A Day Out

Living in the county town of Staffordshire we have the benefit of living just a few miles away from the County Showground, so when there is an event that we wish to attend the travel is easy.

Recently the National Shire Horse Show took place over three days.  We attended the middle day when the classes were stallions and geldings.  Over the course of the day there were classes for different ages, as well as a competition for horse drawn farm machinery and for horse drawn trade carts, as well as the opportunity to visit the stables and get closer to the horses.

For every class the horses would parade around the ring, then individually walk and trot under the scrutiny of the judges before winners were announced and rosettes awarded.  The horses had to line up in order of their placements in order to be awarded their rosettes.

The final line up

.... and the winner is

The judges walked down the lines, awarding the rosettes.

 












The horses looked impressive, but the male judges wearing their bowler hats  made quite an impression too!









 There were were also classes for horse drawn farm implements and horse drawn trade carts. No effort was spared in preparation, the farm implements were in pristine condition  and for part of the competition they had to be shown in use.The trade carts looked like new.
















                                                                                                           
The best part of the show was being able to go backstage and see the horses in their stables.

This is where you get a real sense of the size of a shire horse.

This horse has to go back in the ring for the final parade of champions.  To make sure he doesn't need to be groomed again he is wearing a covering so that if he does decide to roll in his sawdust bedding, he won't pick up too many shavings and will look good when he goes back to the ring.

He reminded us of Spiderman.

Spring came early this year

There has been a yellow weather warning for the whole of the county for the past few days.  It is cold, the wind is gusting at gale force and the spells of rain are torrential.  Fortunately we have not been as badly affected as other parts of the country, but the local river has covered its flood plain and looks more like a lake than a river.  We are hoping for a return to the mild spring weather we experienced for most of February.

From early in  February the spring flowers in the garden were in bloom.  We had snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and miniature irises making colourful displays.  Even the hyacinths, usually not out until late April and May, were beginning  to show their colours.

The twisted hazel, a Mother's Day present many years ago, had a splendid display of catkins and looked good against the pale blue of the sky.  It is now as tall as it will grow, about eight feet, and just the right size for our garden.  Planted next to it is an ordinary hazel tree but it is far too big for the garden so we coppiced it last year and in seven years time, we will be able to harvest the slender stems that are growing from the base and they will become garden canes.  Then the seven year cycle will start again.  I have been reading about the process of coppicing and it lengthens the life span of the tree to several hundred years.  I don't think I shall see many harvests.

Towards the end of February, on a dry and sunny weekend, B and I visited a stately home called Attingham Park, and run by the National Trust.  It has extensive grounds and woodland and a herd of about three hundred Fallow Deer.  We strolled through the woodland,  admiring the snowdrops which have naturalised there, and though the car parks were very busy when we arrived, there is so much space that it didn't feel at all crowded.

Snowdrops thrive in the damp and shady woodland conditions.

Later, we went to see the deer being fed. In the Winter and early Spring the deer are given supplementary food, sugar beet we think, which is taken out to the deer park everyday at the same time.  As soon as the truck arrived, the deer which had been in the far distance started to move to the feeding area, the males first, then the females and lastly the youngsters.  Within a few minutes there were more deer than you could count and they readily started on the food.  They were no more than about six yards from the path, but they seemed not to be bothered by the spectators.  We stood quiet and still, so as not to disturb them.  It was a good opportunity to get photographs of them while they were standing still and eating.  The problem was they had their faces near the ground and so it was not easy to get a good shot of their faces and horns.  but patience paid off and I managed to get just one photo were the deer seemed to be looking at the camera.

Nice memories of earlier in the year - we are hopeful that Spring will return again soon.

What a start to the New Year

I think the last day of January can just about qualify as New Year 2019.

2018 seemed to end well - I needed surgery a couple of days before Christmas (It has been successful), and spent Christmas relaxing and being waited on by the rest of the family - the turkey is still in the freezer waiting for its chance to be centre stage.

