Post Comment Love 29 - 31 August

Hello there, and welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. 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.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

Unusually for a bank holiday the weather was great - mostly it seems to rain on bank holidays but not last Monday. Here in Nottinghamshire it was gloriously sunny, and dare I say it too warm to sit out in especially in the afternoon.

We headed out for a stroll in the morning before the temperatures were due to rise and thanks to a post in our local village group took a tote bag with us so that we could help ourselves to a neighbour’s glut of plums. Crumble definitely incoming!

Have a great week.

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Nick Bailey's Plant-Based Garden

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

I said in my highlights post from the show that I was looking forward to seeing how Nick Bailey would incorporate the #MakeAMetre matter initiative into his garden, and how successful it was and today I’m sharing some of the many pictures I took of the garden.

The garden features a cluster of Douglas fir buildings and structures in the style of a traditional homestead, and it was the repeating shapes of the frames that made the garden such a success for me. They brought height to the space and their bold charred wood certainly brought impact.

The buildings included a Burnt-Out Barn with grape vines overhead and dining below, the Brassicarium for protection for edibles, and the Roofed Barn seating area (below) which overlooked the ponds and a meadow-matrix perennial grass planting. And if you look closely there’s patchwork throws over the chairs too.

Long term readers will know that I like a structured and ordered veg plot, but never have I heard of a Brassicarium, and I wish I had - isn’t it a great word?

I liked that the planting was at different levels, and even the raised beds varied in height which I think helped this garden feel more like an established garden. The other thing that was a nice touch was the plants that had ‘crept’ over their borders softening the paths.

Even the sage that seemingly had ‘escaped’ the show garden’s boundaries.

I was also a fan of the compost bins, though I’m not sure I’d have placed them this close to the dining area in a real life garden, but the open and stackable concept was good. So much so that I became a little obsessed with how they were built.

Looking closely and by poking a finger in the gap it seems they were simply stacked on top of each other. And that dark wood was newly charred as my grubby finger attested to!

They definitely gave me food for thought for my own garden, though they may be over engineered for what I need, but they do show that compost bins don’t need to be the ugly plastic daleks!

I loved this garden, and it wasn’t just the structures for me. The concept of one square metre, the dense planting, mixing edibles with flowers, the informality of it all made it a great space, and I hope it has a longer term home - it deserves it.

What do you think?

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Down, up and up some more

The previous day’s walk around the Foresta Umbra was a good test for my ankle, and walking on the wood chipped paths was more comfortable than the tarmac roads, but completing the walk was good for regaining confidence in my ankle, and of course the support helped massively. It was good to know that I could walk distances on it without too much pain and little swelling as the next walk was a ‘moving on’ walk, and it was a big one.

Once again it started with a transfer to the far edge of the forest where we joined the San Michele Pilgrim Trail as we headed the relatively short 8.6km to Monte Sant’ Angelo. But don’t let the short distance deceive you over that distance we would descend 315 metres, and climb 485 metres. It was tough as it was also a warm day, and at times I wasn’t sure that I’d ever book another walking holiday again, but the views were fantastic - and there’s nothing like an impending rain cloud to encourage you on your way is there?!

The trail would take us across open farmland and up to Gargano’s highest village, Monte Sant’ Angelo on the southern spur of the peninsula. We had a picnic and our usual supplies to sustain us, and once we found our bearings we were off.

The paths were varied and the sort where you had to look at where you were going. There was plenty else to see, but it wasn’t until the dry stone wall ended that we really got our first view of where we were headed, and what lay ahead of us.

Yes, that squarish looking block of buildings in the centre of the picture was where we were heading, but there was a valley in between us and that. Eyebrows were definitely raised at this point.

But clearly the only option was walking! As we navigated the winding path up, before following the zig zag trails down to the bottom of the valley there was plenty to distract us - and actually walking down isn’t that bad.

We encountered a couple of ‘interesting’ gates, which as we approached looked as if they were simply fences, making us question our capability of following the walking notes. Even when we were much closer it wasn’t obvious how they opened, but of course they did.

But the views were stunning, just look at the sky too - amazing.

Reaching the bottom we decided it made sense to stop to eat our picnic in the relative shade, and before heading way up there. But it couldn’t be put off, and so we started our ascent.

There was a lot of up!

And with stunning views. But still up we went.

It was good to see the now familiar signs to confirm we were still on our intended path, but by now as you can see there was a big black cloud following us.

But only if you looked in one direction, elsewhere there were wild roses and blue skies.

And the largest puff balls I’ve ever seen.

And glorious gorse, and still that black cloud.

And still we went up.

And up. The town was now in sight, but it was still quite a bit higher than us - and more than it looks in this photo.

But we got there ahead of the black cloud, which we were both grateful for.

But there was still more up as we walked through the town heading towards the Santuario di San Michele dedicated to the Archangel Michael.

The Holy Cave, some 86 steps down into the rock is the site of the apparition of the Archangel and the heart of the sanctuary. The Holy Cave became a destination for pilgrims and crusaders, including many Kings, Popes and illustrious figures and it has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.

The steps down were met with some trepidation - as what goes down, must also go up and all that. But the 86 steps down, and the 86 steps up were well worth a visit to this unique place.

We continued on to our hotel passing the Castello di Monte Sant’ Angelo, but by now feeling definite signs of rain in the air so we continued on to our hotel.

By this point we weren’t surprised at all that there was more ‘up’ to do - it was the theme of the day, but I vowed to MOH even if our room was on the first floor I was getting the lift!

We were in our room (and yes, I got the lift) and within five minutes the heavens opened with absolutely torrential rain. I’m so glad it held off, as having to press on in the rain is absolutely no fun at all. But at least we knew our next walk - to the coast - would be downhill, mainly because there was no more ‘up’ left, and we really did feel like we were on the top of the world!