Daffodils….

04/23/2013 By 1 Comment

As a rule, my garden is firmly penned in to its own page on this blog and not allowed to escape. But, so spectacular is this year’s display of Ice Follies that it demanded to be let out so that it could be seen by the wider world!

The Ice Follies came as the gift and inspiration of Prudence Neusink, she of Body Talk fame. She  arrived at the front door last October, preceded by a large sack of bulbs, and directed a day of heavy digging, overseen by Tawny Pipit, our wire foal who is now enjoying the grass at their feet. If you want to see how it is done, go the to garden page and spool down to 20th October last year. Meanwhile…

This is them seen early morning from my bedroom window…

Ice Follies early morning

This is them from the balcony outside the kitchen over breakfast..

Ice Follies

And here they are at lunchtime in the full sun – on display to Prudence as it happens…

Ice Follies

And here are those that got knocked over by the cats and rescued…

Ice Follies

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Rainbow over London…

04/13/2013 By Leave a Comment

How could I not share?….. Amazingly, not only was it a double rainbow in that it had a rainbow ‘shadow’, but the colours were repeated within the main rainbow – and it lasted for well over five minutes!

Rainbow over London

Rainbow over London

Rainbow over London

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Save Farm Terrace Allotments….

02/13/2013 By 5 Comments
Farm Terrace allotments

Farm Terrace allotments

I do not have an allotment. I sort of wish that I did but I do not think that I have the time, the knowledge or the staying power to make a go of it. Well, that’s my excuse anyhow…

But I do lots of vicarious  allotment gardening – mainly thanks to my good friend Sarah Langton Lockton, ‘garden lady’ at the The Lady magazine. Her well worked allotment provides us with delicious salads and vegetables for our monthly jigsaw evenings, not to mention snippets of juicy allotment gossip!

I therefore feel quite entitled to get steamed when a ‘planning initiative’ threatens some well loved and well worked clutch of allotment gardens – providing real, fresh (unprocessed and horsemeat-polluted….) food for local residents.

That is what is happening in Watford at Farm Terrace where 65 allotments have flourished on an ex-sewage farm site since 1896. Developers are promising new plots and a community garden two miles away in return for turning Farm Terrace into a new ‘health campus’ and housing – but do we believe that this will really be an improvement?

Well, the very active Farm Terrace Allotments Society certainly does not think so. They are fighting hard to save their allotments – currently applying for them to be designated a ‘community asset’. You can check out more at their website - www.farmterrace.btck.co.uk. Nor does John Walker of Hartley Botanicals –  check in here for his informed and impassioned defence of Farm Terrace and allotments in general. Then, if you are convinced, you can, like me, vote on the 38 degrees website to support their campaign.

Farm Terrace allotments

Farm Terrace allotments

Filed Under: Food/Health Policy, Gardens Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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