Full of promise.

We scatter bits of scented soap to keep the deer off - it works!

What would you like to grow that you can't?

I'd like to grow gypsophila, pinks, and all the other 'English' pretties that like limy soil and drier and sunnier conditions than we have here. I am gradually finding plants which have similar characteristics but which suit our conditions. A lot of annuals fit the bill, but they are more work than perennials.

Question 9 from Marie at http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com  What do you feed your garden?

I don't feed it much. I'm wary of growing things too soft. Having said that we have a pile of well rotted farmyard manure still on the drive, very gradually diminishing in size, as it gets spread all over the borders. That will be the first real feed in 10 years other than a handful of Growmore when we first plant something new. We use home made compost from our two bins on the cutting patch which is very gravelly, and the soil there is now lovely to work.

This is where this beautiful tulip grew....

Plants make me happy! I've known this since I was about four.
For the plant which makes me happiest erigeron karvinskianus, the Mexican daisy, must be a contender.

I first bought it from Wendy Lauderdale who had a wonderful garden in Wiltshire, and who wrote a book called The Garden at Ashtree Cottage about her quintessentially English garden.

We visited her garden one quiet hot day, got talking, stayed for coffee and ended up spending the best part of the day there. Describing this modest little daisy she said 'It sprinkles about'. And it does. Delightfully. Here it is sprinkling down our front steps. The colours of the flowers change from white to pink to brownish pink as the plant matures so you have all these different shades together at any one time (this doesn't really show in my photograph).

I don't have ideal conditions for it - it prefers dry and limey, and we are wet and acidic, but it survives most winters under the eaves of the house in gravel. It's very easy to keep going from seed and cuttings.

Happiness rating 10 out of 10..

...do you have any 10 out of 10's?

 Another question from http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com -

What plant has most disappointed you?

The blue poppy is one - the plant doesn't disappoint - it is fabulous. But my attempts to grow it disappoint. in theory I have the right conditions, but....I've given up now. I go along and enjoy seeing it growing wonderfully in my neighbour's garden.

....think about tomorrow's nice question What plant made you happiest?

Two twigs, one piece of wire.
Crude, but cute..

    Does anyone know how you stop the catkins from falling off?

More Garden Question time: What size is your garden?

About 120 ft x 40ft with the house in the middle.

I once had one and a quarter acres, but except for one hardy geranium and a tiny dianthus which grew by the door, sheep ate everything I ever tried to grow there, including daffodils.

At first I found this quite upsetting, but I was more than compensated by discovering the wild flowers which grew on the moor surrounding the cottage. I remember finding a sundew in a peaty ditch, and being astonished that it was insectiverous!

The cries of many owls woke me at 4 am and I opened the bedroom window and let in the sounds and the chill air, then tucked back into my warm bed.

Early morning dew on daffodil Thalia in the new banner above, watching jays and a pair of red squirrels; what can beat breakfast in the garden on a beautiful spring morning?

Where do you garden now, and where did you garden as you were growing up? is today's question.

I garden now in a very small village in the mild temperate climate of the west coast of Scotland. I grew up without a garden, which may be why I love it so much...

I've gardened in different parts of Scotland, in Yorkshire and Oxfordshire in England, and in Cyprus. In city, town and country, on open moorland and by the sea - lots of gardens, lots of work, lots of fun.

And you?

Oops! I meant to post my blog last night....but I fell asleep. I felt a little tired about nine o'clock and thought I'd just lie down for half an hour - I woke ten and a half hours later!!

Back in November last year (12,13 and 26th) I began asking some questions I had found on a blog I still read by New Yorker Marie at http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com  As the gardening season begins here again in earnest I thought a little dig around our gardening roots might be enjoyable.

Marie's first three questions were:

When did you start to garden?

Who and what inspired you to garden?

What was the first plant you grew?

The next question is How often do you garden?

My own answer is at every opportunity. I am a bit more of a fairweather gardener than I used to be I must admit, but most days I do something, even if it is in the greenhouse, or just sitting planning.

