Walking East Stoke's lanes: June 2026

Despite being away for the first part of the month we somehow managed three walks around our village’s lanes this month, and each of them in different directions.

The first of these took us down Moor Lane, making a brief stop to check in on the sheep, on a Saturday lunchtime a couple of days after arriving home from an active holiday, so I think our legs were restless and ready for action, so it would have been rude to ignore them.

We headed up across the A46 noticing that still a few wild roses remained, but they’d been joined in the hedgerows and verges by the daisies, and more surprisingly already some seedheads.

We made it as far as the bridge, our cue for turning and heading home, but noted there were some blackberry bushes along the way which may provide a fruitful stop on a later walk. It could be the year for more blackberry and lime jam if we remember in time!

Our second walk took us in the opposite direction, heading down School Lane towards the River Trent - and once again we stopped briefly to see what the sheep were up to. It’d been a hot few days so it was good to see the sheep had been shorn, but we were also out earlier than normal and as ever, they seemed surprised to see us.

Once we walked past the church the views open up on the right hand side across fields, and on this occasion a line of small fluffy clouds. The path bends around to the left and even with the warm weather there was still a wet patch or two in this shaded section.

We decided that as the temperatures were still relatively cool, we’d head along towards the Red Gutter - my first walk that way in quite a while, but definitely worth it for the views and (even more) tranquility.

And more daisies it seems, and a few arty shots of the crops.

We emerged on the banks of the Trent and turned right along the river path, stopping to admire the reflections and despite trying many times failing to catch one of the bright blue damsel flies busying themselves in the nettles.

Along the way I stopped to photograph more than I’ve shown here, but there’s thistles and poppies growing across the path from the crops. I’d seen this plant above before on our walks but wasn’t sure what it was, my plan was to look it up and find out. I forgot, obviously, but I soon found out as our District Council shared a post on Facebook about it being ‘National Invasive Non-Native Species Week’ - who knew?

But anyway the accompanying image was this plant, which is a Himalayan Balsam - a fast growing invasive plant that spreads rapidly along rivers and wetlands, out competing native plants for space and light, which leaves riverbanks bare in winter when it dies back, and so increasing erosion and impacting wildlife.

And it looked so pretty too.

There are volunteer programmes to prevent the spread of this plant, which contributes to our Local Nature Recovery Strategy here in Nottinghamshire, I had no idea about any of this when I took this photo, but it seems right that given its invasive nature it’s controlled and managed. Nature is not only wonderful, but the management that is required alongside it is truly even more wonderful.

We reached our turning point of the jetty - which was very nearly but not quite visible and turned back inland up the long stony track towards the village realising that the stones that were added to minimise the puddles a while back now where doing their job and making the track a much easier walk, and no doubt much easier for the vehicles that traverse it too.

We were back at the sheep, and this is why we check in on them whenever we walk past - they are cheeky, but can’t we all resonate with that bit over there being that little bit tastier if only we could reach it?!

Our final walk this month was along the bridleway towards Elston. As we headed down from crossing over the A46, this was the view across the fields we were about to walk past, isn’t it beautiful?

I was once again surprised to see these, what I think are, bullaces already in evidence on the bushes. It seems early, in my mind I have them this developed much later in the summer - but that could just be that that’s when I’m looking for them.

We were heading over to the pub in Elston to watch England’s second game in the World Cup, and the pub had opened to show the match - it’s not usually open on Tuesdays - so we thought we’d go along.

It was the most dreary game, but at least we were rewarded with this night time view of the path on our way home.

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.

This June...

It’s been a tad warm hasn’t it?

We started the month in France, in a-much-cooler-than-it-had-been-the-week-before outskirt of Angers, which we were pleased about. The temperatures prior to our arrival were in the high thirties, and even on holiday, that’s not good. And then when we got back we had another heatwave, with another forecast for the start of July, so yes it’s been quite warm overall.

We made it to France travelling by train which turned out to be a complete breeze, and more importantly no airports! I don’t dislike airports as such, but travelling by train is much more preferable.

