Water quality in the east pond has recovered. Heavy winter rain has flushed out any remaining sewage, bleach and bath-suds. (A cowboy plumber, working in 2008, patched the soil pipe from the main bathroom into the drains carrying rainwater to the pond, see - 'A Mild Sense Of Panic'). In my first two years at … Continue reading Jenny Wren And The White Hart*
Fallow Deer
Breathe In
About a week ago, my laptop died and I spent hours trying to resurrect it. I failed. So I spent several more hours. And failed again. Then I panicked. I feared I had lost spreadsheets and word documents and other files I wouldn't even miss until I needed them. And hundreds of photos. In a … Continue reading Breathe In
Flood And The Pigeon
This is the wettest winter I have known at the Priory. It has rained for weeks and water pours into the grounds. The ducks at least are happy - I've never seen so many. One day I counted twenty-two: normally there are five or six. The water level is very high. The island on the … Continue reading Flood And The Pigeon
Tending Trees Part 2
I don't know exactly how many trees I've planted during the past four years. Not counting a hundred and seventy beech-hedge saplings or five yew-hedge 'trees' or any of the 'shrubs' that will attain tree-like status (photinias and cotinus for example), I guess about forty. During the same period, we've felled perhaps a dozen dead … Continue reading Tending Trees Part 2
Do Not Tempt Fate …
... and definitely don't reach out and tweak her nose. Yesterday, on the Anxious Gardener Facebook page, I posted a photo of some deer in one of Margaret's fields and jokingly said that I hoped they wouldn't come into the gardens. This morning, on arriving for work, I found this: Apple Cox's Orange Pippin' - … Continue reading Do Not Tempt Fate …
The Anxious Gardener 