No smoke without....................

.........a bonfire!!  The shafts of sunlight in the smoke looked worth a photo so I went to see what/who was making all the smoke and, there was the culprit!!

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Summer at PTC means...........

Taking 5 minutes!

...........that it's almost too hot to work and so I took a few minutes off and sat in the shade in a wheelbarrow.   Well, an upturned wheelbarrow makes a perfect seat!  Now it was my turn to be on the receiving end of much flack as Chris sculpted the box hedge around the well.  He had a rather clever idea of making it into a giant sundial with the pump as the centre and cutting Roman numerals into the box hedge.  Pretty good idea I thought!  Having measured out and placed canes to guide the sculptor, I sat down to watch the master at work!  The hedge was trimmed all over except for areas on the top which will be allowed to grow up into numerals.  All it needs now is time (sorry!!)

Slaving in the relentless heat!

New Garden Toy Arrives

Today, I took delivery of my replacement mower so once the long meadow grass has been cut, this is what will keep it looking respectable!!  It's not everyday one has such a shiny new toy.  I bet Zach & Elissa would love this so; this photo is just for them!!

Garden Club Visit

PTC's resident thrush in full voice

Last night, PTC garden was the venue for a visit by members of The Shelsley Garden club.  After a dull and unpromising start to the day - when it was inclined to spit with rain as I was mowing and edging; the sun came out for their arrival (and for Murray's win!!!)  Lindy so kindly came over and helped serve them with teas, coffees and cake and another £80.00 went into the weekend's kitty which pushed our total to £645.59.  They appeared to enjoy their visit and although it was a touch too bright for the full effects DSM's lighting, they were able to get the idea.  The depths of the illuminated well however were 'well' (sorry!) appreciated!  By the time Alan and Martin arrived, it was much darker and Dave's new lights looked really pretty. We have one more garden club visit on the 25th and then I might feel as if the pressure's off!

Another fab sunset from PTC garden

Meanwhile, down in the Henclosure............over the past couple of weeks, the new girls, have contended with several hundred admiring strangers interrupting their usual tranquil lifestyle - not to mention the silly lady who touched their electric fence!  Despite these distractions, egg production has been eggsellent (sorry!) and output for June reached 72!

Wichenford Open Gardens 2013

Day 2

Visitors queuing at the gate

After a 5am start to finish watering, dead heading, general garden tidying and most importantly the critical: cushion placement (on every seat and bench in the garden including the Yew sofa!) The helpers arrived before I had even changed out of garden scruffs!  Today's Tea Team consisted of Colin, Val, Lindy, Maureen, Lyn, Eve, Di, Dave and Paul.  Chris was our photographer and general eye in the garden whilst Dave was the shuttle bus operator.  Paul helped on the gate and Al was in charge of dinner preparations and garden tours.  Denise was OIC Garage Gallery.  We were SO lucky with the weather as it was fine and sunny with a cool breeze (which did get a bit too cool by evening!)  We had about 457 visitors over the 2 days and our takings were:

• Gate: £113.10
• Teas: £420.64
• Donations: £86.20
• Gallery sales @ 5%: £25.65
• Total : £645.59!

Visitors in the garden

That is an increase of 25% from the last event in 2011. We won't know what the final total will be until Tuesday when Denise works out the 5% from garage sales. A big pat on the back and an enormous vote of thanks is needed for the entire team who baked wonderful cakes, served teas, washed up and left everything perfectly spick and span after 2 hectic days!  11 stayed for Al's BBQ supper and we moved the outside table into the conservatory as we would have just been too cold to dine al fresco.

Visitors queuing for teas

Now here's a funny thing.  Usually, it's me working alone in the garden with just the birds for company and a Chris on a Saturday.  Suddenly when it's filled with throngs of enthusiastic strangers, I found that I didn't feel at all comfortable about walking around and so talked to most people on the gate.  Weird!

We had a coach party from Staffordshire and visitors from as far away as South Africa and Japan.  The Japanese lady was truly amazing as she was something of an international expert on old English roses and was naming individual varieties and even discussing their history.  Furthermore, she was travelling alone and even driving to Stratford afterwards!  I should have enjoyed talking to her for much longer.

The visitors were really friendly and enthusiastic. However, there's always one exception!  She was the lady who claimed not to have seen our large warning about the electric fence which surrounds the Hen Pen and who even queried the  need to leave it switched on during the day!  This is the actual laminated A4 sign which was pinned on the gate post less than inch away from the electrified wire!!!

Her knowledge of vulpine habits was obviously a big fat ZERO and we all agreed that it was a shame Chris hadn't been on hand with the camera when she discovered the error of her ways!  

Chris by Chris!

However, he was on hand when needed later. Following an incident the previous day when 2 certain visitors were caught trying to blag their way in for £4 instead of £5. One in particular was so terribly convincing when claiming that the advertised admission price was actually £1 less.  We felt the score had been levelled!!  

Following a degree of flack, Chris also managed to capture shots of actual visitors in the garden this time and more of his (excellent) photos can be seen at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/WOGWEDay2

Wichenford Open Gardens 2013

DAY 1

The Teas Team!

What a perfect day!!  Warm sunshine after the hassle of cutting hedges in the rain!! Poor Brian painting the summerhouse and the rain washing off the paint faster than he could paint more on!  At one time, it looked as if someone had tipped a churn of milk over the windows!  He stuck at it despite everything and it looked pretty good.  Chris and I worked on the Yew hedge until 8:30pm and it did look pretty amazing.  A quick blow round before the team arrived to serve teas and placing cushions just about everywhere and we were pretty much ready. 

Chris was under very strict instruction to take photos of visitors in the garden this time and not shots of an empty garden!  This time we found pictures with people on!!

His photos can be seen at:  

https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/WOG2013DAY1

Meanwhile, I have to get ready for today's invasion......................!

Open Garden Preparations - halted by RAIN!

Seeding meadow grass

The last 3 whole days have been spent pulling up dead forget-me-nots elsewhere or rather everywhere else in the garden and removing dead daffodil leaves, dead-heading everywhere and even spraying greenfly on the roses.  I've lost count of the number of trips to the compost heap with full wheel barrows. Then there's been the mowing and edging......I even found time to redo the culvert and fernery signs.  I did take a few pictures of the meadow grass just because it looked so lovely as the sun was setting.

Mown path to the pear Hut

Moon daisies in the grass.

The weather for the weekend doesn't look too promising and tomorrow's not looking too good either!  That's about typical as Brian's coming to paint the summerhouse ready for the weekend..................

.............And what happened today?  It rained and then it RAINED!  Now we have a half painted summerhouse which looks worse than an unpainted one!  Hedge cutting was stopped by rain so they are only half done too!  All meadow grass will be flattened - big sigh!  The only person to finish all preparations was Denise who was working in the garage on her display of art exhibits.  Fingers are very tightly crossed for dry weather from here on in!