Anyway from Newark we travelled to Kings Cross before popping over the road to St Pancras International and the Eurostar to Paris. We stayed in Paris overnight, then headed to Angers on the train for the next five nights staying in a fabulous chateau, before getting the train to Tours for a couple of nights making time for some wine tasting and our second visit to the Chateau de Villandry (so much more on this to come!) before heading back to Paris for our last night before jumping on the Eurostar, and then another train back home.

THE VIEW FROM OUR WINDOW AT THE CHATEAU DES FORGES, ANGERS

I’d intended to travel light, as I would be the one manhandling the case, and even though we took stuff out as we were packing, it turned out that it wasn’t that light at all - in fact the case was actually rather heavy. Moving it up and down stairs at stations both here in Newark and in Paris was hard work, though thankfully I was offered help which I was very grateful to accept.

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary while we were away in a fantastic restaurant found my MOH, he’s very good at this and he found some brilliant restaurants during our trip. Though we arrived slightly later than intended and a little flustered as we thought we knew where it was, but had misremembered the way there. Oops.

The food here was brilliant though, as was their artwork.

A MEAL WITHOUT WINE, IS LIKE A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE.

Since we’ve been home we’ve been busy too - well apart from in the heatwave when we’ve been like hermits hiding indoors in the hottest parts of the day, then when it’s cool enough to do things not really doing too much as heatwaves are tiring. So we’re glad for some respite from the heat, which you may already have gathered.

I had a press day at Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, which is relatively local to home, and I was also invited to the Gardeners’ World Live preview event and a day at the show too. Both of which were fantastic events, with plenty of inspiration everywhere you looked. I’ve more to share from both of these visits, but I’ve already shared my highlights from this year’s Gardeners’ World Live.

We were in Birmingham for England’s first World Cup game, and it all went rather well didn’t it? We had a fantastic table, with a view of the match, in our regular haunt of The Button Factory in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. And the game was a good one, and really gave us hope for England setting the tournament alight, but the following two games weren’t quite that and were as fractious as usual to watch. Let’s hope England remember the highs from that first game and show more of that for the remaining of the tournament, so that it can finally come home (for the men, the women’s team have already got that sorted!)

A GLIMPSE OF OUR FANCIER THAN EXPECTED ROOM IN BIRMINGHAM, WHERE WE COULD HAVE WATCHED THE FOOTIE FROM THE BATH IF WE CHOSE TO (WE DIDN’T!)

I’ve also lost some of my gained responsibilities this month, which is great news. Just this week MOH has reclaimed grass cutting, and since we’ve been back from holiday he’s back on his usual daily breakfast making. It’s great, not least because it means I can turn my attention to the rest of the garden, and because I’m still not good at mornings, but also because he’s so much better. We’ve been back to the hospital for his six week check, and they don’t want to see him again until his annual check up next year. Phew.

My car gave me a little scare though, with a warning triangle appearing alongside the ‘I need a service’ spanner. The manual was most alarming saying to stop driving and contact the dealership straightaway. So once home I did call the company, and was reassured that it was related to the service and the spanner, and as that was booked already there was nothing to worry about. And indeed there wasn’t, and until I’d read the manual I wasn’t that worried, but with two longer than usual journeys ahead of me I wanted to be sure I’d get there (and back).

I said last month that I knew exactly what holiday embroidery I was taking with me before I knew what clothes would be in the suitcase, and it was even better to actually do some of this while we were away, either on the train or just in quiet moments. It’s not finished, but I’ve made huge amounts of progress. Though needless to say I’ve not touched it since we’ve been home!

SEWING ON THE EUROSTAR HOME

In two pieces of shock (sewing) news I have almost finished my summer dressing gown - which has taken way less time than I expected, and really is much needed on those warmer days, and I’ve finally started my Flying Geese quilt too. As I said at my sewing group last week, now it’s started it’s a project rather than just a pile of material!

I know, I’m not even sure who I am either. Though of course I do have other projects still to finish, and yet to start as well as some new ones appearing on the horizon, so it’s all ok really! I’ll share more on both of these shock sewing projects here soon I’m sure.

One of the new projects that my head is grappling with arose from a workshop I went to last week, where I picked up many tips and tricks for making a pattern from clothes already in my wardrobe, and if I can make it work for the well worn and much loved dress I have in mind, then my mind will officially be blown. I have the start of the pattern, and I have some material I can test it out with - so hopefully I will have another version of this dress, which looks a lot smarter than the one I have and love sometime soon.

