our garden....

is in a bit of a state at the moment.

We have not done any real gardening for months - most of 2006 it was largely ignored, or at least I should say I didn't do much apart from sit outside on the days it was dry and not too scorching hot. Tone did some weeding and we both mowed the lawn when it got too long.

But it has now got to the point where it is in minor chaos. The pittosporum which is about 35 feet tall (it's only supposed to get to 20 feet max) has split in half and one half has collapsed over onto the garden. It seems to be alive - it has not snapped off, nor has it uprooted, it appears to have bent at ground level! It's a real shame. It's one of only 4 trees in our small garden and it's the only evergreen one - which of course is why it suffered in the wind. And the birds love it.

Two of the fence panels on that side of the garden were already knackered - and they our neighbours responsibility, but he disagrees, so they've been down for a few years - since the last very high winds. The one behind the pittosporum has gone now too.

Tone has already planted a few bulbs last week, so today I have finally got round to planting a lot more - rather last minute as the earliest should flower in about 8 weeks time. There are still some left to plant, Tone will do those tomorrow - weather and RA permitting.

Altogether there are around 170 crocus, 20 tulips, 75 narcissi, 75 iris and 10 allium. We also have the large pot on the porch with white tulips from Jude and Hywel's wedding (see pic taken by my Dad), that we added narcissi and crocus to that are shooting away.

Most of them were bought cheap, because it's late for planting them, from either Garners or a stall on Hanley outdoor market - yesterday I got 6 packs of bulbs for a fiver - bargain!

It should be a riot of colour from late Feb to June! - I'll post photos as they progress......

Gill

Gill Gill died last week.
Gill was so full of energy - where has that gone now?
She was Director of B Arts from the start in 1985 when they were a co-operative, and what a wonderful organisation they are now. She was a Loud Mouth Woman* and that is how I will remember her - the last time I saw her we were singing the bass line together. Thanks for your voice, your laughter and your energy Gill.


Loud Mouth Women is the singing group that I am a member of.

Happy 2007

It's a new year and you deserve to be very happy throughout it and beyond!

Tone and I didn't make it to Zoe and Warren's earlier. Tone hadn't the energy and although the sky was beautifully clear all evening and the moonlight was very bright he couldn't even face getting his telescope out. We went to Scott and Cath's for a couple of hours. It was lovely seeing lots of friends. It was a big effort though so we came home at 11 ish.

Tone got a second wind so I encouraged him to get out his telescope as the sky was still clear. I also had the idea to take a photo of the moon. Tone took some pictures and this is the best result. We saw the moon through the telescope - it was fantastic - all the craters at the edge of the shadow looked very high. We tried to find the three stars of Orion's belt but the scope was not aligned so we couldn't - we plan to take the telescope to Cumbria when we go. If we get a clear night, we should see a lot as there will be a lot less light pollution.