I've just taken delivery of ten white bark birch, Betula jacqumontii, for the front garden so that is taking quite a bit of planning - placing them, standing back, looking from different angles, trying to remember their ultimate height and spread....As they grow and dominate the small front garden many other things will have to change too, and in my mind I can already see drifts of snowdrops, white spring anemones and white daffodils, and large swathes of white hardy geraniums - simple and easy to maintain underplanting, and I can envisage a yellow gate in the front fence.

As you can tell a lot of my gardening is in my head!

What about you?

As I'm sure you know, a bout of illness gets you back to basics like nothing else
Sleep. Eat. Move.
I'm sleeping for Britain - no problem there.
In the last few days I've begun enjoying food again. Greatly exciting (for me!)
I force myself to move, then quickly fall back asleep....
A sorry tale of woe!
I am moving, albeit very very slowly in the right direction, helped by yesterday's lovely sunshine, and today's magnificent flowers.






...promise to try to find something more interesting to write about tomorrow!...

Do you know that if your seedlings get etiolated - all thin and spindly and feak and weeble as mine have because I've been ill in bed and neglected them, its OK to bury them up to their necks when you prick them out into new compost and bigger containers. The thing is not to damage the stem....

It's Spring.

It's official! Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox with day and night of equal length. As from now the days get longer - oh bliss! I am so ready for Spring - maybe some of the vitality will rub off on me?

I've been quite unwell with a nasty mysterious infection, and am at a very low ebb energy wise - 'feak and weeble' my daughter once called it. So today, the first real day of Spring is the beginning of my fight-back!

I am eating for health which will give me the energy to excercise, which will make me heathier still. This is the plan anyway....

Here is a recipe from Judith Wills that I like called the energy drink

Blend together 250ml unsweetened soya milk, 125 g fresh fruit, 1 small banana, 2 tblsps yoghurt, 1 tsp runny honey and 1 tsp wheatgerm oil.

Makes a nice breakfast....

I know I said no more of these but I've just found

                                                        Keep Calm and Write a Blog -(love it!)

and

                                                     Keep Calm and Finish Your Damned Thesis


....do you know of any good ones?

The first snowdrops, the daffodils, August's meteor showers, a very starry night - with mugs of cocoa and rugs..

The book (yesterday's post, sorry) came with a subscription to Country Living magazine years ago. It is by Sharon Amos, published by Collins and Brown.

It goes season by season through the year describing the festivals celebrated in this part of the world, full of romantic images (and since when did a little romance harm anyone?) and 'how to' information, it is a visual feast and I've copied lots of the simpler ideas, from floating candles and flowers to daisy chains to the very pretty cake stand I asked for for Christmas a few years ago. I've recently been given an old picnic basket and am looking forward to browsing the charity shops for some china....the Primrose Picnic will be coming up soon!

Lighting candles, opening a bottle of wine, thankin someone with a posy or a cake, celebrations don't need to be elaborate, expensive or time consuming.

So what will you celebrate this week?

I don't think I celebrate enough. Do you take the time to celebrate things, birthdays and anniversaries and Mother's Days the way you would really like to? A friend and I decided to celebrate our achievements and reaching our goals, but too often, partly for reasons of geography, we just moved on the the next thing.

Today I'm celebrating two years of writing this daily blog. Tonight at dinner I will raise a glass to all of you who read my ramblings and send kind, thoughtful and encouraging comments. It has been a lot of fun sharing my thoughts and ideas, and enjoying the discipline of daily writing which has become a habit now - something to celebrate!

Most of us have reasons to celebrate every day if we think about it. It is about mindfulness, appreciation and gratitude really. In fact it seems positively churlish not to celebrate little everyday things as well as the main events like birthdays and Christmas.

So go celebrate!

            Photographs taken at Auchindrain Musem www.auchindrain.org.uk So many houses needing rescued!

Sarah kindly asked how the editing was going. It wasn't going. I had stalled.

Back to the wonderful Chris Baty of No Plot No Problem (see all of February's postings). Chapter 9 is headed I Wrote a Novel. Now What? In it he talks of 'post novel depression'. I wouldn't go so far as to call it depression but there has been a sense of anticlimax....He advises leaving the novel alone for two weeks, which, funnily enough is exactly the time I have left it for - quite by chance. So that's OK then!

Do you know David Allen's book Getting Things Done ? The most useful thing I got from this book (and I got a lot from it) was, when stumped or hesitating, to ask What's the next action?, and to do it.