And that’s not all, today I’ve ordered my greenhouse after much (and a couple of years) deliberating. But with a price rise imminent (tomorrow!) I snuck in right at the last minute. I’m not rushing into this at all though, I have opted for the delayed delivery so within the next six months, my greenhouse will arrive.

Hopefully that gives me plenty of time to come up with a plan, that’s more adventurous than ‘sticking it in the garage’!

My garden in May

Following last month’s influx of plants after a visit to the Newark Garden Show and pots (as ever) being at a premium I decided to ease my pain a little by buying three new pots. That helped a bit, until I popped over to the garden centre for some more compost and left with a few more plants, and then we went along to the Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, and yes, I left with more plants.

But I had a genius plan to deal with this, except it’s been scuppered by the warm (actually very hot - it’s been in the 30s here) weather. My genius plan was to create a flower bed, and use that for the plants that I know will end up in that part of the garden, thus planting out plants directly or freeing up pots for new plants.

But there was no way I was digging in those temperatures, in full sun. So that plan, while still genius is on hold for the moment. But the new pots do have my tomatoes in, and the new compost!

And the eager eyed amongst you will spot that there’s an old pot in the shot above (second from the top) - I’m running a completely non-scientific test here. I have two tomato varieties the same and I’ve planted one in my usual terracotta pot and the other in one of the new plastic pots, it’ll be interesting to see how both fare - hopefully both will do well!

But anyway, more of that in a future update - let’s see what else has been going on this month (spoiler - it’s a lot!).

I rediscovered the rhubarb crown that dad gave me over the winter (or maybe before), which I’d put in the garage for safekeeping. Lucky I found it when I did as it had started to grow in the dark of the garage, though as I discovered quite quickly it was growing upside down - argh! There was no time like the present, and after a few days of rainfall I decided that now was as good as time as any to dig a hole, but what way up should I plant it. That was the quandary, but I did the best I could with the shoots that were between an inch and two inches by now. I hoped it would right itself once it got settled in to its long term home.

I remembered that I’d bought a large pot the previous year at the Newark Garden Show, and realised it would be a perfect temporary home for the new rhododendron, so that and a lot of compost (plus some old soil and crocks) filled that pot. It looks great flowering against the black trellis, and I know MOH has enjoyed viewing it from his window but ultimately it will live at the other end of the garden, though now I’m wondering if I should have got two, ah well maybe next time!

With MOH out of action and recuperating on ‘light duties’ and absolutely no lawn cutting, that became my biggest task of the month. Well maybe not the biggest, but most definitely the newest. The only thing was that there is apparently a knack to starting our current lawnmower, and MOH was pretty sure (and probably right) that I wouldn’t have it. So there was only one thing for it - a new lawnmower.

We knew were going to buy a Stihl battery mower as I’ve long time been impressed with them, the company and the tools we have. There were a couple of stockists, one being the large tractor shop on the A17. And by large tractor shop I mean a big shop and huge John Deere tractors, so me walking in and saying I wanted a domestic lawnmower was quite amusing.

They had four to choose from and eventually they took me seriously and we had a sensible conversation about lawnmowers, we left with one which they also helped me load into the car - and they gave the lawnmower a quick dust before they did. I told you they warmed up in the end!

But first I needed to tackle the weeds in the grass I was reliably informed by MOH - well that took three attempts over consecutive days due to rain stopping play, and if I’m honest complete boredom. But I dutifully carried on, almost half filling the garden wheelie bin with my efforts - only for MOH to say that I’d been more thorough than he would have been. Thanks dear, useful information after I’d finished!

But the grass got cut and the new lawn mower did its job, and the wheelie bin was well over half full. MOH even said I’d passed my level 1 grass cutting award. Great! I suspected that meant I’d need to do it again before the month was out, and I wasn’t wrong.

It was around the middle of the month that I noticed our yucca plant in the outer border was forming flower buds, how exciting. And we went to visit another garden, this time the Walled Garden at Flintham Hall, and once again I left with more plants.

