My garden in January

Another short winter garden post this month understandably as most of the time we’ve spent in the garden is either walking to the car or emptying the bins - but I have enjoyed viewing the garden from the house.

And with frosts like these it’s hardly surprising is it?

Thankfully the plants seem to have taken the wintery weather pretty well - though it looks as if I’ve lost the sickly rosemary which I planted in the outside border, I’d hoped it would be able to turn itself around out of the wind, but it was not to be. The other plant that’s looking decidedly dodgy is the one midway in the border below (to the right of the three concrete balls). It’s got a variegated leaf and it really doesn’t look too happy - if it makes it, and I’m hopeful it may, then I think I’ll pop it into a pot and see how it does, as maybe the rootball is restricted somehow.

We had a large leaf blowing around our garden, and neither MOH or I could work out if it was actually a leaf or some cardboard. It turned out to be a very large leaf indeed - I’ve not seen other leaves like this, so I wonder how far it had blown.

The pots of daffodils and tulips are starting to do their thing and poke their shoots through the surface. I was glad to have spotted this as a couple of the tulip pots were double stacked, which clearly wouldn’t have been a good thing - though I’m sure the tulips would have tried their bendy best to seek out the light and grow!

Last March I’d bought some snowdrops in the green and had planted them in the border which we look out over from the house, and was wondering where they’d got to. Towards the end of the month I spotted some potential snowdrop activity, then overnight a single snowdrop appeared.

Since then this one has been joined by a few more, and the second clump is also showing signs of growth - hopefully they’ll really come into their own during February (and of course in the years ahead), but they are a good reminder that spring is on its way, however slowly that may feel at times.

Walking East Stoke's lanes: January 2025

I said the next post in this series would be here before you know it, and here it is - but first it’s a year now since I started these posts and it’s been an interesting way to learn about the countryside on our doorstep, and I’m sure that this year there’ll be similarities but also differences and it will be a fun way of noticing and sharing those.

Anyway, in January I only made it out on one walk - and I didn’t want to go on that! To be fair it was the day after New Year’s Day, and my cough and cold was just starting to show itself. Of course once I got out it was fine, if not a little chilly - and as our more usual New Year’s Day walk had been rained off, it seemed only right.

We headed down School Lane, into Church Lane and down to the Trent - a walk we’ve done many times, and I’m sure the photos are familiar to you too. We started our walk mid-morning, and to give you an idea of how cold it was this was my car windscreen less than half an hour before we set off.

As we walked down towards the church there were plenty of iced up muddy puddles which also formed some interesting designs.

But with a view like this in front of you it was almost possible to forget how chilly it was, turning and looking behind me though I got a great view of the church surrounded by the trees branches, but don’t be fooled by that sky it was still cold.

The track to the river was strewn with puddles and walking around them must surely have added some steps to our total count - thankfully though I’d opted for walking boots, and of course left a small trail of dried mud in the house before I left, but never mind.

Reaching the Trent it was clear to see the river levels were higher than normal. The vegetation was much lower though given the time of year, and we spotted the path to the jetty we’d spotted earlier in the summer - only the four post tops were visible, which gives an indication of how much additional water the river was dealing with. It’ll be interesting to see how the jetty and its post fare in future updates, vegetation permitting.

A few days, and more rain later, MOH ventured out for another walk this time heading down Moor Lane where he usually cycles, but given the ice he’d opted to go on foot. By this time I was full of cold and had no interest in leaving the house unless I needed to, but I was keen to see his pictures.

It was the greyest of grey days, as his photo shows!

What it also shows is the bridge on Moor Lane where we usually pause and turn back - both the field on the left and the stream are full of water. I don’t think I’ll ever get over seeing how much water floods onto the fields semi-regularly here, let alone when it goes further and houses are affected, it’s not something that was even a consideration when we lived up the hill from Greenwich in South London, and I suspect many people who don’t see it for themselves also can’t comprehend it either.

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series. Hopefully I’ll still be ‘on schedule’ for an earlier in the month post next month, and I’ve pulled on my walking boots and have some photos to share in the meantime!

My top 10 posts of 2024

It was easier to collate the information for this post this year - way easier than it was for me last year, and of course I’d been putting it off based on my last experience. There’s a big life lesson there isn’t there - something about eating a frog and all that.

