This August...

This August has been great, one where the weather has been good enough to not need to worry about if you need a jacket, coat, umbrella etc - well mostly anyway. The end of the month saw a couple of yellow thunderstorm warnings, and boy did they arrive in style, and they brought plenty of rain with them too, which of course we needed.

The thunderstorms were pretty close by, or it sounded like that at the time - we later discovered that we weren’t wrong and were hit by two supercells joining together. I’m not really sure what that means, but I know it was bright as the lightening struck, and it’s the first storm I remember thinking was quite scary. The next morning we discovered that the accompanying rains had brought mud off the fields and one of the roads leading to the main crossroads in the village was a bit muddy!

Earlier in the month when the number of heatwaves were racking up we also had our first experience of sheep escapees, aiding the village cattle (not sheep) farmer to get them out of our neighbour’s garden and back into a field. Not the field they escaped from, but much safer than them patrolling the village and much preferable to the gardens in the village. They are peculiar creatures, and fast when they want to be as we saw first hand!

We’ve been out and about a fair bit too with a lovely afternoon in one of my patchwork group’s garden, with partners and no actual sewing in sight though of course the conversation did include a stitch or two.

We had a tasty meal on the rather elegant Bluebell Railway in Sussex, and I decided to make myself a dress to wear - giving myself a week to do it. I made it, and I wore it but I think giving myself more time would be preferable!

There was also the annual ‘home air show’ towards the end of the month, and the weather had turned so while the Red Arrows were able to give a fantastic display, more of the ‘noisier’ aircrafts were unable to fly, which is a shame - but there’s always next year.

We finally made it back to one of our favourite farm pop-ups at Gelston buying some of their tasty lamb to support our commitment to healthier eating. Though on the way home we stopped off at a relatively nearby cafe to see the Alpacas, and share a scone - so the healthier eating is still a work in progress, though we did share a scone rather than have one each so that’s something.

I was just as much taken by the pompoms strung across the cafe’s outside container seating area, as I was with the perfect view of the ‘mums and babies’ alpaca paddock and it’s residents. I could have spent so much more time watching them, so I’m sure we’ll be back - and the scone was good too!

Our gallivanting hasn’t stopped there though, after sharing my thoughts on the first Rutland Flower Show we were back there in the middle of the month, but it was so hot we didn’t last perhaps as long as we would normally. We’d already decided that we wouldn’t be buying any plants as keeping them alive would be tricky, and I’d lost one of the plants we’d bought earlier in the summer - though I’m hopeful that there’s a small chance it may come back.

I felt for the traders too as they had a job to keep their displays and produce looking fresh - they were all in good spirits though, and the weather did cool a little for the subsequent days of the show. We didn’t leave empty handed though and left with the sensible options of some bulbs to plant in the autumn, so more on those another time.

We finally got along to visit Doddington Hall, which is just outside Lincoln, while their sculpture trail was still on - it finishes this weekend. Again it was a warm day, but one that threatened rain so armed with our waterproofs we saw many, many sculptures, walked around the parched gardens and looked inside the house before having lunch in the courtyard. The volunteers there told us that the house is also good to visit when it’s decorated for Christmas, and from the photos we saw they’re right so I think we’ll be back here later in the year all being well.

Our timing was impeccable with the rain arriving on the short drive home, we arrived back with a very wet car to find that it hadn’t rained at home at all. Most peculiar!

And still we weren’t done. The last weekend of August saw us climb the 198 steps in the church tower in Newark, as part of their Newark Festival offerings, to get some great views over the market place and surrounding areas, learning about the history as we did. It was a great thing to do, and even though I’m not great with heights, I’m glad I did it.

And then on the Sunday we headed back to the tropical garden in nearby Bottesford - I’ve not had a chance to even look at my photos from there yet, but it will be interesting to compare and contrast them to our visit there last year when I get some time.

There hasn’t been a lot of time left for making this month, and apart from the dress in a week project mentioned above my main outputs have been though ‘playing with patchwork and scraps’ which has been the perfect mindful activity required.

I still did find time for some craft related shopping though - you knew I would - but I’ll share more on those tomorrow - let’s hope September is just as much fun, perhaps a little drier and so bring some more time with my sewing machine!

Post Comment Love 28 - 31 August

Hello there, 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 may 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.

It’s a bank holiday weekend here this weekend so the linky will stay open an extra day, closing late on Monday evening to give you a little more time to join us, and to do all the bank holiday things.

Though it’s looking like it might be a more typical bank holiday weather-wise. For the past two days we’ve had thunderstorms and heavy rain forecast, and they both turned up yesterday. But with the ground so dry after the multiple heat waves it’s been running off all over the place, as you’d expect. It’s been so wet - and I’m not complaining - that our garden sofa had puddles on it for most of the day! But already the grass is starting to recover and look just a little greener, we definitely needed a bit of rain.