Then we found ourselves visiting the monthly Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, my main reason for going was to finally catch up with Arbor Farrow, who I’ve followed for a while and am absolutely in awe of her work. I left with these steel plant supports and a stronger resolve to buy some of her more ornamental orbs when the time is right.

Throughout the month the yucca has been developing its flowers, it’s not quite out yet but with the warm weather surely it can’t be too long now?

Elsewhere in the garden there’s been lots of potting on; the dahlias from Flintham Hall are now in larger pots and two peonies, also from dad around the same time as the rhubarb crown, have been potted on with more soil and larger pots. I’ve used canes to try and contain them, but when they’re in the garden I’ll be getting some peony supports for them from Lincolnshire Plant Supports who we met at this year’s Newark Garden Show, and who are based in a couple of villages along from my brother.

The roses have really enjoyed the sunshine, especially when it coincided with the warm temperatures. I think they’re having their best year here yet, but you’ll see that later on.

The rhubarb crown seems happy too, despite the heat - this is it about a week or so after planting out. It now has seven stems growing from it, though we’ll be leaving those to feed the plant rather than us this year. But next year I'm hoping to have plenty of rhubarb crumble. I’ve planted it among the shrubs in the border opposite the garage, in a spot where a plant hadn’t survived, so it feels a good use of space. I’ve another rhubarb to plant - the one we brought with us - but that needs to wait for cooler weather.

I also overwintered two amaryllis in the garage - also from dad, he’s a great plant supplier! - and I wasn’t sure how they’d fare. But both plants have a flower bud on them, this is the largest of them. The other looked very dead so I’d moved it out of the light and that is now a dwarf amaryllis, oops.

In my quest to maximise pots, the succulents are now sharing more than they were before. With that and the dead aeonium I had two pots free for my new strawberry plants - and I think I rather like how the sharing succulent pot has turned out.

Ah yes, my new grass cutting skills were once again required. The garden bin was full of grass and weeds, and super heavy to move out to the kerb. I’m glad I thought about that in advance and moved it away from the fence before it got too heavy to manoeuvre.

The lavender bushes are starting to flower and are looking glorious, well all of them bar one which isn’t faring quite so well with a large dead section which I’ll need to sort out. But in more promising news the one that I’d pulled from the crevice between our border and the pavement is doing well, so that’s a free plant - but a good few years behind these.

Still not flowering. But look at that blue sky!

The roses are flowering though, the Gertrude Jekyll is full of blooms and the Mottisfont is catching up. The paler peach/white Claire Austin which was a little crispy last month is recovering well and looks much healthier, it doesn’t have buds yet but I think it will definitely flower this year, just a little later than normal.

One of the stranger additions to the garden was this lump of sheep fluff. We think it arrived in one of the overnight storms, rather than being left by its owner - though there are a field of sheep two doors up so it didn’t have far to blow.

I also planted out some geraniums that we brought with us, and which we’d brought from my FIL’s garden. I thought I’d lost these last summer but found them happily surviving (just) in another pot that had remained under a shrub. I decided to split those into two plants as I know how fast they can grow - they’ve rewarded me already with a flower on each new plant, so that’s good to see.

The ceanothus, or Californian Lilac started to flower towards the end of the month proving to the lavender it’s not the only blue flower right now. And joy of joy my philadelphus, or mock orange, is also flowering - it’s the first time I’ve seen these actually flower here, so I’m happy. MOH less so as these make him sneeze, rather spectacularly too at our wedding reception which we held in our London garden, so some quick on the spot pruning was needed by the bride!

Just before the end of the month I was pleased to see that the tallest amaryllis was almost flowering, then looking again I noticed I wasn’t the only one pleased to see it. Something has been nibbling, and hollowing out the stem, so now while it may flower it will be unlikely to stand on its own. The dwarf amaryllis is also suffering the same fate, though the flower of this one is also being eaten, so I’ll have to look to see what’s so hungry.

So quite a month, but a month in the garden I’ve loved. I’ve even more jobs than I thought I had at the start of the month, and I can’t wait to get going. It’s been a while for me to feel this way about gardening, perhaps it’s the weather, perhaps it’s finally time to get my hands muddy again, or maybe the pot shortage is really getting to me after all, who knows?!