Personal Blogs

A creative friend has created a magical garden-within-a-garden. We bought most of the plants, the pond liner and some of the materials, but we also scavenged a lot of cobbles and the wonderful Cornish limestone slabs you can see. We currently have a drought locally, so the pond is not filled yet.

This miniature pond is designed to be soothing to the eye and spirit, but also to act a wildlife sanctuary for a variett of small animals, We had hardly finished when this young hedgesparrow came really close to us. LIke robins they follow the gardener.

At night the area appears magical.

There were two birds sat on a bough

If they’ve not gone they’ll be there now.

My grandson writes:

I have cat-like reflexes. Whenever I see a cat I instantly like it.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 

A rose is a rose is a rose.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses.

He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.

It’s the time that you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.

Laurel. Very Hardy.

Our garden has a small patch of woodland, with thriving trees but the ground level plants are limited, apart from snowdrops and celandines.

So we've started working on widening the number of species, beginning with some ferns. We have acquired five kinds, three native to this country, one from China I think, and one from New Zealand. Some are deciduous so their foliage dies back in autumn, others retain their leaves throughout the seasons.

Ferns tend to like shade, but in varying degrees, so we've been trying to match their position carefully to their preferences. Not sure we have it right, it's a difficult judgement, but they can be moved later if necessary.

Not all in the ground yet, but the photo gives an idea of what we are aiming at.

Why did Santa get priority for his vaccination? Because of his underlying elf issues!

What a marvellous beginning this sonnet has:

Today a pheasant visited my garden.

I caught a glimpse a day or so back, but today she was there for a while and I was able to get this snap.

Not many people know this but I was for a short time in the Japanese police force. An unusual incident that sticks in my mind is interviewing a martial arts expert about his unruly cat. I had to see a Dan about a mog.