RHS Tatton Park 2016

Today was our fifth year going to RHS Tatton Park, and it's been an excellent day. I actually went yesterday, too, with my mum, and we had a brilliant day. It meant I'd scouted ahead, effectively, for Liz and my visit, which was quite helpful in many ways.

We may, just possibly, have gone mad on the plant buying.

How to cram a lot of plants into a Corsa (both © Ian 2016)

We came home with a lot of plants. 92 of them, in fact.

• For the herb garden:
• 2 Germander 'Summer Sunshine
• 3 Black physic root (Veronicastrum)
• 3 Winter savory
• Chilean guava
• 2 Calamint
• Banana mint
• Gold-tipped marjoram
• Creeping white thyme
• Chocolate peppermint
• 4 Oregano 'Country Cream'
• 2 Hedge germander
• 2 Betony
• Meadowsweet
• 3 Ornamental oregano 'Hopley's Variety'
• For the colour wheel:
• Yellows:
• 2 Inula hookeri
• Helenium 'Waltraut'
• Reds:
• 3 Rudbeckia 'Cherokee Sunset'
• 4 Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty'
• 3 Potentilla 'Monsieur Rouillard'
• 3 Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising'
• 3 Campanula punctata 'Alba flora'
• Blues/Purples:
• Campanula rotundifolia 'Harebell'
• 3 Verbena rigida
• Russian sage
• 5 Scabious 'Blue Note'
• 5 Caryopteris 'White Surprise'
• Euphorbium 'Ascot Rainbow'
• Whites:
• 3 Aralia cordata 'Sun King'
• 3 Fatsia japonica 'Spider's Web'
• Lychnis flos-cucula (Ragged Robin) 'White Robin'
• For the long border:
• 4 Scabious 'Barocca'
• 3 Geranium wallichianum 'Havana Blues'
• 3 Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'
• For the pond garden:
• Gunnera magellanica
• For the quince bed:
• Heuchera 'Cinnabar Silver'
• Heuchera 'Grape Soda'
• Tiarella 'Pink Sky Rocket'

There were also four climbers, to go on some trellising (next to the driveway, and next to the greenhouse): two winter jasmines (Jasminum nudiflorum) and two evergreen clematis (C. armandii and named variety 'Appleblossom').

Some other photos from the show:

An impressive, if expensive, addition to a garden (© Ian 2016)

The plant crèche (© Ian 2016)

Lovely calm planting (© Ian 2016)

Chainsaw carved Gruffalo (© Ian 2016)

Can you spot the red valerian? (© Ian 2016)

Wonderful foliage collection (© Ian 2016)

Cambridge

We've had a very enjoyable weekend in Cambridge, with some of our oldest friends.

Heading towards Clare College, Cambridge (© Ian 2016)

The Gardens of Clare College, Cambridge (© Ian 2016)

Pond garden, Clare College gardens (© Ian 2016)

The Bridge of Sighs, from the Kitchen Bridge, St John's College, Cambridge (© Ian 2016)

We had a lovely picnic on the backs, and spent a lot of time chatting, drinking tea, and playing games. Just as it should be.

Bee Platform

For many years, I've wanted to keep honeybees. We're finally getting round to it, partly because we discovered that a colleague of Liz's keeps them, and is set up to provide equipment and colonies. They need, obviously, somewhere to go, and we decided that one of the clearings on the hillside was ideal. However, the ground slopes rather dramatically, so we needed to create a stable and flat platform for the hives to go on, as well as stand on when working on them.

Bee Platform (© Ian 2016)

I don't like to do things by halves! The platform's about 8' by 5', which is big enough for two hives (with space for one or two more later); because of the slope, the right hand edge is only slightly above ground level—but the balustraded edge is about 4' tall. I think this justifies a construction. It's made of 100mm posts in drive-in stake/supports, with 6x2" joists and subjoists, with 6x1.5" decking, and although we need to make a set of steps, it's basically good to go. The hives will go on the back (right) edge, with the entrances facing uphill (away from the prevailing weather) towards the heather.

Cat basket/trug (© Ian 2016)

While we've been busy, Chess found a comfortable spot to sleep.

Wood

I managed a mid-week mow of the lawn, which always makes things run better, as it doesn't have to fit in at the weekend. That was nice, because I then had yesterday to spend with my sister, playing badminton, and going to a local dog shelter's show.

Today, we met Liz's' parents for lunch in Halifax (while their fosterling was at a contact session with her brother) and then after that at home. After they'd gone, it was wood stacking time! We're making decent progress on getting the driveway cleared, and the wood shelter refilled.