The next action was to print out the whole book, double spaced. Guess what? I ran out of ink!

While waiting for the new cartridges I am learning more about editing with Microsoft Word. I know there are more efficient ways to do things than the way I am doing them so I'm watching tutorials and trying things out. I am not a natural at this kind of thing - I find it quite challenging, but I do like learning something new.

And I'm moving on again - Thank you Sarah!


Is there anything you are stuck on? Ask 'What's the next action? And go do it....


 

Inside the magical world of the heated propagator!

Have you heard of the merristem? It's the tissue at the growing tip of the plant where the cells are continuously dividing - merrily, I like to think!

Sown on Sunday, up on Wednesday - its so encouraging when your seeds pop up quickly. Once I have the propagator going, the first thing I do each morning is check to see what's happening. It is a nice springtime routine, and I have to say it does get me out of bed a little earlier....

I'm growing annuals here. It's a nuisance having to sow and prick out when the packets say sow direct, but it just doesn't work reliably enough here. Our slug population, the chance of late frosts, possible heavy rain, and the soil can be late to warm up. I have far more success planting out sturdy little plants brought on in the greenhouse and carefully hardened off. I direct sow extra annuals later if there is space, and that does give me a long succession of flowers.

We open the garden again under the Yellow Book scheme at the end of June - so there's a little extra pressure!

Following on from yesterday's post:

CALM

Visually uncluttered (though the cupboards may be stuffed!), neutral tones with accents of brilliant colours in paintings, towels, cushions - it's easy to change the whole look and mood this way.

CLEAN

Well, cleanish. I'm not a slave to it, but I do enjoy clean. Grubby is depressing. (My ideal aesthetic effect is super sophisticated modernist - but unless it looks immaculate it is awful, and I'm just not prepared to put in the time it takes to keep this style pristine. Life is short....)

FUN

For me it is - it's my hobby and a source of great pleasure and comfort. I get a kick out of changing things quite often - towels and cushions, pictures and photos, bowl and jugs. I have lots of these - I just don't have them all out at the same time. I love to change things with the seasons.

ORGANIC

Lots of natural materials and flowers. As few plastics and synthetics as is reasonably possible - minimal use of cleaners and similar products, environmentally friendly.

FRESH

Open windows for fresh air, not synthetic air fresheners, laundry dried on the line when possible. Pure oils in a dish of water on the stove for scent - lavender, eucalyptus, lemongrass. A few drops on the cardboard tube inside the toilet roll scent the bathroom nicely. My favourite is Napier's Relaxing Essential Oil Blend. Occasionally a scented candle (though not around food) - I love St Eval's Tranquility and for winter Orange and Cinnamon. They last for months.

LIGHT

I nearly forgot this and it's one of my most important ones! Sunlight through (clean) windows. Lamps with white shades, white curtains, glass in interior and exterior doors, white walls everywhere, huge window in the studio, mirrors and candles....

I LOVE MY HOME!

....What, specifically, do you love about your home - and can you have or create more of it?



 

 

 

What words would you choose to describe the kind of home you want your house to be? I found that by putting my ideas into words I was more likely to end up with what I really wanted from my home - my 'ideal home' in fact..

SIMPLE

Ours is a wooden house built soon after the second world war. 'Swedish Houses' as they are known were donated to Britain by the Swedish government to help with the housing shortage. Our government used them to house forestry workers in various locations around Scotland. They are over 60 years old now, and are standing up very well to the Scottish climate. So I decided to emphasise and celebrate it's simplicity.

SOOTHING

It's my sanctuary from the sometimes crazy world. I often say my most valued possession is my own front door key.

RELAXED

I don't get precious about it. If something gets damaged it gets damage. It's for living in.

SANE

Basically I try to keep things rational - nothing cleverclever or witty - no irony here! A place for everything and eveything in it's place is the principle, and it works more often than not.

SENSUAL

Natural materials and the textures of wood, of course, leather, white cotton curtains and blinds, thick pile rug and woolly cushions and throws for winter, cotton for summer, rose smelling soap in the bathroom, tomato leaf soap in the kitchen (from Sarah Raven), matt and shiny surfaces, glass and mirrors to bring in light.


tomorrow - calm, clean, organic, fresh, light, and fun  

Take a peek at this charming film called Birth of a Book - it's only about a minute long on 11th March post at
http://www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk/

I find it quite mesmerising.