And while I’m talking about the weather, there’s been a noticeable shift seasonally. We still have the humidity during the day, but the early mornings and later evenings definitely have a chill about them.

I’ve also spotted and foraged my first blackberries this week too. I’d arrived early for my hair appointment and so as the weather was way nicer than it was supposed to be I took myself off for a very little walk to kill some time. It made me smile though as I got back to my car with a handful of blackberries, whereas in London I’d’ve mooched around the shops. Sometimes when life changes it’s the small things that catch you.

Have a great week.

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Admiring the vegetable plots at Barnsdale

* I was invited to a press visit at Barnsdale Gardens earlier in the summer, so my posts from that visit will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

The visit took place just before this year’s Gardeners’ World Live show in June and quite honestly I’ve been drowning in photos, life, and plans for blog posts ever since so I’m only just starting to catch up with myself now. I’ve decided to share three posts from Barnsdale Gardens, which are located in the UK’s smallest county of Rutland.

They were the home and TV gardens of former Gardeners’ World presenter Geoff Hamilton, but are now fully open to the public and run by his son Nick. It’s a fabulous place to visit, this being my second time there - the first was back in 2021 when we stayed in a lodge at relatively nearby Easton Walled Gardens, so I knew what I was heading into, and quite honestly this won’t be my last visit to Barnsdale, as as with all gardens it’s ever changing, and I’m sure I haven’t seen everything yet either.

The first of my three posts will, as you’ve probably guessed by the title, focus on some of the vegetable gardens and plots, there’ll be other posts for the flowers, structures and special bits but they’re for another day.

Let’s start in the Parterre Garden, which is garden number 21, and was built as one of the main projects for the 1996 series of Gardeners’ World. It combines a more formal design, but is a high yielding space using rectangular, square and triangular beds.

As you enter the space you’re stuck by the flowers rather than the veg, but the ornamental plants are limited to narrow beds around the outside of the garden, designed to give the impression of being in a flower garden. On this visit the blues of the delphiniums were about to reach their peak, and echoed the colour of the sky which was lucky as while we’d had that first heatwave in May, there’d been wet and drizzly weather immediately afterwards.

The garden’s design is one that could easily be replicated in a back garden, and even though this one was designed in 1996 (or just before) it still looks current and something that many veg growers would be very proud of.

Outside in garden 22, the allotment things were a lot more regimented and growing in rows as you’d expect in any traditional allotment space. Here though, while it’s larger than the usual allotment plot, it’s been planted to give a variety of produce throughout the year and in its heyday it was the home of many Gardeners’ World vegetable features for many years.

There’s definitely something pleasing about seeing vegetables grow in ordered rows, and I know that it’s not as easy as it looks - or not for me anyway!

One of my favourite spaces at Barnsdale is the Ornamental Kitchen Garden (garden number 24) which first appeared on the Gardeners’ World programme back in 1990. It showed that many edible plants also have ornamental value and can still crop as they would when grown in more usual or traditional surroundings.

It mixes flowers and produce in borders, which of course is a centuries old method, but in this garden it was the first time it was seen on the TV, and therefore it set a new standard for gardening programmes which I know I’m grateful for. It’s something that I’d like to replicate in a very small way in my own garden, and seeing this garden first hand confirmed that’s what I’d like to aim for - though realistically, not on this scale!

The other thing about this garden, which I can totally relate to, is that many visitors find it hard to tell which plants are the vegetables. Surely that’s got to be a win?

I was taken with the peach tree which is growing along the back wall, and which fruits prolifically. Though Nick assured me that they rarely get an unbruised peach - and that’s because many of the visitors can’t resist a pinch or a prod to check they’re real!

It really is a gorgeous space, and it’s nice to wander around its paths to the relative coolness of the pergola and to the hexagonal greenhouse you saw when you first entered the garden.

The final garden I’m sharing in this post is the Kitchen Garden (garden number 32) which this year is being used for growing sweet peas and dahlias, and it smells divine, and must be one of the most joyous spaces around when it springs into bloom, and scent.

And yes, sweet peas are flowers - but as they’re growing in the kitchen garden, I’m including them in this post!

There’s other ‘veg focussed’ gardens at Barnsdale too, including the Herb Garden, the Fruit Orchard and the Apple Arch, so if vegetables are your thing - or you want them to be your thing - then if you’re close by it really is worth popping along for some extraordinary inspiration.

* With thanks to Barnsdale Gardens for inviting me to the gardens, and to Nick Hamilton for leading a tour through a selection of the gardens available. It’s a great space and I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to visit again.