RHS Harlow Carr Flower Show

This weekend was the RHS Harlow Carr flower show, which we've never been to before, but made it to. The parking is off site, with a shuttle bus, which meant we had to carry everything back on a bus...

...which was inevitably a lot/more than intended, given the number of good displays and stands.

For the colour wheel purple bed (© Ian 2016)

The rest of the plants! (© Ian 2016)

The geraniums, Purple Ghost, have nice foliage, and should flower soon. The Mathiasella bupleuroides have—as you'd guess—very similar flowers to the Bupleureum rotundifolium we've grown in the colour wheel. However, unlike the annual, this perennial will stick around, which makes life easier.

The cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) are for the herb garden. Instead of making more trellis pyramids, we're going to alternate them with the cardoons. They're perennial, and reasonably evergreen, so they should form a softer, but still architectural, and living repeating element. They're not huge, but the grower seems to have similar conditions to us, and thought they'd get on well.

Ideal Home

Yesterday I went to the Ideal Homes Show at the Trafford Centre, with my parents. I've never been to either show or centre, so it was interesting from that perspective, and the show was fun.

There were a lot of good exhibits—from one or more of a culinary, practical, or aesthetic standpoint. For instance, reasonable fakes of timber framed windows in uPVC.

Sash window (© Ian 2016)

Candle holders fashioned from the oak stave of a barrel (© Ian 2016)

A rather high-class summer house (© Ian 2016)

Modern take on Victorian tiles (© Ian 2016)

An array of quilted upholstery (© Ian 2016)

A TV unit that could fit in to a more traditionally furnished room (© Ian 2016)

Wood fired pizza oven! (© Ian 2016)

Inside a summer house... (© Ian 2016)

...with a quirky exterior (© Ian 2016)

Today, Liz and I actually went back to the Trafford Centre for shopping purposes. And an ice cream.

Long Weekend and New Start

I've spent most of this weekend in Thirsk, relaxing thoroughly with a lot of badminton and table tennis, some films, and a large quantity of coffee. It's been really good; I came home mid-afternoon today.

I've actually just bought an espresso machine, which will hopefully arrive soon, having discovered how much I enjoy lattes (which have been instrumental, really, in learning to enjoy coffee without sugar).

Today is Liz and my eighth wedding anniversary. Over the last few weeks, we've decided that neither of us want to separate, and we'll be remaining together. It's going to be tough, and involve a lot of work, but I'm hopeful.

On the bank of Loch Awe (© REM 2008)

Kent

It's been a weekend in Kent, with David and Ann. I really enjoyed it: plenty of food and games, and a visit to Emmett's Garden.

Wedding cake tree (Cornus controversa 'Variegata') (© Ian 2016)

Lovely bright rhododendron (© Ian 2016)

Bracts and flowers on a hankerchief tree (Davidia involucrata

) (© Ian 2016)

Also known as a dove tree (the bracts are meant to look like roosting doves) (© Ian 2016)

It makes a very pretty tree, though it's quite slow growing (© Ian 2016)

Perennial borders (© Ian 2016)

A new (well, being renovated) pond (© Ian 2016)

Burger

Yesterday, I had lunch with Cath & Jason at a new burger place in Lindley (delicious; a blue-cheese sauce'd burger, with sweet potato fries), which was a lot of fun. The rest of the weekend has been effective, but less outright fun: a lot of cleaning, tidying and sorting inside—and I've managed to do a load of weeding and mow the lawn.

Thirsk

I've spent the weekend in Thirsk, which has been very relaxing.

Earlier in the week, I made a little door for the soot hatch in the chimney in the master bedroom. It will need securing, when I re-point the chimney breast, but I like it.

Chimney breast in the master bedroom (© Ian 2016)

Hall and Woodwork

My mum came through for another weekend of decorating, and we've got loads done.

We: repainted the entrance hall, and the last niggling bits of paintwork upstairs; repainted most of the windowsills; cut and attached the skirting boards downstairs (and a few bits upstairs); finished opening up the fireplace in the front guest room; put the cornices on the fitted wardrobes; did the last bit of tiling (fiddly bits I'd never finished!) in the guest bathroom; replaced a power socket in the utility room (that's been on the to-do list for three years, and is the completion of a job itself on the list for three years—things get done, eventually...); put back up ten shelves in the master bed and dressing room; and repaired the floor in the dining room. We also vacuumed quite a lot, and I believe all the windows & frames were cleaned.