The article from the Telegraph in the link is fascinating - do tell me what you think....

Still on the subject of favourite books At Home With White by Atlanta Bartlett has quite a lot of vintage, which I'm not particularly fond of, and shabby chic which just looks plain shabby to me, and as for 'distressed' - why would I want distress? There's enough distress in the world without deliberately ruining a piece of furniture....(just my opinion!). But the book was worth a couple of pounds second hand from Amazon, and better value than an advertisement packed magazine. (I did once get a second hand book from Amazon with bits cut out of some pages! It was described as 'good condition' but mostly they have been as described.)

There are some nice quotations from artists and writers:

'White...is not the mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black.' said G K Chesterton. I would add 'and a lot easier to live with'.

In remaindered book shops I found The Scented Home by Karen Wheeler, The Healing Home by Suzy Chiazzari and Harmonious Home by Judith Wilson. Nice titles?

I have a few favourite inspirational books about homes and gardens.

Sensual Home by Ilse Crawford published by Quadrille. I like the soft tactile cover and the text in this one (mostly I like these books for the pictures!)

Here is an excerpt from the chapter on Creative Energy :

'We all have a creative flame - human beings are naturally creative animals. With any daily task there is a choice of doing it creatively, or at a bare minimum level. In poor societies you often see astonishing levels of creativity: the Ndebele's legendary painting of their houses for instance. But with increasing wealth and industrialisation societies tend to lose their culture and become passive consumers. Creativity is left to artists, and taken out of the realm of everyday. Bring it back into your life, even if it is only writing letters with pen and ink, or taking time to arrange fruit on a plate.'


...do you have some favourites to recommend?

Standard kitchen worktops get a new look....

Originally oiled and much richer in colour than this they had faded and I quite liked the faded look.

We lightly sanded the worktop and then used  a small sample pot of Fired Earth 'Malm' paint diluted half and half with water to colourwash it - applied with a brush then rubbed in with a cloth - a bit hard to get it even (but it doesn't need to be perfect...)

I like this greyed look....easy on the eye.

The postcard of Grace Darling arrived appropriately enough on International Women's Day. I can remember reading about her heroic efforts helping her father to save the victims of a shipwreck when I was in primary school, and can still see the illustrations clearly in my mind's eye. It is hard to believe the reports today of health and safety rules preventing people from going to the rescue of others because they have not had the right training....

A true heroine.

I enjoyed looking out things which went with the new colour - a tea towel from Sweden and a hand made gift tag from a few Christmases ago which I couldn't part with..

Scroll down two posts - this is the same kitchen that appears on 7th March...

Here are some of my favourite home style websites. Of course they reflect my tastes, but whether you like chintz and cosy, vintage, classic, antique, modernist, country, traditional....there's a website - they are like personalised magazines - fun and  (mostly) no ads.

http://frugalfarmhousedesign.blogspot.com/  
www.wabisabi-style.blogspot.com
www.theessenceofthegoodlife.blogspot.com
www.avan.to

..and of course they all have links to lots of others and you can easily spend hours....

PS Today is International Women's Day and I have not posted about it - so I am sending you to a posting today by Lisbeth from Sweden which I like very much - http://inredningsdesigner.blogspot.com/ The blog Creative Living is by the same Lisbeth who writes wabi sabi style (above). Check out her neat hone hone clock, just below the title top left!

We are redecorating the kitchen now....

I want my home to look SIMPLE    SOOTHING    RELAXED    ORGANIC    FRESH    CLEAN    CALM    SANE    SENSUAL
That's not too much to ask, is it?

Though it took some doing from our starting point 11 years ago which was this : (see also 4 March)

We worked our socks off, got to the point where we had simply had enough (do you do this?) and having got it to an acceptable condition more or less abandoned any further DIY for a number of years. So we are now doing that 'second pass' going back to all the bits we didn't finish, and quite enjoying  going at a more considered and rational pace, and making good decisions.

..tomorrow, some inspirational websites and books....

Having flowers in the house is one of my greatest pleasures. They bring a room alive.