My epic summer blog!

The Oast House, Mayfield, Sussex

 I'm getting very lax with my blogs – it's been more than two months since I last wrote one! I'm sure you've all been missing hearing about my day-to-day adventures, so I propose to update you in one epic blog, so grab a cup of tea, put your feet up and settle down for a long read!.

Going into July I was very busy with three different gardening jobs, another mammoth painting and decorating job for Jeni's boss (no, pedants, it wasn't a mammoth – it was a newly-created cottage!) and my weekly stall at the Shepton Mallet market, so it was with some relief that I took a few days off to go, with my sister and my Mum, to Sussex, to revisit the places where my grandmother had lived for most of her life and to trace her family's roots. I'd done a bit of research beforehand and had come up with two known addresses for my great-grandfather, and various other places that were connected to the family. I hadn't been back to Sussex since my grandmother had died when I was fourteen and I think my sister had only been a couple of times.

We rented a self-catering, converted oast house on a working farm and duly arrived in a torrential thunderstorm! However, it didn't take long to get warm and dry and have some dinner – Lynda had suggested that we both take something for the first two evening meals so that we wouldn't have to spend a lot of time shopping, so I'd done a quiche and salad and lemon possets to follow. The little oast house was really comfortable and Mum was quite intrigued to be sleeping in the round tower where the hop drying floors had once been.

We were only away for four days and three nights, but we managed to pack so much in that it seemed longer. After much searching we eventually found the two houses that my great grandfather had lived in, one of which was where my Gran was born, and I also found a lot of old photographs of the village on the internet so we could see what it must have looked like when they lived there – it's now bisected by a very busy A road out of London. We also found the convent where my grandmother had been the gardener, and had a sneaky trek down the driveway to see the cottage that she'd lived in then. I swear that the same fig tree was growing against the old, mellow brick wall from which one of the nuns, thinking to give us a treat, plucked two figs and popped one into my sister's and one into my mouth. As we were only about four and five at the time, we found them absolutely disgusting and it has taken nearly sixty years for me to try another one! They're actually delicious!

Bodiam Castle

Interspersed with trying to track down various cottages in various villages, we also managed to visit Bodiam Castle, Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Batemans (home of Rudyard Kipling) and Sheffield Park Gardens which are all National Trust properties – we certainly feel as if we've got our subscription's worth this year! We also stopped at two or three community-run shops and cafes, which seem to be very popular in that part of the South-East, and are run by very friendly and helpful staff, most of whom are volunteers. We were also there at peak cherry time – if you ever get to Kent, be certain to go in cherry-picking time as they are absolutely gorgeous; dark red and bursting with fruity goodness! Needless to say, we ate rather a lot and brought some more home with us, too.

I was surprised and pleased to discover that that part of the country is still quite rural and full of glorious trees, mainly oaks and sweet chestnuts, and that the inhabitants are very friendly – I'd expected places to be like ghost towns during the week, as it is commutable to London, and that people would be a lot more 'stand-offish'.

Once back in Somerset it was on with the gardening, decorating, marketing routine and I even took on another gardening job! I really am a glutton for punishment – on every other Tuesday I now do six hours gardening, followed by a further four hours on Wednesdays. As I explained to some people at the market, even if I don't sell anything and my pitch is £7.50, it's still worth it to me as I get to sit down for four hours without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else!

Cropredy skies!

In the middle of August I headed back to Mum's at Cheltenham to meet up with Lynda, Paul and their camper van and hit the road for Cropredy in Oxfordshire, and the annual shindig that is Fairport Convention's music festival. There were twelve of us in our encampment and, as always, the catering went like clockwork with cooked breakfasts every morning and picnic lunches on the field – there were even late-night pancakes on one occasion! I really feel as if I belong to our festival family now, especially as I was allowed to cook the scrambled eggs (a huge responsibility!) and the cookies I took as my contribution have now been renamed Cropredy Cookies (or Crookies for short).

