My garden in September

I’ve already shared the October post, and so you’ll not be surprised to see the sunflowers in full bloom. While technically they don’t fit into a ‘my garden’ post I’m including them as they’re so beautiful and because that’s where they ended up! For £3 they were quite a bargain from M&S and have reminded me how much sense it makes to grow sunflowers. Remember the ones that I grew on the allotment? Goodness, that’s five years ago!

There wasn’t a lot of garden activity this month, but the photos showed we had some great weather. It was a month for trimming and tidying up - the pyracantha below, as usual, tried to have its own way and fight back - and the berries were starting to show.

MOH almost pulled this up as a weed, and while it isn’t and he was told just that, it has grown massively from the small plant it was. It’s definitely one to try and split into smaller plants next year, as it’s such a pretty delicate thing.

The small Christmas tree was starting to bush out, hopefully it doesn’t think it’s coming inside this winter - it most certainly isn’t!

The mock orange in the background desperately needs cutting down, but as there’s as much to cut back as will be left that’s not one we’ll tackle ourselves. The cone shaped yew in front of it was one I took the hedge trimmers too, along with what I call the slopey bush right at the front of the picture. Both are a lot smaller than they were when I started, and my arms got a workout too.

MOH started one of those never ending jobs, and that’s the patio. The grout is crumbling and his plan is to replace that. I think he’s realising just how much he’s taken on, as he also wants to clean the black spot off the slabs. He’s started, and even with the best of intentions I think it’ll take a while before he finishes.

But it’ll look great when he has, and will be the perfect place for cocktails. Yes, I’m really not expecting it to be finished before spring!

My garden in October

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a garden update, and I’m really not sure why. Our garden, like any other, requires work at all times and we’re just about keeping up with it. With weekend plans and darker evenings there’s not as much time as we need, but then any gardener is likely to say that.

I decided to try and try the sunflowers which spent a good few weeks on our dining table, the messy greenhouse wasn’t the space for that though and I later added some furry and rotting heads to the compost heap, so maybe my compost will bring some surprises in the future, if I’m lucky.

The small Christmas tree is doing well, and maybe it’s sprucing itself up (sorry pun intended) for its season. Sssh, don’t say anything but it’s staying outside.

One of the discoveries of the ivy is this almost white leafed version. Ivy is usually ripped out of our garden, but this one has permission to stay, as long as it doesn’t misbehave.

You’ll know that our garden is pretty green in colour, but it’s the varieties of green that make it work. The ferns always enjoy the sun and the glossy leaves in the sunlight always look special. You wouldn’t know that most of the ferns in our garden have been rescued from a shady wall, and they’re thriving.

The sedum’s also thrive at this time of year - saving their colour for the later summer and autumn days - and don’t they just look glorious? They will only improve though as the colour darkens.

The dogwoods in pots, which at one point I thought we’d lost, are doing well and playing host to plenty of visitors, and some weeds too.

To end the month there was some pottering - these small cyclamen plug plants have been potted up and have doubled in size, feeling quite at home in the conservatory. Going outside is likely to be a bit of a shock for them, but for the time being I’m happy to have their greenery right by the back door.

Two ways to enjoy Oxford Rye, from The Oxford Artisan Distillery

This post contains items gifted by The Oxford Artisan Distillery.

Over the past eighteen months, like many people during the pandemic, we’ve drunk more at home. With pubs and restaurants closed, it’s hardly surprising is it? Noticeably though we’ve enjoyed drinking more spirits than before, and have been experimenting to find a drink that we both like equally as much, rather than having a couple of bottles on the go.

So when I was offered the chance to try what’s described as “a unique English spirit” I was keen to find out more. MOH was also keen to try this telling me it would be like a bourbon - and that was before it even arrived.

When it arrived, it was confirmed as a ‘rye spirit’ and not a ‘rye whisky’ - you, like us might be wondering what the difference is. A ‘rye spirit’ must be under three years old - so a ‘rye spirit’ it is. Or a liquid rye as it’s described.

Want to know more?

I thought you might. It’s distilled from ancient heritage rye, a commonly cultivated crop in pre-industrial England. It’s distilled twice and rested in American oak barrels. The heritage grains are chosen for their flavour and are grown mostly within 50 miles of Oxford. That brings another dimension - sustainability - the grains also improve the quality of the land and the wildlife by the farming methods which avoids using all pesticides and uses traditional methods to manage the land.

And it tastes good too

It has a distinctive flavour - there’s definitely vanilla and spice. MOH has a better ‘nose’ than me and regularly identifies ingredients in food, whereas I’m much more “I like that” - and I liked this. Looking at the tasting notes there’s also sandalwood and the spice is described as “nutty and spicy notes”.

To start with we tried it neat as we’d drink whisky, which for me is with a splash of water. And it was very drinkable, and a nice warming feel so would work well for an end of meal digestif.

The bottle also suggested trying it as a long drink, with ginger ale, Angostura bitters and lime - and with a warm, sunny day this weekend gave us the perfect time to try this. After a mostly lazy day interspersed with chores, knowing we had plans to sit and enjoy the garden we’d spent time working on, was a very good plan.

So that’s what we did - moving to the end of the garden to catch the last of the sun, we enjoyed an Oxford Rye take on a dark and stormy - on a day that, thankfully, was far from dark and stormy. While it was good neat, in my opinion this was better.

* With thanks to The Oxford Artisan Distillery for providing The Oxford Rye for me to try for the purposes of this review, all views and opinions are my own.