How does your garden grow?

I have been putting some time into the garden - I hope it's the start of a lifetime of learning to grow food and flowers. I want to be like my Nanny and Grandad who produced a garden full of veg year after year just by habit, they knew the names of every plant ever. 

But back to me, dithering with a watering can in my pyjamas, hoodie and wellington boots, contemplating sage flowers, flowerbed dreams, our moss filled lawn, slugs, cherry blossom and cups of fresh black mint tea. 

I am hoping my garden will produce the following things to eat this year: cherries, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans and apples as well as the rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, basil, peashoots and lemons in the conservatory. We shall see. If I can get my dwarf beans past the slugs I will be surprised. They are growing so slowly and the vile beasts have bypassed my egg shells, coffee grounds and yeasty yoghurt pot slug traps. I like all animals except slugs. The wet weather this week is not helping.

They grow so much every day, potatoes are very satisfying for a novice like me 

The wind and rain has chucked all the blossoms to the ground but I hope the bees that were floating around it when we had the sun have pollinated them enough for cherries later 

You can't imagine the smell this makes - it's just gorgeous. Lemon tree

Next doors apple tree will give us apple pies this autumn (we have permission already granted to pick them!)

My lone strawberry plant I rescued from the old flat. The black Moroccan mint grew back from nothing, I thought it was dead! - it makes perfect tea. 

Two tomatoes and some heritage sweet peas

Raspberries

The inherited strawberry bed which I have hardly touched seems to be happening

My poor beans

This patch of completely shaded ground will be a flower bed soon. Some things won't work here because the fence means it will get no direct sun at all.

Inspecting a slug

Indoor herbs

Indoor peashoots to eat raw or cooked - insanely easy and quick to grow - plus they are ridiculously over priced in supermarkets

As for the house - plans are coming together - a builder is sorting the leak in what will be Mostyn's bedroom this week - and then we can start decorating his room. We have plans for some building work to make more storage upstairs and we need to get damp proofing done downstairs (possibly the most expensive and boring use of hard earned money ever) and then we can sort out the living room - which is easily the ugliest room in the house. It will happen.

Work

I have been working a lot in my new job in last two weeks, hence my poor neglected blog. I really have not done much else, except see some dear friends, grow some pea shoots, begin a freaky sourdough starter and not do as much freelance or housework as I should have.

It is, however, an utter privilege to work in such a stunning location and inside a monument with such a long and interesting history. Visitors gape when we tell them parts of the castle are almost 1000 years old. I love to look at the the little carved medieval man with his hands on his hips that looks out from one of the tiny windows of the giftshop, the stolen Roman tiles running through the huge walls of the Great Tower, the oldest surviving wooden castle doors in Europe (800 years old), the natural balcony over the wide tidal river which flows back and forth throughout the day.

I lock and unlock the giant doors to the Buttery, tidy rows of detailed plastic knights, maidens and rearing horses, sell ceramic thimbles to elderly English visitors and chat to the Americans, Germans and Australians who have, bemusingly, come in coaches to see what Wales has to offer.

I love to look out upon the virtually unchanged view of the river bend, imagining exactly who and how long ago watched over the same scenery, crows circling the high towers and seagulls wheeling and darting down to the fast water.

(Not the oldest doors.) You should see the key to this baby, it's almost as big as my forearm!

Walking down to work in the mornings when the sky is clear, bright and cool.

Proof I was out of the house at 7pm on Saturday night.

This is the dress I am going to wear every day this Summer. I just know it. I'm so ready.

Attempted gardening

I got out in the garden yesterday for the first time this year, after enthusiastically buying some plants at the garden centre this weekend. It's only a small garden but it's still fun to be in. I am eagerly awaiting my cherry blossom.

A red thing, lavender and a fuchsia  I also planted some phacelia seeds to encourage bees that I got free from the Soil Association.

Under those planks (stupid cats) are some dwarf beans and two raspberry bushes that I was given from a colleague before I left my old job... here's hoping they produce something we can eat - I am nervous as I've never managed to grow anything before.

My inherited strawberry bed - I planted some sweet peas at the back, probably not what you are supposed to do but we'll soon find out ... I love sweet peas, they remind me of my nanny. Should I clear the strawberry beds of the old leaves? I don't know what I'm supposed to do!

I also sorted out the conservatory to make a space we can use now it's not freezing cold anymore.

Huge excitement at watching a snail slide over the paving stones

My kitchen is coming together. I need to put up a rack for my saucepans and that's it.

A makeshift drawing desk - I need to get him a proper chair and table!

The view from the sofa

Eating Seasonably

Just putting this here for my own reference! From here.

Grey = Winter, Green = Spring, Yellow = Summer, Red = Autumn

Wales Goes Pop Photos

I only played in four of Andrew Paul Regan's songs and just caught Lawrence Made Me Cry's set (really lovely) before I had to go back home to a sick toddler so my involvement was very minimal, but here are some pictures with me in (well.. this is my blog) from Wales Goes Pop anyway!

With Laura on vocals from i am me.

by simon ayre

not technically me...by simon ayre

by simon ayre

by... my sister!

Inspiration IX

Hans Thoma, Auf der Waldwiese,1876

August von Kreling,  Das Märchen vom Prinzen Carnaval und der Prinzessin Fastnacht 1846

      David K. De Long, Interior, 1953

George Inness, The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1867

Bartolomeo Passarotti, Study of a Dragon, 16th century

Erwin Stolz (1896-1987) “On the Way”, Linocut, 1920s

František Kobliha (Czech, 1877-1962)

Kometenbuch 1587

Jan Jansz. van der Heyden, Corner of a Library, 1711

François-Auguste Ravier  Environs de Crémieu, étude d’arbres au printemps Dauphiné c. 1849

Richard Dadd, Sketch of an Idea for Crazy Jane, 1855

Insan Jaag Utha (1959)

The mender, the maker, the glad undertaker

The dust of the rivers does murmur and weep
Hard and sharp laughter that cuts to the bone
Ah, but every face within your face does show
Going gladly now to give himself his own

And twelve yellow willows shall fellow the shallows
Small waves and thunder be my pillow
Upon the gleaming water two swans that swim
And every place shall be my native home

I drove slowly up to St Briavels, the village that hangs 800ft above sea levels on the English side of the Wye river, listening to the Incredible String Band with my son nodding in the back of the car.