The weather was mild and the the garden was still producing flowers. The Chrysanthemums in the containers by the front door gave a colourful display throughout December, but the colder weather that has arrived with 2019 has finished them off - we are hoping to move them to a sheltered spot so that they can survive and be ready for later in the year.

January has been very quiet so far.  With rest being the doctor's orders I have been catching up with reading and watching daytime television!  I managed to catch a cold and it has taken me a fortnight to shrug it off.  I didn't go out socially because I didn't want to spread the germs so I've missed out on two concerts, and F had to celebrate Burn's Night  without me.  That would have been my first ever Burn's night - maybe next year.

Today has been the coldest day of the year so far in the Midlands.  We woke up to a frosty garden - it looked so pretty, but the Spring flowers that have made an early start now have a battle to survive if this cold spell persists.

I am looking forward to February and being able to drive again.

A day out

The last Saturday in September was like a summer's day and it was the day F and I went on a coach tour to Bristol.  The tour had been organised through  REBOPS, a group of amateur actors associated with the local Methodist circuit, and the purpose was to visit places associated with John Wesley, who established Methodism in the UK during the eighteenth century.
 
The first stop was at the riverside village of Pill, situated on the southern bank of the River Avon in Somerset, and close to Bristol.





This was the first point of embarkation on the journey to the US where Methodist missionaries set off in small rowing boats to be taken to the transatlantic vessels moored in Bristol, which that would cross them to the US.



















Francis Asbury was recognised for the work he did in spreading Methodism across the US and a statue was erected in memory of him in Washington DC.  I wonder if it is still there?  I didn't realise that he had  had such an influence in the US - I didn't spot the statue when I visited Washington DC, but then I wasn't expecting to see such a statue.

Although John Wesley spent a little time in the US his main missionary work was in the UK.

We travelled on to Bristol Town Centre where we visited John Wesley's 'New Room', - a meeting room where he preached and the oldest Methodist church in the UK.   The building having survived the bombing raids that took place over Bristol during WWII, it has been transformed into a museum as well as a place of worship and a tourist attraction.

This statue of John Wesley on horseback, is in the forecourt of the site.  John Wesley travelled around the UK on horseback, usually reading a book, while his horse picked the safest route to their destination, I expect the horse did get some guidance from the rider!

As Methodism expanded its influence it aroused hostility from the established churches and much was done to malign the reputation of the newly growing denomination.  There were hostile mobs and unflattering posters to intimidate the new church.
 
 

 Frightening though it must have been to be on the receiving end of such treatment it was not successful in its campaign to destroy the growing influence.

 

I think that the eighteenth century principles that John Wesley voiced  300 years ago, seem remarkably modern.











It was an enjoyable day out and with so much to see we feel we need another visit to take it all in.

A Year of Garden Giants

It's been a funny year weatherwise for gardening.  Some plants have thrived in the changeable conditions and others have struggled to survive or even given up. Of course, I haven't photographed the failures.

Early in the year B was given a lettuce to transplant in to the garden.  It grew steadily to begin with then it bolted and ended up growing as tall as the apricot tree. (Its the tall thin stems with blue flowers from near the ground to the top of the tree)  It eventually flowered and has produced hundreds of flowers over the season.  The flowers are open early in the morning but by dinnertime they have shrivelled away, only to be succeeded the following day by more flowers.  We have had lettuce flowers for at least two months, and only now do they seem to be finishing.

They are so pretty (in my opinion) and in trying to identify exactly what we have nurtured I have found Florida Lettuce - Wikipedia; B thinks they are chicory; and I have a photograph of a low growing wild flower that was at the edge of the car park at a motorway service station on our journey from Washington DC to Ohio in 2008 - the flower heads look identical.  If we do get seeds from it, we shall plant again next year and enjoy it for the flowers, or possibly lettuce.

 

 By July, the self- seeded sunflowers were at their tallest.  We think this one reached ten feet.

