Here we are at the end of January already and we've had every weather available in that month; brilliant sunshine, deep snow, hail, howling gales, heavy rain and everything in between. Despite the weather I've achieved a lot of paper work, sign design and orders indoors and out doors the willow weaving and garden winter tidy up are well under way. Not a lot in the way of days out or dog walks but hopefully the weather in February will be kinder.
(Title quote from Wallace Stevens, No Possum, No Sop, No Taters)
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| Sunset on the way home from the nursery |
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| Sunset over Tinto |
Back at the nursery last week I made the most of the dry weather. On Wednesday I started my garden work out (who needs to pay to go to the gym when you've a garden to tidy up?) These borders at the nursery entrance, although big are fairly easy to tidy as they have a bark mulch. This is a great way to reduce weeding on large planted borders, easy maintenance means more time to do other things. The plants here are big, spreading and merge together as they grow, so even in summer there is very little space for weeds to grow. The plants have been cut back, the leaves lifted, any weeds removed, the stone edge straightened and the track raked.
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| Winter plant interest in the entrance beds after tidying today - Acaena microphylla, Geranium dalmaticum, Bergenia 'Claire Maxine', Pinus mugo Pumilio Group |
Continuing on Thursday I tidied the shade border, one thing about gardening at this year it's all barrowing, bending, lifting and shifting, ideal for working off the excess eating of Christmas! I also shifted a ton of bark to top up the tidied borders and spent the afternoon weaving willow. The evening glass of wine was well earned.
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| Looking good in the shade border this week: Pulmonaria 'Opal', Arum italicum marmoratum, Pulmonaria 'Cotton cool', Lamium galeobdolon 'Florentinum' |
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| Looking food in the shade border this week: Tiarella 'Spring Symphony', Euphorbia amygdaloides var. Robbiae, Chaerophyllum hirsutum 'Roseum', Bergenia 'Bressingham White' |
I've also started turning the compost heaps, bring plants into the covered area to be tidied and labelled to go into the sales area and top dressed more borders with our own compost. The weekend weather forecast was not good, heavy rain and more gales. Making the most of the rubbish weather I've gone through all the trays of bulbs in both tunnels to see what damage the voles / mice have done since I spotted their trail of destruction (piles of compost and the papery husks of bulbs lying about). They really like Crocus, Scilla and Tulips as they've eaten every single one! Narcissus are not on the menu (they probably know they're poisonous) and Alliums were 50/50. So not very good really, especially since I'd raised all the crates up off the ground. I know mice can be good climbers and this just proves the point, unless they came down on wires, mission impossible style?
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| My orchid is still flowering over a year later |
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| Aspleniums in old stone work in Roslin Glen |
On Tuesday we headed to Roslin Glen for a walk along to the ruined gunpowder mill. It's so peaceful walking through the woods and completely at odds with it's industrial history. The mill and all its out lying buildings covered a large area and now there is only bits of crumbling walls, the weir, and the mill sluices left. But they do make great subjects for photographing. There are lots of ferns growing out of the old walls, softening the industrial remains. Bracken ventured into the river after a stick but decided it was way to cold for small doglets and hastily retreated back to shore! Afterwards we went for lunch at Roslyn Chapel visitor centre. Some lovely soup and then coffee and cake warmed us up after our walk.
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| Bracken framed in the windows of the mill ruins |
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| Birches in Roslin Glen |
On Tuesday night we headed into Edinburgh for a talk on badgers by one of the wildlife groups David is involved with. An interesting evening at the Central Library with pizza on the way home and some nice photos of Bristo Square. Its not like us to be out two nights in a row but we've been doing an archaeology course in Edinburgh with Edinburgh University which is really interesting. It also gives us a chance to meet up with family for dinner while we're in town. So far we've covered rural industry in the 18th and 19th century, the history and archaeology of St Kilda and this week it was Crannogs, so a very varied group of subjects. Next week it is stone circles.
So there we are, the first month of the year gone, now for February, shorter but more often or not with more wintery weather, we shall see. With more snow forecast for the weekend I hope you have a relaxing and safe weekend.
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