We drank a lot of coffee.

Garden Design

Yesterday I went to Wilmslow to have lunch with a friend from my old job (and her newly augmented family). They've been in the house for a couple of years, and have just finished a major extension, which means they're turning attention to the garden. We spent quite a while wandering round, thinking about what they might do. I've suggested a beech hedge to...well, disguise a trampoline, and compartmentalize the garden, as well as some ideas for a couple of beds (a sharply draining rockery one that I think would be good for herbs, and a herbaceous one in front of an established hedge).

I got home mid-afternoon, and my mum joined me to help decorating. It was a late night (she was indefatigable and determined), and a productive day today, so we managed to paint the master bedroom, the dressing room, most of both bathrooms, and the sewing room.

Window Reveals

Another busy week and weekend. I've been working on window reveals and boards upstairs, getting them fitted, secured, filled, and so on, ready to paint. It's rather time-consuming, but I am winning. Evenings this week have been spent putting skirting board on upstairs, and plastering the chimney breast in my bedroom. That's looking really good, now.

The re-plastered chimney breast in the master bedroom (© Ian 2016)

Porch Floor

Most of the weekend has been spent laying a new floor in the storm porch, to bring it up to the same level as the floor in the preservatory (which, in turn, was raised to be similar to the floor inside).

The floor, as it was, is large York stone slabs, on the same level as the drive (and, therefore, the old garage floor's level, which was raised for insulation and damp-proofing reasons).

The original porch floor (© Ian 2016)

I had a set of new stones delivered, which then needed trimming and arranging to suitably cover the floor. As ever, I needed more mortar than I expected (I never get it right!).

Working out where each stone should go (© Ian 2016)

Eventually, I managed to get them all laid, by the end of Saturday.

The laid slabs (both © Ian 2016)

And today I pointed them. I used a mortar dye to get a buff colour. It's a little mustard-y right now, but I think it will cure to more what I intend. I hope.

The completed and pointed floor (© Ian 2016)

After that was done, I've pricked out brassicas (purple sprouting, sprouts, kale...) into module trays; planted out the dahlias (I've not potted them up and grown them on, though, so we'll see how they do), and sown some of the seeds needed in the colour wheel.

Potatoes

For most of the weekend, Rebekah and her family have been staying with me, mainly so she could go to a friend's 30th. However, yesterday we managed to go to a very nice pub in Blackmoorfoot, which had some good guest ales, and an extremely reasonable three-course fixed menu. We walked round the reservoir afterwards, which the dog and ten-month-old enjoyed (the rest of us squelched, rather). In the evening, Dan and I went to another pub, closer to home, to while away the evening with more guest ales...and gin. It was very pleasant.

Today's been rather more productive. They set off after breakfast, to time travelling with a morning nap; I went out to plant my potatoes (all Lady Christl, this year), and did a couple of hours of weeding. The herb garden and colour wheel are looking much tidier, now. I've sown broad beans in the former; there are flowers to direct-sow soon in the latter, which I'll try to do this week, as the weather is gradually improving.

My onions still haven't arrived, so I can't plant them out yet—hopefully soon.

I came back in, and put the skirting board on the wall behind the desk on the landing, and have filled it. A quick coat of gloss tomorrow evening, and the desk can go back in place,

I realised too late that I should probably have mown the lawn, as I think evenings this week will be damp. Never mind. More positively, though: the frogspawn in the pond is doing really well. There's loads—I'd guess seven clumps.

Frogspawn as laid 14^th March (© Ian 2016)

The first little wrigglers have emerged, now, and the rest will probably do so over the next ten days. The survival fraction is atrocious, but hopefully it'll mean I'll have half a dozen new frogs in the pond.

Frogspawn two weeks later (© Ian 2016)

This evening, I've made some seed bread which looks rather good. It's about 40% white flour, 40% wholemeal, and 20% rye, with sunflower, poppy and sesame seeds, and golden linseeds.

Multi-seed bread (© Ian 2016)

Easter

I've had a really relaxing couple of days over at my parents' & sister's, with an Easter egg hunt (yes, I'm 33), an hour of badminton, and the finales to two TV series we've all been watching. It's been restorative, not least after the busy couple of days painting.

When I left my last job, in January, one of my colleagues' many generous presents was a pack of Dutch irises. I didn't want to plant them at home—I'm going to be forced to leave so many plants behind, and they'd be one more to move, and a difficult one; so it would have been almost like wasting them. Instead, I've planted them in my mum's garden. I hope they'll look good this year, and I might 'collect' them later—but if not, at least I can still see them there.