As the seeds develop the flower heads get top heavy and tilt their heads downwards.  If the seeds dry well, and we can keep the garden mice from finding them, the birds will have plenty to eat later this year.

Another giant this year was a parsnip.  A few parsnips seeded themselves amongst the runner beans.  One plant bolted and grew as tall as the beans, about seven feet tall.  It looked a lot like giant hogweed but it was definitely parsnip.  It had dozens of flower heads and thousands of seeds.  The beans growing at that end of the row didn't produce as good a crop as plants further along the row - no photograph gave a clear picture of the plant as it tangled its way through bean poles and bean plants.

Resolution for next year - weed more effectively.

What weather!

The spring weather has been so mixed.   A few days of heatwave with Mediterranean temperatures, followed by cold spells that had me finding out the winter clothes that I had foolishly packed away.  Then spells of rain so torrential that the garden resembled a quagmire.  It's no wonder the plants are confused.

But taking advantage when the weather was warm and dry, we visited a National Trust Property, Attingham Park, a couple of weeks ago.

The Mansion

One of the views of the surrounding countryside - the Wrekin, a distant hill is a famous landmark in the region.

 

We enjoyed a guided tour of the organic walled garden, and spoke with some visiting bee keepers.



 We sampled an afternoon tea in Lady Berwick's tea room.

We had a leisurely stroll through the deer park, and the woodland way.

Perhaps we should have stayed at home and gardened. The poor weather has returned, and we need some dry weather so that we can finish cutting the lawns at home.

How to celebrate Mothering Sunday

It was Mothering Sunday (UK) on the eleventh of March.  When I got up I opened the bedroom curtains to see what the weather was like and to see whether any garden birds were on the bird feeders.

What a surprise - it is the first time I have had a mother's day greeting made out of pebbles!

B. had been out in the garden from early on to create this message and to put the two planters in place.  I went out in the garden to take a closer look.

B. had taken advantage of when I was not around during the week to plant up the two large pots with the plants she had selected for these arrangements.  She worked on the principle of 'Thrill, Fill and Spill', an idea she had seen on a gardening programme. Over the next few weeks, the plants at the rear should grow taller (Thrill), the ivy at the front should grow over the edge (Spill) and the various flowers are planted so closely that the compost is hardly visible (Fill).









The happy gardener - I never noticed the many plants, that were disguised by horticultural fleece, and placed around the edges of the garden.





 After breakfast we planned out the rest of the day.  Should we go out and join the crowds of mothers and their families celebrating the day or should we stay at home and garden together?  The choice was mine.
So we stayed in for the day, the weather was dry and quite mild in comparison to what it has been in the past month; it would be a shame not to take advantage.

If you look carefully, with a magnifying glass, at the first photo you will see that the main veg patch is full of weeds and behind it is the frame around the strawberry patch,which is full of weeds, grass and strawberry plants that are too old to produce good crops.  So that is were we started.
While B. cleared the veg patch ready for this years crops, I dismantled the cage round the strawberry patch and cleaned up the mesh panels, ready to store away.  Then B and I cleared out the old strawberry plants and weeds, saving any new strawberry plants (from runners) ready to replant in another part of the garden.

The veg patch and strawberry patch were given a new layer of compost, then B. lifted three blackcurrant bushes and one goji berry shrub, out of the veg patch and  replanted them into the old strawberry patch, now renamed the soft fruit patch.  This was given a layer of tree bark to help discourage cats from using our newly turned soil at their convenience.

This part of the  garden was transformed and it was getting too late to start any more jobs in the garden so we tidied away all the tools we had used.  The birds had not been discouraged by our presence and visited the areas where we had disturbed the soil, looking for a tasty morsel, or visiting the bird feeders.

A long-tailed tit

When we at last got back into the house B. cooked a roast dinner, so we had our own celebration meal with wine, which was another part of my Mother's day treat.

For me - it was a perfect way to spend the day - thank you B.