Large puffs of snow floated towards my windscreen from the slate sky, the air so dry and cold I didn't need my wipers on. I looked down and saw a farmer carrying something across a field in the bitter wind, the metal dome of an old pigsty behind him.

The Norman Castle at St Briavels that is now a hostel. A few years ago I played at a lovely wedding here. The bride had long purple hair and it was alcohol-free event, the long years of alcoholism explained by a tearful groom in his speech.

The east gate like a fortress dissolve it away
The west gate like a prison O come break it down
Island I remember living here
Wandering beneath the empty skies

In time her hair grew long and swept the ground
And seven blackbirds carried it out behind
It bore the holy imprint of her mind
As green-foot slow she moved among the seasons


Living in this part of the world makes you feel connected to history in a way that living in cities and suburbs don't. Ancient farms still stand while their barns collapse gently into the dark soil - the marks of a thousand years of community, pastures and land use are everywhere. Damp wells stand in squares, blacksmith barn conversions dot the road sides, one tiny church squats within sight of the next and village shops are still housed in buildings that have held commerce for hundreds of years.

The great man, the great man, historians his memory
Artists his senses, thinkers his brain
Labourers his growth
Explorers his limbs
And soldiers his death each second
And mystics his rebirth each second
Businessmen his nervous system
No-hustle men his stomach
Astrologers his balance
Lovers his loins
His skin it is all patchy
But soon will reach one glowing hue
God is his soul
Infinity his goal
The mystery his source
And civilization he leaves behind
Opinions are his fingernails

It sounds crazy but every time I drive around the countryside here I feel so entrenched by the past, I cannot occupy my mind with anything but chilblains, blacksmith forges, wooden buckets, vegetable patches, telegrams, woodcutters, water bubbling on smoky open fires, laundry days, Roman occupation and wild Silures. No plastic, no internet, no phones - just cold, hard life with no option but to work to the bone to survive.

I am consciously trying to allow this feeling to infiltrate my own life, cut out the dross, live more sustainably, do whatever I can to make money. We are all struggling in the same way our ancestors struggled on this same ground. It helps to feel connected to the past and I now realise I had forgotten what it felt like.

The cobbler, the maiden
The mender and the maker
The sickener and the twitcher
And the glad undertaker
The shepherd of willows
The harper and the archer
All sat down in one boat together
Troubled voyage in calm weather. (excerpts from Maya)

Navigation

This week was a blur of sickness, sleep, teething toddler and, sliced in between the oblivion, a job interview.  If all goes well I will be working from April to October this year in a vast Norman Castle for a few hours a week. I am all about preserving history, right down to the music, so I am very excited to start

That is just another strange happening in my life, just as last weekend I found myself in a Social Club in a less than salubrious part of Cardiff, playing my violin to people who didn't care and almost wishing it was 2006 and the smoking ban was not in force as anything would have been nicer to smell than the odour of 70s chairs, beer, sweat dripping from the skirting boards and the aged and hideous carpets.

Eco Living list additions:

I have finally opened a Triodos savings account to replace my NastyWest one after meaning to do so for the ages. (Is it me or is the name 'Triodos' completely unmemorable? I've tried to remember it so many times over the last couple of years and it just instantly disappears out of my mind). When I have any money that I can safely need 30 days notice to get hold of I'll be opening an ISA with them.

Triodos is an 'ethical' bank: "At Triodos Bank, we believe that profit doesn't need to be at the expense of the world's most pressing environmental problems. That's why we finance organisations from organic food and farming businesses and pioneering renewable energy enterprises, to recycling companies and nature conservation projects."


We have switched to OVO energy suppliers who aim to use more renewable energy. They are also based in Gloucestershire so are really local, and so far they seem good.

I am getting some raspberry plants from my colleague who has too many. I have decided to try growing tomatoes in the conservatory.

Please let Spring arrive soon? Now have to work out what to do with a huge amount of carrots, parsnips, cabbage and turnips that I have acquired. I'm thinking mash, gratin? Roasted?

Links & Inspiration

This image was the inspiration for my quite disturbing 'Teratoma' drawing from this post

There is a glorious Aubrey Beardsley series going on at the Poul Webb blog, it's in 7 parts and has so many works that I've never seen before. His blog is definitely worth following if you are interested in art. I like Beardsley for his art of course, but also because we share the same birthday and I went to the same college that he did.

Intricate soft sculpted monsters and dwellings are slowing starting to fill Melissa Sue Stanley's Etsy shop and I for one am excited:

Click here to read the post I did on Melissa Sue Stanley's work

A couple both engrossed in their wireless devices. 1906. For more on my love for Punch Cartoons see this post.

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865 - 1953) - A Gust of Wind

A mysterious and much argued over map that if real, implies knowledge of America far before Columbus - if anyone knows anything about this please let me know!

Alan Lee - Farewell to Gandalf

Osman Hamdi Bey, The Tortoise Trainer, 1906-07

Georgia O’Keeffe and Eastborn Smith in Twilight Canyon, Lake Powell, 1964 -by Todd Webb

A shirt from Zara that is very impractical and I will not buy but I like all the same.

My current desktop background. Markarth from Skyrim.