma's instructions to deadhead this to within an inch of its life then we would not have enjoyed this perfect display all autumn and winter.  Against a cool blue winter sky they are stunning and make me happy.

Need to gird my loins though - I will need to prune this climber in the next few weeks so the hips will be gone.  I must admit I am surprised the birds haven't eaten them though.

This is what she looked like on 18th May 2014

This was the rose that grandma planted on this arch for our wedding,  especially to match the fabric of our bridesmaids' dresses - and for once she was on the nail!  A lot of the other pink roses in the garden are not to my taste (and shhhh...don't tell anyone but I have already taken several out and 'lost' them) often being too much lipstick pink or salmon-orange crimson.  This one however is just right, a velvety dusky deep rose.  I found a label in grandma's box for a rose called 'Climbing Galway Bay' but I don't know if this is the one or not.  But I do know that it surprised me and I like it.  It was flowering from May onwards all the way through to the autumn.

A fitting ornament for the 'entrance' archway into the back garden - lovely dusky pink climbing rose

 The primroses have only begun to peep out this last 2 or 3 days - these are the earliest by the garage side door and probably the most sheltered and warm.  There will be lots more appearing along the driveway bank underneath the flowering cherries in the coming weeks.

Dainty self sown primroses

 The Iris reticulata clumps have been popping up reliably for a few weeks now in the woodland border - I must must must make some proper markers for them so that I don't dig them up by mistake later!! (Adds to increasingly long to-do list...)

Pale blue Iris reticulata - possibly 'Harmony' or similar?

Stunning and mysterious looking dark purple Iris reticulata possibly 'Purple Gem' or similar?

 Hellebores in this garden definitely require a concerted effort to improve their performance - after all, the conditions in the woodland border are ideal, I just don't think they are being used to their full advantage.  The dark purple variety which i know can look gorgeous, as I had a clump of them from here in my old shady front garden - but here seem to be languishing.  I left my old clump behind thinking that there would be enough here already - regretting this now!  My pretty paler freckled pink hellebores I did dig up and bring, but they are still in there pots by the greenhouse, waiting for the 'grand plan' to be formulated before they are given their permanent positions...There are a couple of clumps of this old toughie, which I think it might be useful to bulk out and increase their sense of presence. Also they feel like they ought to be a useful bombproof candidate for edging the more difficult shady areas under the big trees like the walnut and horse chestnut.

Its not Helleborus foetidus as the leaves are not sharply divided enough...Looks more like the Corsican hellebore to me 'Helleborus argutifolius' which should flower February-April, three lobed grey green spiny leaves.  Apparently it should enjoy full sun or partial shade, is evergreen and ideal for making an architectural statement in a mixed or shrub border...sorted then, really! I just need to remember to cut out the flowered stem to the base once the flowering is over, and then it should send out lovely fresh evergreen regrowth to flower again next winter/spring.  I will also have a thorough hunt around for any seedlings to pot on and spread about as it is supposed to seed readily but not enjoy being divided.

Helleborus argutifolius in the woodland border

 Well, the winner of the Camellia race is definitely this not-so-shy-and-retiring-type!  This is the camellia that lives underneath the magnolia tree, which I have contemplated removing.  But my heart is gradually being softened by it's winning ways....It seems healthy with no chlorosis (unlike most of the other poor camellias grandma was so fond of shoe horning in everywhere...), glossy evergreen foliage which I must remind myself is really very useful  - I know I don't currently have enough evergreen stuff in the garden, especially the circle bed, which is after all, the main view from the lounge and kitchen windows in the winter.  My concern was that she is very crimson red (but at least with no hint of salmon or orange) and so might clash with the magnolia when it is out?  However, in spring I'm often grateful for any colour I can get after the winter.  She should also at least sit happily with the bright and brash scarlets, purples and oranges I tend to veer towards for my tulips and wallflowers...Can you hear me convincing myself???!  I worried that she was a dreadful partner next to my precious beloved Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' who is right behind...and actually if truth be said it is Gertrude who is in the wrong place really.  But I'm terrified to try and move her in case I lose her.  Is it just me or do camellia just not belong with roses?  Hopefully though the camellia will no longer be in flower when Gertrude begins to warm up her operatic muscles...I can't remember back to last May-June if they were out at the same time.  We shall monitor closely...

As yet unidentified Camellia, under the magnolia tree

 Of course, I could not resist a quick stroke of the magnolia buds while I was in the vicinity...

Furry fat buds on the Magnolia just waiting for their moment!

 And look what has appeared after I cleared away all the dead crocosmia leaves by Gertrude's feet! (This crocosmia - not flowering so no idea what colour - is another target to be rehomed somewhere more appropriate).  Sunshine in a plant...

Magic clump of sunshine yellow crocus amidst the crocosmia clump

This feels like it has been quite a useful exercise for me to ponder on things and remind me to put markers in before these treasures disappear below ground again! I may try to have a similar wander around the veg patch if the weather stays friendly.

xxx