I got home a couple of hours ago, and have put the top-coat of Timeless paint onto the guest en suite walls (which was where we'd left off on Saturday). It needs a bit of brush work, but that would have meant opening a new tin of paint, which I don't want to do at this moment.

I have a slightly daunting, and rather long list of things I need to get done before I can put this house on the market. It's 102 things, in fact, quite aside from the day to day (cleaning, firing up the biomass heating, mowing the lawn...), and doesn't cover any of the other things I'm going to have to do before too long—like instructing estate agents, finding a conveyancer, getting a new mortgage, and packing everything (there's a lot of 'everything'). I don't think I'm going to be bored this year.

However, this weekend I have managed, with help, to get four more things done. Seven out of 102, now.

Painting

My mum came across yesterday morning, and we've spent two days painting walls upstairs. It's been a bit of a mammoth effort, with a couple of long, continuous days, but we've managed to paint both guest bedrooms, the guest bathroom (all but, anyway), the landing, and make a start on the master en suite. It was all bare plaster, most of which I've applied in the last couple of months, so it needed a watered down white emulsion, a full-strength white emulsion, and a top-coat of the off-white we painted downstairs in, 'Timeless'. We had a brief break on Friday to go and look at a house that's on the market (very unlikely to become the new Yorkshire Cottage), and a rather tasty curry takeaway last night. Today didn't start too promisingly, with a five-hour stint getting the first coat on the walls of the front guest room and the landing. Some of the plaster in the guestroom, mainly on the un-changed wall and around the fireplace, was a real pain to cover properly, and the landing is rather large, in perimeter terms. In the end, we got there, though, and it looks really good. Everything's still in disarray, partly so I can put skirting boards on without having to move anything, and in the morning I'll drive mum home, and stay until some time on Monday.

Skirting Boards and Seeds

Lots of small jobs, it seems, today. I've sown a load of vegetable and flower seeds, including about half the sweet peas. I need to get the other half done, soon, too, and there are more vegetables for the coming weeks. If the weather keeps looking promising, I shall direct sow the colour wheel seeds soon.

I've set the seed potatoes chitting, which I realised I failed to do earlier. Never mind: they're sitting out in the preservatory, and I'll plant them in a week or two. The onions, which I'll probably plant at about the same time, are on order.

The stone paving slabs for re-laying the floor in the storm porch were delivered this morning. It'll be a week or two until I get to laying them, I think. We'll see: I might take a day off and do them sooner, so that I can get the new doors ordered.

I have skirting boards (delivered last Wednesday) ready to put up all through the house. I started by trying to cut them by hand (with the aid of a mitre box), but they're a bit tall (169mm), and it's been an annoying process, with decidedly inaccurate cuts. Fortunately, one of my neighbours has a proper 240V mitre saw, with a (frankly oversized) circular saw and bevel mount. I've got on and cut almost all the boards for upstairs, and will try to get them fixed over the next couple of weeks.

Fens

On Friday, I travelled down to near Ely, to spend the weekend with Ann, Alan, and their two boys. They moved home a couple of months ago, from near Newmarket, to an 1888-built rectory. It is a fabulous building, with high-altitude ceilings and dado rails, picture rails, and mouldings, all of which I love, so I forgave them for putting me in the servants' quarters in the attic.

Saturday was a reasonably warm, and dry day, so we went out to Anglesey Abbey—which, actually, we went to last time we visited, in February 2015. I appear to have completely failed to note our trip, but it was 21-22 February, and we bought a few 'George' irises which are looking good about now.

Anyway, this time, I bought three hellebores H. lividus, which have really interesting foliage markings, and smaller flowers; and three named snowdrop varieties which were well discounted.

We also admired their leafmould.

Leafmould heap at Anglesey Abbey (© Ian 2016)

Cow & Calf

I spent today visiting Elizabeth, Robert, and their two in Ilkley. I've not been to Ilkley before, so it was nice to see something of the scenery, and lovely to see them all. Their eldest is currently preoccupied with Star Wars. Fortunately, it is a subject I know well, so we had a good time.

Three views near the Cow & Calf, Ilkley (© Ian 2016)

Mothering Sunday

I've been at my parents' for the weekend, which has been lovely; film, cheese, table-tennis. Back after lunch today, and Philip and Rachel have been with me mid-afternoon until tomorrow mid-morning, on their way back home from Manchester.

