a merry day

because today we went to Merriments Garden Centre and came home with things to plant - more things that is, since I was also away at the weekend and bought plants from the Herb Farm too, not to mention the ones I picked up from Ray and Wendy's nursery at Rotherview!

All this is a bit of a triumph of hope over adversity, since my back is a bit too tender to do proper garden work, but my dear one keeps watering them and I keep thinking about where to put them so when they do go in the ground it should be in the best place. All is experiment in this new garden of ours since all we know is that some stuff grows here, particularly weeds and our native fern, which is really trying to take over.

But it is good to take time and be slow about planting - no instant makeovers for us. We are learning so much just from watching what is growing already here, geranium, rhododendron, camellia, a few iris hiding in the undergrowth and the ever present bracken. Combined with looking at the gardens around us, most of them very well kept I have to say, this tells me that we are in an acid soil area which is fine by me. What has surprised us is how much sun we are getting. We moved here in the winter when sun was low in the sky and the garden is north facing. Now, as the earth turns us towards summer, we are delighted by sunshine in places we never expected. The bed that I had planned as shady looks ripe for the irises we bought today - I love them anyway, but have been spurred on by Suzanne's lovely pictures of hers here. I suspect they grow even better in sunny California, but we don't do too badly here.

In the old garden I had some beauties,

but didn't do enough forward planning to split and pot up so will have to start again, which is no hardship. most of what I bought taoday was paid for by £50s worth of vouchers I won for coming third in a photographic competition run by Merriments a while back. I was astounded!

So roll on May, for growth and goodness, but please, please could we have a little bit of rain?

Oh, what was the picture that won third prize? This one

jack in the green

Normally at this time of year I would be trying to upload pictures from the brilliant Jack in the Green celebrations which Hastings manages every year. However, due to a "fragile" back I had to miss it this year, wasn't sure it or I were up to following the parade, nor wending my way through the wonderful happy crowds who enjoy it every year, so instead I'll have to offer you a link to their page here and some pictures from quite a few years ago - 2004 to be exact

It's always a delight to attend, for two reasons, first the Jack celebrations. They start in the Old Town, down by the famous net huts, the drums thrumming in your chest and echoing off the cliff walls

 as Jack, the spirit of summer is called from his lair

 and paraded through the town with a pageant of fair and fairy folk,

giants

mummers, morris dancers

 and celebrants. Finally, poor old Jack is slain so that the spirit of summer is released.

Meanwhile, another part of the town is filled, and I mean filled with bikes and bikers of all descriptions.

The deep reverberations of their arrivals and departures buzzes through the air from morning to afternoon.

The centre of town is awash with admirers looking at all the leather and chrome as they line the roads like beetles swarming in the early summer sun.

So sorry to have missed it this year. I'll have to try harder next!

Elephant is finished

My plans for a gardening long weekend were a bit scuppered by the leg that was giving me problems a couple of weeks ago - still tender and wary of being used too much, so today after we'd been for a walk to stretch it out a bit, I sat in the garden and finished elephant.

Boy, that was a strain - hot sun, green grass, a cool drink at my side and nothing to do but sink into the gentle rhythm of hand stitching and all elephant's colours and flowers were suddenly pulled together. He has a flowery field to walk in, and a tiny shooting star overhead to bring him luck.

I did also spend a little time on my collection of small trees. I won't call them bonsai, they follow a slightly different aesthetic. No twisting wires or pretend ancient stumps, I just take what the trees offer me and edit a little. I have had the two little oaks to the left here for near on twenty years I guess, grown from acorns collected in the woods when my daughter was little and chasing wood monsters. They have been sadly neglected over the past several years. I'm hoping now to be able to treat them better, feed them more and encourage new growth to replace what has been lost.


The japanese larch below was a bought tree, and so has a more classic bonsai shape

We also have in the garden,

arum secret and magical,
hiding its inner self behind an exotic cowl

hearts of forget me nots

and pink bluebells

Good Friday flowers

these are the first flower we've had on this wisteria, planted in 2008 when Rotherview created a pergola for us in the old garden

whereas these tulips, planted with the wisteria, are in their third year

they live here, in the front garden

Blessings all

Sometimes

people can be extremely unpleasant.

As the sublime Joanna Lumley once said -

 "Stare Back and Smile"

Garden rescues

Out in the garden the little bed below the sun and moon, where the old folk have settled is, bit by slow bit, getting cleared. As I unravel the tangle of weed roots from desirable plants I make discoveries, struggling in all that tangle and not really winning. 

This garden is full of little tender treasures like these, taken from beside the path where they have self seeded and will be trodden down, 

and moved into the soft cleared soil here. 

This bed is gradually transforming itself, with a little help from me, into the garden recovery area! Here is where the little tender treasures find their home. The trowel in the picture belonged to my mother in law and has probably tucked many a little plant into a safe space – “that’s got two chances” she’d say, and for her, most things grew.

Once I have won a small victory in the battle for light and space, I liberally mulch. This feeds, holds water, suppresses weeds and makes all look rich and clear, so the plants can be seen, rather than the muddle!

Meanwhile, down in the dell this lovely comfrey dwells, good for cut and come again compost food, or to distil in a smelly bucket for rich liquid plant food

.

Beautiful!

experiments!

I have been having fun - trying out some experimental dyeing, having been inspired by a number of good souls in the blogosphere.

India Flint creates some wonderful colourful fantasies here, and here. Jude whispers up her fibre tales here with stitch, cloth and colour, Susan is doing interesting stuff with jam jars and bits and bobs and Velma is another great source of inspiration.

I am thrilled by the way in which the Web allows all these people, whom I have never met - who don't know me, to inspire and share their creativity across miles and times zones and the world washing sea. It is an extraordinary thing to be able to see what talented souls are doing in their own private spaces and an inspiration to someone whose mother, much missed, always asked "well what are you doing to DO with it" or "you mustn't start than until you've finished this" or worst of all "is it going to make a mess in my kitchen?" - this to my request to try out batik for a school art project

Ermmmm yes Mum!

So, with a bit of inspiration, a few snippets of knowledge gathered from the web and books, I gaily embarked on my first experiment - sort of home chemistry really.

I understood from what I'd read, that when dyeing one needed to pre mordant the fabric to make the colour stick. Having nothing really to hand apart from this old aluminium saucepan (of Mum's!) and some malt vinegar, I thought that might achieve something, so simmered water and vinegar in it for about an hour, then used that to soak some of the great store of hankies I harvested from Mum's - "what are you doing with those Kath?"
"nothing Mum, just stuff".

Having created the "mordant" I steeped the hankies in this, while simmering a fat handful of onion skins in the same saucepan for about and hour'ish - you can see this is a very controlled experiment!

While that was happening I stitched some of the hankies, pulling the stitching up tight to create areas where the dye won't reach. This is my very poor tryout of a technique called shibori, which is shown in masterful style here in this, for me, fascinating insight into Japan's Shibori heartland. the skill and patience of these craftsmen and women is marvelous.



So, all this pretty amateurish "stuff" having happened to the hankies, including wrapping some bits of old iron in one of them, I simmered them for about an hour and a half - I think - ! Three were removed from the pot last night, the remaining one, with iron enwrapped, was left to steep overnight. The results this morning are three bits of golden yellow, variegated cloth on the line

 and one which I'm sure has some mythical creatures hiding in it somewhere!

Now where to go from here?