Weeds
Weeds are easy to grow. All you need is a square inch of earth, or a crack in a stone. Look away and the weed will turn up, especially Dandelions. The problem is whether you see them or not.
Honeysuckle
Light research has revealed that all plants have medicinal properties. Google says that honeysuckle is good for everything from dysentery to brain swelling. But the berries are poisonous, so don’t try to cure your brain swelling by eating them. It won’t end well.
Valerian. A Symbol of Strength
The name comes from the Latin word valere, meaning ’to be strong’. Valerian likes burrowing into crumbly walls and splitting them apart. So I follow it around, pulling it up, and it follows me around, growing back again, faster than I can move.
Chicken and Sage
The shabby old sage is flowering and splendid. It is the last remnant of a herb garden, planted long ago in a fit of enthusiasm. It is one thing to plant a herb garden and a whole other thing to remember where you planted it, let alone weeding, watering and knowing what to do with the herbs that survive. That is the trouble with new projects.
A Wall of Foxgloves
This wall is supposed to be covered with lovingly tended alpine plants.
Elderflower Cordial
Elderflower bushes grow fast and take a lot of chopping down. Now the flowers have arrived and it is time to think about making elderflower cordial.
Welcome
This blog is a place for showing what the garden gets up to, the chickens who live in it, and random thoughts, usually triggered by chickens or plants.
If you put your email in the subscribe box next to this post you will get updates now and again. But if you are looking at this on a phone or a tablet, you will need to scroll down to find the box.
The Last Days of Spring
This is the last bright forget me not. The rest are dropping seeds on fading bluebells. Clearing them away is like packing up Christmas decorations. The explosion of colour, that made every corner look special, is coming to an end.
Effective Time Management
When work, outings and social lives stop, a vista of free time opens up. Your chance for nailing the list of things to do and nurture body and soul with new pursuits.
The Seven Steps to Being Creative
‘The Desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul’ apparently. No idea if this is true. But, if you are thinking about being creative, you are sitting on the Inspiration step. There are others.
Beeswax
A bee collecting lunch.
Read on to see more photos, taken when trying to photograph a bee eating lunch.
Continue reading “Beeswax”Get the photos sorted
In the nineteenth century, ancestors acquired cameras and started squirrelling piles of photos.
The seven stages of becoming a chicken keeper
Stage one. Sniff uncertainty in the air. Consider self-sufficiency. Realise that is never going to happen, but find the thought of chickens vaguely comforting.
Save the bee
If you find a bee lying on the carpet, lost and alone, this is your chance to do a Good Thing.
Agility Chickens
Spring is here, supermarkets are no fun, it’s time to grow vegetables.
Why aren’t we all dancing?
It’s a quiet spring. Just the noise of birds as they practice ring tones and tell each other to back off or die.
Shockwaves
There is talk of ‘getting used to this’ and ‘acceptance’. There is watching the news by mistake. This can be followed by wandering out to stare at chickens pecking your feet and recover the bit of ‘acceptance’ that just slithered away.
After. The seven stages of settling into a pandemic
Stage One. Notice that people on the other side of the world are not all completely well and healthy. Watch news with vague interest. Flick back to Last Tango in Halifax because it is absolutely brilliant.
Before. Notes from the olden days
In the olden days, there was an office, where people worked in the same room. Their job was to send joy to cities, where more people gathered together in the same streets. These are notes from an ancient diary, discovered in that office, where the dust continues to settle.