Anyway, I like to take a look at which posts from the previous year have been the most popular and while I’m at it I also take a look at the posts that have been around for a while and still get looked at, and I like to share that each year. Yes, it’s nerdy, but anyway.

Starting with my most popular posts from 2024, I was pleasantly surprised to see the post which topped the list:

1 A walk from Kinoulton to Hickling and back again

It was a great walk though! And I guess we’re not the only ones looking for walks to explore our beautiful countryside. Sadly the pub we had lunch in on that visit has now shut, but the tea rooms remain open - and are just reopening following their January break. They do a great sausage cob, so we’ll definitely be heading back that way.

2 Gardeners' World Live 2024: Win a pair of tickets for Sunday 16 June, plus discount code (Ad)

I was proud to partner with Gardeners World again to host this great giveaway. It’s always great to go along and see the show too - though this year our journey from Nottingham was vastly different to the intercity from Euston, but the show was as good as always.

3 Book Review: The Ultimate Sewing Machine Mastery by Katie Matthews (Ad)

This remains really useful book, so if you’re a sewer (of any level) do pop over and take a look. I think all sewers can learn something from it.

4 Gelli printing using stencils and shapes

I must do more of this. It was great fun and while I use the prints I did in the class I’ve yet to tackle this at home - and yes, I really did print that many!

5 Industrial open shelving in our pantry and utility room

I still love these and they make me smile every single day. Seriously. And what’s more everything’s pretty much still in the same place, and even better MOH knows where to find things, and where to put things back!

6 Getting organised with pegboards in my craft room

What’s not to love with a bit of organisation? These really are fab pegboards and still in use in my craft room cupboard. They’re so nice that you don’t need to hide them in a cupboard, but for me, I wanted to maximise the space I had there. I’ve more tweaks coming for my craft room, as it’s true you really learn about a space the more you use it.

7 Hamid Zenati at the Nottingham Contemporary

This was a great exhibition - and local too, so a good find for us. I’m still in awe of the patterns and the size of the exhibits, and this is a great reminder for me to check what else is on locally. I’m so pleased that I don’t have to go to London for exhibitions, though they do have some fab ones, there’s often something close by as well.

8 The Fontana Garden (Ad)

This was a very striking garden at Gardeners’ World Live from the 2023 show, and rightly was the image that made it into most of the press stories from the show. It was a fab garden, and no doubt the pictures were helped by the blue skies, but don’t let that detract from the design, there’s much more to it than that. And in case you’re wondering why at 2023 garden made the 2024 list, I didn’t share it here until then as one of my posts which ran alongside the ticket competition post (which is on the list above).

9 Admiring Carolyn Forster's quilts at the Newark Quilt Show

Amazing quilts and my first visit to my local quilt show - and a quilt show I’ve been back to this January too. I’ve many photos to share from this year’s show which are very different to these. I think my heart really is with the scrappy quilts, and all their charm though.

10 Getting started with Gelli Plate printing

A new to me craft, and the post I shared after my first class - it really is addictive in the Pringles sort of way, in that once you start the Gelli printing you really can’t stop! I need to set aside an afternoon (or longer) to do this again!

It’s interesting to see which posts appear on the list, and there’s some of my favourite bits of 2024 there too. As I said the number one post was a pleasant surprise, but I guess people are always looking for a good walk.

So onto the second list

This list is posts created at any time by viewed in 2024, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and this list is often very similar to the previous year, although often the order changes somewhat - and it has this year too. There’s a couple of new entries, including my number one post from the list above and another surprise at number six.

1. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

2. In the Orangery at Belton House (2022)

3. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

4. Planting a strawberry border (2016)

5. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

6. Bagels, cream cheese & jam (2023)

7. Tintagel Castle and 148 steps for starters... (2015)

8. Storing logs in our gabion baskets (2017)

9. Temple of the Four Winds at Castle Howard (2018)

10. A walk from Kinoulton to Hickling and back again (2024)

So not always what I expected but each of them are great posts, and it probably means I should spend some time on these to make sure they’re as good as they can be!

Thanks for being here again over the past year, and bearing with me with this post which you know appeals to my inner nerd. I already can’t wait to see what 2025 brings!

I’ve added the *AD tag to this post as it contains links to posts which were declared as ads when they were published on my blog.