Post Comment Love 15 - 17 September

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week, posts which are older will be removed from the linky. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

Thanks for your comments and support on the changes I’ve made to my blog recently, I’m really happy with my new space. Now I just need to get around to using it more - it’s true though, somehow time diminishes when you appear to have more of it at your disposal!

This week we’ve been out and about to Nottingham which is about 17 miles from us. Back in December 2022, when moving was on the cards but nowhere near confirmed, we booked tickets to see Echo & The Bunnymen for their concert, to play their album Ocean Rain, with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Our thinking back then was if we hadn’t moved then we could book a trip just for the concert, and if we had moved then we hoped we wouldn’t be too far away.

We had nothing to lose!

As it turned out we weren’t too far away, though there was a fair bit of traffic on a rainy Tuesday getting into Nottingham and it took me about three circuits of the one way system, including a lap of a car park we hadn’t booked, to find the car park that we’d booked parking in. So that was fun!

The venue was great, as was the concert. I loved the addition of the orchestra, which is a good thing as we’re also booked to see a similar treatment of ABC’s Lexicon of Love next spring. Thankfully getting home was much easier, no doubt partly due to my earlier unplanned orientation session, and of course because of less traffic. We were out of the venue and home within forty minutes, which was fab.

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My garden in August

Well August was a funny old month, bringing all sorts of weather with it. Sun, wind, rain - and plenty of that, though I think we stopped short of hail and snow, I think. It’s been another month of getting to know my garden, and sadly suffering the loss of a plant we brought with us.

One that we’d had in a pot for a while, but clearly wasn’t happy with everything nature had to throw at it - we were surprised, but I think it was the wind that the rosemary most objected to. But it was a good prompt for me to move the pots back into the border to give them some protection from the sun and the wind, and to help them conserve water as when the sun’s out it’s been pretty warm.

I don’t think this one’s coming back!

In happier news, other plants have thrived. New ones have started to flower, and a yellow antirrhinum has self seeded itself amongst one of the (many) lavender bushes, and it’s been great to see the garden do its thing.

The pot of mint which I’d cut back before we moved sprang back into life and has at least tripled, as mint does. It too though was feeling the demands of being exposed in the warmer weather, and was starting to wilt a tad. Not wanting this, or any of my other plants from London to suffer the same fate of the rosemary meant the pots are all nestled among the more established plants. Though the morning after I’d moved them all I did wonder where they’d gone!

During August I had a week on my own at the house, and it was great to spend some time getting things straight(er). I’d planned to spend some time in the garden, but the weather scuppered me on my first home alone afternoon. Hmmmn.

The acer, outside our back front door, has had a mixed month. There’s been plenty of bright red new growth leaves, but there’s also been a few crispy and more battered leaves, though thankfully this one has picked up with some more regular watering.

We’d got out of the habit of watering the pots, which wasn’t such a good thing when the weather warmed up again. The outside tap on the side of the garage was a bit temperamental, and if you weren’t ready for it it would give your knees a quick wash as you turned it on. To combat this I bought a short length of hosepipe - because of course we’d left our surplus hosepipe behind as we didn’t think we’d need it - and it soon tamed the unwieldy flow of the tap.

It wasn’t all wind and rain though, there were days with blue skies, cloud and sun and plenty of time to sit and admire and enjoy them too. So it’s not all bad at all, in fact it’s rather good.

The tiny crab apple tree continues to do well. I think it won’t be long before the crab apples are ready to harvest - my plan is to make some crab apple jelly (what else?!) when the time comes. But until then we’re enjoying looking at its branches which are laden with fruit.

The olive tree in a pot is also thriving. Previously it was bald on one side where it had been deprived of sunlight on all sides. Here, it’s on the corner of the path and gets sunlight from all around. I’d cut this back a fair bit for the move, but we’ve got new growth that’s easily 30cm or so. It’s still leaning a bit, but not everything can be fixed in a couple of months.

Last month I shared plans to tackle the buddleia which was growing and growing and taking over one of the borders outside the gate. I’d hoped to pot it on and save it, but when I started to cut it back once the flowers had gone I realised that if I gave it a severe prune then it would probably be ok to stay where it was.

So that’s what I did, and it seems to have gone OK. Which is good news as the amount of bees and butterflies that visited were definitely worth keeping it for. I also know that it aims to self-seed as much as it can, so next year I’ll be ready to pot on some of those seedlings, which were starting to make themselves at home throughout the gravel, along with the weeds!

I’ve a feeling that weeding that gravel will become one of our biggest jobs in the garden, the one that’s never ending but also quite satisfying. You know the sort!

Post Comment Love 8 - 10 September

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week, posts which are older will be removed from the linky. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

You’ll also have spotted that I’ve updated my blog! I’ve linked the post which explains more and welcomes you to my refreshed space, thank you for continuing to be here.

Well September has had a treat in store for us here after a pretty dismal August. This week we’ve had temperatures in the mid-twenties with the warmest day predicted to be this weekend. It’s been quite a surprise though, even though it was forecast. Last week I was buying more autumnal food, think creamy potato dauphinoise and dark, green earthy kale, but this week it’s the very last thing we’ve wanted to eat!

We also got out on our bikes again on Wednesday, cycling off to see the Tour of Britain on the Sherwood to Newark stage. We took a less direct route there and back, clocking up a twenty mile cycle in the process - my longest cycle for quite a while. The thing is though, the peloton was past us in about 10 seconds!!

It was good fun though, and it was great to see people out on the streets supporting the event. We had a bit of a close shave with one of the team cars on the way home though, or rather MOH did. We’d left the disused railway line (the one that we went searching for the previous week) and were cycling along the country roads; there were cars passing us sensibly, and the road undulated a fair bit (or a fair bit for me, anyway). With more gears and more practice at cycling MOH had gone ahead, which was fine, and I was down in first (or granny gear) plodding along. I sensed a car behind me waiting for the opportunity to overtake, and all was fine.

Next thing I knew, one of the team cars had overtaken the car behind me, sped past me and bombed on to overtake MOH too. The female driver behind me did overtake after a little while, and I was thankful for the space she’d given me. Even more so when I caught up with MOH who immediately asked how close the team car had come to me. I was lucky that the female driver was shielding me, as MOH said it had passed him at an uncomfortably close distance, and the closest any car had come to him since we’ve been up here.

I am sure the team cars are used to driving past cyclists and other people as part of their role in the races, but I’m not so sure they should be doing it in that way outside of a race environment. Thankfully though no harm was done. If I’d have noted the team name I would definitely be contacting the tour organisers, as I’m sure that’s not the reputation they want either.

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