Beating the Weather

We made some very early hay when the weather was very settled. A lot more has been cut and baled in the last few days. The weather hasn’t been so great but all is now safely gathered in and only just in time.

The clouds were threatening on one side of the sky and the sun shining in the other direction. Great conditions for photographs but not so great for farmers.

Luckily other than a few spots the weather held out until they were nearly finished.

Since they came in there has been a heavy shower of rain.

A New Member

This week we have acquired a new “family member “. Farmer daughter has got a kitten. Meet Boris.

He’s rather cute isn’t he? Far more attractive than his namesake. No political reason for the name choice but just seemed and a appropriate lockdown choice.

This morning he came to spend the morning in my kitchen while she was working. Poppy wasn’t bothered but Tiggy wasn’t very impressed.

No Excuses

Where have I been? Perhaps you haven’t missed me! I really haven’t got any real excuses for disappearing for several weeks. I could blame the light evenings when I don’t really stop until after dark. Anyway here I am and ready for a catch up.

What have you all been doing? I shall be calling round to see you all! We have been enjoying a tentative relaxation of lockdown rules. Nothing too dramatic but we have been meeting up with a few friends and relatives. Step one has been to buy a gazebo to allow us to manage a little outside entertaining. I have even managed to hold an afternoon book club. Definitely better than a Zoom book club meeting.

A really big step is having my mum over for Sunday lunch which we finally achieved last Sunday. She did declare that she felt like a leper with us all keeping to the other end of the table! Getting her over is the big thing. Farmer Husband has acted as a masked chauffeur with mum travelling in the back. 

Getting together with the younger generation has been a massive bonus. Seeing one of my great nephews was lovely and he was delighted to visit the farm.

I have even had a cuddle with the newest member of the family. Farmer Husband’s first great nephew born at the very beginning of lockdown.

Infinite pleasure from such ordinary happenings!

Some Details at The Newt

I have already done a couple of posts about the gardens called The Newt that we visited last week. Today I want to show you a little more of the detail that we noticed on our visit. The attention to detail and the craftsmanship is quite evident around the site. This picture shows the intricate work and patterns even in all the gutter grids. 

The apple symbol reflects the importance of this fruit in the garden. When the garden is open fully there are daily apple pressing demonstrations. Home produced apple juice and cider is on sale to add to your preordered picnic. The nucleus of everything apple is in the egg shaped Parabola where a maze of apple trees consists of 250 varieties. The trees have been trained into shapes as young saplings either around frames or fanned against the walls. 

You can see from the following pictures that espaliers of young apple trees are trained all around the exterior walls and interior walls of the Parabola.

The stonework in the walls, paths and features has all been immaculately constructed. The ironwork is the creation of truly skilled craftsmen. Look carefully at this gate. Can you see the hand incorporated in the ironwork of the hinge?

Then lastly here are a couple more items for the SPSH. Who can identify this tree? It’s leaves just about qualify for No. 8 A leaf longer than my hand. (Fortunately my hands are quite small!)

 The social distancing queue system for picking up your picnic speaks without words for a rule that we are rapidly becoming familiar with and is my first find for No. 7 Something that displays a rule.

Amphibious Animal Statues

Today I am taking you on another visit to The Newt, a garden in Somerset which has been renovated and added to in the last year or so. There is in fact still work in progress as you walk around.

 The artisan work and architecture that has gone into the garden is quite extraordinary. The stone work is all to a very high standard. This wall depicts a statue of the creature that the garden itself is named after. A Great Crested Newt.

A possibility perhaps for Alternative A of the SPSH, a statue of an animal....

It could also qualify for No. 18 Something that can go in water. 

There are more of these delightful creatures to be found in the vicinity of The Cascade.

I believe that at times there is a bit of a water fight going on here with sensors which trigger the water to squirt when you are passing.

You can see that there is a lot of intricate floor work made from pebbles.

I am not sure I want to meet one of these on a dark night.

They might be cleverly designed and made but you can’t call them pretty.

Union Jack Colours

Each summer I join Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards with her Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt which you can find the details of  here. Mary-Lou has chosen carefully to reflect that we cannot necessarily go far from home.

No. 3 is Something with the colour of your country’s flag. We have not been out much but as I mentioned yesterday we did visit some gardens called The Newt on a very quiet day. There are a series of gardens called the Colour Gardens which are ideal for this prompt.

The three gardens are red, blue and white to reflect the colours of the British flag. It also says that these same colours cover several other national flags too.

The windows and doors in the fencing give the visitor the chance to view through to each of the other gardens.

The red was particularly vibrant.

We had a social distance chat with the gardener who explained that the white garden has  to be continually trimmed to keep the silver and white colours removing for example dead allium heads as they go yellow and ornamental thistle tops.

Here is Farmer Husband showing off his lockdown hairdo!

Finally a little bit of the blue room.

5 in 5 : A New Garden

Today I am joining Sandie at Itchifingers with her meme 5 in 5. The idea is that on the 5th of each month you take your camera and take photos for 5 minutes and then choose 5 of them. This month I took mine at a local garden called The Newt near Bruton in Somerset.

We are just taking baby steps back into the outside world so going out for the afternoon was a big deal. We went just for the afternoon and equipped ourselves with a flask of tea and cakes. The weather was slightly drizzly so we thought there was a good chance that our chosen location wouldn’t be too busy. Our niece had been the week before and assured us that there was plenty of open space and most importantly that there were adequate clean toilets.

The Newt is a relatively new garden that has a massive amount of work done to it. I shall be showing quite a lot over the next few days. Today however here are my five taken near and in the Cottage Garden.

1. Looking from the Victorian Fragrance Garden down the cascade.

2. The above mentioned Victorian Fragrance Garden

3. The traditional cottage in the middle of The Cottage garden.

4. A close up look.

6. Red hot pokers give a spectacular show in the Cottage Garden.