I need to start getting on with sowing seeds—mainly vegetables, but also sweet peas.

Firewood

Just a quick note: I've spent most of today sawing, splitting, and stacking a load of firewood (mostly chestnut, which is a pleasure to work with). It's not straightforward, as a one-person job, sadly. The sawing is fine, but splitting is quicker with two (one to split, the other to place on the block); and stacking is the same number of man-hours, but not divided. I took the doors off the fruit cages, which meant I could barrow straight down to the shelter (with two of us, we usually went across the middle garden and down the steps, but the steps take two of you). Still, got the load done, which is the main thing.

Fireplace and Plaster

Having had to rearrange a visit to Kent to see David and Ann, I had an unexpected weekend at home. Over the two days, I've alternated between working on the chimney breast in the master bedroom, and the stone wall in the sewing room (the old house bathroom).

The chimney breast in the master room, when we hacked the plaster off it, we discovered had been repaired with several sections of cement block (also known as breezeblocks). This was a bit disappointing, as I didn't want to re-repair in stone (partly because messing around with a necessary and functional chimney seemed unwise), but we had hoped to have an exposed stone feature in the room.

Fortunately, the repairs were not particularly extensive—unlike in the front guest room, where apart from the immediate fire surround (sides and lintel), the rest of the chimney had been rebuilt in red brick. This allowed a partial exposure of the stone. First was to remove as much of the remaining plaster from the stones, and chisel out some of the pointing. The pointing was mostly in good nick, but in order to keep it looking consistent, and as some would need replacing, I needed to cut back all of it somewhat. I used a steel brush on the drill, which worked really well at cleaning the stone. To keep dust down, I hung a polythene/cotton dust sheet to make a compartment, which did the job fairly well.

Once the brushing was complete, I sponged the stones down to get rid of the residue. There's a few places I need to do a little more work, but it's pretty good. I then used browning plaster to cover the cement block repairs, and enough of the other stones to make a transition from the plastered adjacent wall to the exposed stone. I've mostly done the finishing plaster, too, but ran out of a batch with a square foot to go—that'll have to wait until next time I've got a bucket made up.

I'm pleased with how it looks. I still need to clean the lintel/sides, and do a bit more cleaning, particularly on the left hand side where it goes towards the bathroom door.

The cleaned-up and replastered master bedroom fireplace (© Ian 2016)

The other job was plastering the stone wall in the sewing room, which required several coats of browning plaster, followed by finishing plaster. I don't expect it would win prizes, but it's fine.

I still need to do the chimney breast in the sewing room, in the same way: pull out some nails, steel brush it down, and then sponge it. They'll both then need re-pointing, with lime mortar, which is a job for later: but the sewing room one won't need any plastering, as it's wholly stone.

Chestnut

Over the past few weeks, I've been getting on with some bits and pieces: mostly plastering the first floor. I'm nearly there: a little more in the front guest room that needs to wait; a little on the landing. The master dressing room is a weekend's work, because it needs to be emptied, the wallpaper stripped, and then plastered. The sewing room needs a lot of plastering, some onto stone, which I'm leaving for now. The chimney breast in the master bed needs plastering and painting. Then there's the whole floor to paint, and the window reveals to tidy and finish.

I've a lot to do, so I'm just chipping away at it all.

This weekend, though, was a 518 mile round trip to Surrey. We ordered a load of coppiced chestnut, which will form a fence along the edge of the herb garden (a wind break, and a better definition of where it ends, visually). This was cut over the winter, and was ready for collection, so I hired a Jumbo Transit van, and drove down yesterday. I got to Lodsworth (Prickly Nut Wood) at about 2, loaded up, and got back to Liz's sister in Farnham around 3. This afternoon, I've driven back up, unloaded (loading, with three of us, was much easier than unloading single-handed!), cleaned the van, and collapsed onto the sofa. The van was surprisingly easy to drive (rear visibility aside), and I was pleased to keep the fuel consumption as good as 29mpg. Ten hours of driving later, I've about a ton of chestnut poles on the kitchen patio.

Jumbo the Transit van waiting to set off (© Ian 2016)

The House in Prickly Nut Wood (© Ian 2016)

The van full of chestnut (© Ian 2016)

Starting work on the jigsaw puzzle they represent will have to wait, though. I've several weekends away coming up, and really I need to saw, split, and stack some/most/all of the firewood on the driveway to get space to do the work.