My festival name is Scrumpy so I felt I should take a decent tipple with me, not that there isn't a good drop of cider to be bought at the bar (Weston's Old Rosie and Stowford Press), so off I went to Roger Wilkins Cider Farm at Mudgeley. I'd wanted either Dave or Jeni to accompany me as I'd only been once or twice before and was unsure of the etiquette when purchasing direct, but neither of them were available so I had to go it alone. Although it is best to look and/or sound as if you know what you're doing, I needn't really have worried, as there were only two other punters present and 'Uncle Roger', who greeted me with 'Want a drink?'. I should explain further how this on-farm purchase works: you turn up and are offered a drink to ascertain what mixture of the two huge barrels of cider suits your palate. One is labelled 'Sweet' and the other, 'Dry', and, having tasted Dave's purchase for Glastonbury, I already knew that I wanted the dry side of sweet. Normally, the sample glass is a half pint so, if you get the mix wrong and need another sample, you can swiftly become quite inebriated! I declined the offer, as I was driving (as are most people, as this farm is out in the back of beyond) and settled for just under half sweet, topped up with dry as a good mix, then with my gallon of scrumpy safely wedged in the boot of the car, I left the other punters to it and went home.

The music at the festival was the usual eclectic mix of old bands mixed with new artists and folk, blues, ska and rock music all mixed in as well. 'Madness' headlined one evening and 'The Bootleg Beatles' on another, plus some pretty heavy rock bands on the Friday afternoon, when Lynda and I chose to go off on our annual walk along the canal back into Cropredy, looking at all the narrowboats and the various stalls set up in the village. One of the most exciting bands, in my opinion, were a duo from Australia called The Pierce Brothers. Their music had similarities to Mumford & Sons and was incredibly energetic – I was amazed at how much sound two people could produce! They had been touring Europe for three months in a camper van with their tour manager, playing at small venues and this was their last gig before they flew home. It was a blisteringly hot day and there were 18,000 of us sitting on the hillside watching them play – they had driven overnight from Brussels, across Belgium, caught a ferry and then driven halfway across England to get to us and we gave them an amazing reception that blew them away, completely. The Red Arrows even flew past as they launched into their number 'Flying Home' – how spooky was that!

My prize-winning Labrador

All too soon the festival was over and I was once more back in the routine – it felt as if the decorating job was never going to end, and every day, including weekends, was fast turning into a work day. I did take one Saturday off to go and help man the Somerset Smallholders Association tent at the Yesterday's Farming Show, with my friend Cathie, who I met through our local choir. The weather was distinctly windy and damp so I didn't spend much time looking around at all the old tractors and farm machinery, but I did take my spinning wheel with me, which seemed to attract people over for a chat. On the following day, it was the Mid-Somerset Show at Shepton Mallet, where I had entered several wool items in the Arts and Crafts competitions. I was really pleased to win third prize with my needle-felted Labrador, in a strongly contested class, although my winnings of £2 could not compete with the £135 that was dished out to the girl in front of me in the queue at the secretary's tent – it's obviously far more lucrative if you ride horses!

The following week I finally gave myself some time off to go and see Karen and have a massage and a catch up. If you remember, back in June, Mick and I had created two no-dig veg beds for Karen and Ade and I could not believe how productive they have become in such a short space of time! It was fantastic to see how much fun and pleasure they have had this summer from being able to grow their own veg again. Mick has now started coming to the market on a Friday morning and has already built up quite a gang of regulars, all clamouring for his fresh veg and salad leaves, so I'm pleased to see all his hard work paying off.

Karen's garden in August

Karen's garden in June

And now, here I am, up my favourite remote Welsh valley, looking after one of my favourite dogs, Jasper, while Dawn and Tony are in Brittany. Can you fall hopelessly in love with a garden? I have been coming here for six years now and I really love reacquainting myself with it – usually at the end of a small hand fork! This time it has really been a bit of a challenge, as Tony has been very occupied with helping Dawn make sure that the two lodges, that they rent out in the gardens (wyldwoodsretreat.co.uk), are all up together and that the paths around the grounds are accessible, the lawns cut, etc., so the poor vegetable patch has taken very much a back seat. I have been attempting to exert some control over it and bring it back to a usable state so that Tony doesn't become too despondent. At the same time I have been helping Dawn clear spaces in one of the borders to plant new shrubs to give it a bit more structure. I would also like to cut back some of the hedges, prune the fruit bushes (I've done the raspberry canes), have a bonfire, reconstruct the compost heaps, dead head roses and other flowers that have finished, and weave in some new willow in the arbours! Unfortunately, I am only here for another couple of days, so it isn't looking possible!! Each time I come, the garden offers me an unexpected gift – this time it was a patch of pale pink cyclamen blooming in a shady area, right under the trees, so that their appearance was made even more striking. I love this garden!

The lovely patch of cyclamen under the trees