February 2022

 

Snowdrops and hellebores at North Cerney House

It’s been a couple of months since I last wrote a blog and, in the worsening situation in the world, I have found it increasingly difficult to put pen to paper, figuratively speaking. The minutiae of my daily life seem so incredibly pointless in a world beset by a continuing global pandemic and the machinations of a Russian despot. However, I find, at times like these, sometimes the only thing we can do is to concentrate on our small sphere of influence and try to make a difference where we can.

Since the New Year I have spent quite a lot of time staying with my Mum in Cheltenham, as I have done for the last couple of years. Mum really dislikes the months of January and February and in this she is not alone, and I have no gardening jobs to do at this quiet time of year, so it makes sense to keep each other company. Of course, this year has been slightly different in as much as I now have my own home that needs some input from me, even if it is just to check that the place is still secure and still standing!

The fence nearing completion

My fencers were due to start erecting my new fence on Monday, 10^th January, but Mum was not at all well over the weekend with a heavy cold that reduced her to bed rest, an unheard of event, and I didn’t like to leave her, so Jeni swung into action, organising a key, fresh milk for tea and coffee and checking with my neighbours that their side gate would be unlocked for Russell and his mate to gain access. My sister and brother-in-law, who had been due to come and see Mum on the Wednesday, hastily rearranged their week and arrived on Monday afternoon, allowing me to drive home that evening. It was dark when I got home so it was not until Tuesday morning that I got to look out of the window and see what progress had been made. Well, what a surprise, the bulk of the fence was already up! Russell and Kevin duly turned up at 8.30 and had pretty much completed the job by lunchtime – we’d even found time to drive over to Pylle and retrieve my four fruit trees that we loaded into the back of Russell’s pick up. I am so pleased that the job is complete, and my neighbours are delighted with it, too.

New shelves

Finally unpacked my books!

Having spent a week at home, in which I finally got around to making my bookshelves for the alcove in the sitting room, I headed back to Cheltenham, where the first stirrings of Spring were beginning to be felt. Mum had pots of violas and miniature daffodils on her patio and there were aconites and snowdrops emerging under the weeping silver birch in the front garden. On a bright, sunny day we drove over to Rendcomb, a small hamlet on the way to Cirencester, where there is a streamside house with a profusion of snowdrops and crocus spilling out across the lawns and down the banks of the tumbling brook. They are the first real show of snowdrops in the area, and they really lift the spirits. Later on in my stay we carried on further along the road to Cirencester to North Cerney House. This is a private residence, but the gardens are open to the public all year round for a £5 entry fee. At this time of year their snowdrop walk is popular, but Mum and I love the walled garden where there are snowdrops, pulmonaria and a huge collection of different hellebores. Later in the season the beds are full of different coloured tulips, and there are roses and espaliered fruit trees, as well. To complete the perfect morning out, they have a self-service café in the garden bothy, with the most amazing cakes! We came home cross-country and were amazed to see a large flock of what appeared to be chaffinches, feeding on a stubble field. I had never seen so many at one time so Googled it on my return home, to discover that large flocks of visiting chaffinch fly in from the continent to overwinter in our countryside.

Snowdrops at North Cerney House

Because the weather was, on the whole, pretty murky and miserable, we spent quite a lot of time indoors watching the birds on the bird feeders and became aware of the same birds visiting regularly. There were the ubiquitous jackdaws, who have learned within a couple of years, how to perch on the fat ball feeder without having to flap their wings to balance all the time. They are quite messy feeders, so we have at least two wood pigeons who take up station under the bird feeders, as soon as the jackdaws appear, and clear up the mess like a couple of grumbling housekeepers! We also noticed several blackbirds, but they were already getting territorial and spent a lot of time chasing each other out of the garden. However, we did notice a rather odd ‘friendship’ - whenever a certain female blackbird arrived under the feeders, she would invariably be joined by a dunnock, who seemed to find her presence reassuring. They would peck around quite happily together but, if any other bird arrived, the blackbird would chase them off and the dunnock would dive for cover in the border! Our greatest pleasure was when a jay visited the garden – they are normally very shy birds and stay near wooded areas, but this one came regularly, especially when I started putting a few peanuts out on the lawn each morning. If I was a bit tardy with my breakfast offering, he would come closer to the house and sit in the magnolia, peering in through the patio window as if to ask what I thought I was doing!

Our visiting Jay

If you remember, from my last blog, I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions but have ‘intentions’! Two of my intentions for this year are to keep in better contact with friends and relatives, and to climb Glastonbury Tor once a week to improve my aerobic fitness! I am not doing too badly on either, at the moment:

I went to see my old school friend, Mads, whilst I was staying at Mum’s, as she lives at Royal Wootton Bassett which is only a 40-minute drive from Cheltenham. I arrived in time for coffee, and we never stopped talking the whole day! I have no idea how we find so much to chat about, but then we never had any problems nattering when we were in our teens, either! I eventually left in the early evening and drove back through a dark and rainy evening to Cheltenham, tired, a little hoarse, but incredibly happy that we had made contact again.

Towards the end of my stay with Mum, I decided to take her to see my Welsh ‘aunt’, Jen, as they hadn’t been able to see each other for a long time and Jen had been quite poorly before Christmas with Covid and was still suffering the after effects. Jen lives in Cwmbran which is about a one-and-a-half-hour journey from Cheltenham. We set off in good time and, having negotiated various new road layouts around Gloucester, entered the lovely Forest of Dean. We’d hoped to see some wildlife on our journey, but it was a damp and drizzly day and they were obviously all sheltering somewhere – I thought we might have seen some wild boar, as there is quite a population in the Forest. Again, we had a lovely day chatting about this and that, and Jen cooked us a delightful roast dinner with a wonderful summer pudding for dessert. All too soon, it was time to head home through the dark and the drizzle, which was quite trying as the windscreen wipers on ‘intermittent’ were not quite enough to clear the screen, but screeched horribly on full wipe, so that I couldn’t decide between being barely able to see between wipes or deafened by the banshee screeching! We were both very glad to get home!

Finally, on my way back to Somerset, I called on another childhood friend, Carol, and her husband, Pete, who live in a village near Stroud. It’s at least a couple of years since I saw them so, again, it was great to catch up and meet their new dog, Dexter, who is a cross between a Labrador and a Bernese Mountain Dog! Carol walks him twice a day and reckons she covers about 8 miles, which made me realise how unfit I am – hence the intention to climb the Tor.

The view from the Tor

So far I have managed to climb the Tor twice, both times from the steep side and having to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. It takes me 25 minutes from ‘door to Tor’ but I am hoping to improve on that over time. The views from the top are magnificent on a clear day and there is usually someone at the top playing guitar, digeridoo or drumming! The first time I went back down the gentle side, into the town, and found a collection of painted pebbles for sale at the bottom – it’s all ‘normal for Glastonbury’. Dave reckons I’ll fit it in with all the weirdness really well!

Well, that just about wraps up my meanderings for now, I hope they have made you smile. Stay safe and positive until next time x

Painted pebbles for sale