Le Vendange!
Sorry - I've come over all smug because my grape harvest (vendange) has been formidable this year.
we have been growing the vine up the back of the garage on a south facing wall. Those of you who have been fol...
Wrap up Warm!
We had our first frost two nights ago and not just a light dusting either: the chooks' water was frozen solid.
L
ast year I nearly lost a globe artichoke plant in a very cold snap and I did lose its neighbou...
Pork and Borlotti “Cassoulet”
I had cassoulet in a tiny restaurant in Toulouse called "Le Chat Dingue" (The Crazy Cat).
I
t was freezing outside and I'm not sure that the restaurant's heating was working but after a steaming bowl of casso...
The Big Apple
I've been busy harvesting our apples before the jackdaws peck them all and they fall and rot on the ground.
Our apple tree is only a modest size but its apples are huge. I've tried to identify which variety i...
Hopping the Nest
In the spring we rescued some tadpoles from a muddy puddle and introduced them to our new pond.
T
here must have been about a hundred of them but that's a tiny amount compared to the average yield from frog s...
Algae
Our pond is no longer clear as gin nor fresh as a daisy. We have algae.
E
ven the word feels like an anagram of "plague" . Algae are simple plant life that live in or near water. They don't have leaves o...
Everything comes…
Last year we had a catastrophe on the wisteria front. A late, harsh frost killed more than a hundred flower buds, just as they were elongating ready to bloom. Instead of nearly two hundred blossoms we had twe...
Tulips Galore
I have been impatiently waiting for the tulip season to start ever since we visited Attingham Hall last May Day. Their tulips were stunning.
O
ne thing I learned - and managed to persuade my husband - was tha...
Tadpole Rescue!
We visited Mum over Easter and as we were discussing which plant nurseries to visit, she announced "then we can rescue the tadpoles".
A
huge cloud of frogspawn had been laid in a large puddle in the nearby wo...