The Great Wall of Witton Hill!

The previous upturned concrete slabs

Hey presto! (Spot the dreaded vent!)

Despite all the recent freezing temperatures, Chris Genever has very busy behind the garage. Before he commenced operations, we had a narrow slabbed path and concrete slabs on end used to retain the hedge bank. As this path is the main wheelbarrow access to the top of the garden, we hated its narrow width and we hated even more scraping our knuckles against a metal vet protruding from the garage wall at exactly hand height when pushing a barrow! 

'Tile creasing'

Perfection.

In no time at all the old concrete retaining slabs disappeared only to be replaced with a really pretty brick wall with a slight curve which now widens the path at the site of the dreaded metal vent. 

Check out the mortar colour!

Abandoning Chris with his new uncapped wall for a trip to Birmingham, imagine my surprise to find that he had capped the top of the wall in its entirety with the prettiest little blue triangular Victorian capping bricks in the whole world! He even dyed the mortar to blend in and capped the piers with proportionately larger sized matching bricks. The gate post which had rotted off at ground level is now securely fixed to the side of the pier and it all looks really lovely and a huge improvement. Thanks very much indeed Chris - you're a star!

Barking up the Bright Tree!

Betula utilis jacquemontii

Betula utilis jaquemontii

Betula utilis Snow Queen

Just when we're desperate for something to brighten up the garden on a long winter's day, Mother Nature comes up with a solution! In this case, it's good old fullproof/growanywhere/tolerateallweathers silver birches! However, they do have a downside. They are without doubt the messiest trees in the garden. They drop huge quantities seeds everywhere and those dropped seeds germinate everywhere - pots, gutters, cracks and crevices - you name it. The wind blows great mounds of seeds by the tool shed and they also drop twigs everywhere. These faults are tolerated for their bark colour, their catkins in spring, their buttery golden yellow leaves in autumn and their graceful habit.

Betula pendula

As well as having several of the common European Betula pendula in the garden, we also have a Betula utilis jaquemontii and a Betula utilis Snow Queen. The advantage of these newer varieties is that they are faster growing and their bark turns a more silvery white at a much earlier age then the older common European versions.  Others have a brown bark which only turns silver at 10 years plus.  At our age we need instantaneous bark colour!!

Beaky Bulletin

A very indignant Marigold!

Things have been a tad quiet on the chicken front lately so, here's a little update.

Firstly, I have to ask a question. Why would a chicken choose the coldest snowiest weather to moult? Throughout the very coldest weather, Miss Esmereld, our only layer of blue eggs, looked very sorry for herself. Stray feathers on the ground everywhere and not a single tail feather left - hardly surprising there's been no sign of her little blue eggs for ages and ages. Three months to be precise. Poor thing, there were more missing feathers than remaining ones. I was secretly thinking duvets!

Anyway this morning, I went down to feed the chickens and collect any eggs. To my horror; where there should by 5, there were only 2 girls!! Despite all the fortifications and the electric fence still ticking away, all sorts of alarm bells rang in my head! At any hint of food, they all come rushing to the gate.  Putting down the trough containing their breakfast of mash,  I opened the back door of the 'House for Hens, only to find the missing 3 all piled in to a single nest box in total silence, Esmerelda being one of the three, Marigold and Beatrice being the other two!  With high hopes of a blue egg, I carried Beatrice into the Hennery House nest box leaving the other two to lay in peace. It worked! Today's total was 4 and one them a blue egg. Now Esmerelda has a full compliment of feathers once again, her plumage is looking immaculate. Maybe 'fine feathers do make  fine birds after all!  Hopefully, there'll be more blue eggs in evidence and on a more regular basis.

From the left: Esmerelda,Tosca, Wilhelmina, Beatrice & Marigold.

Barking up the right tree!

Acer griseum in the sun.

Sunlight through Acer griseum bark

At this time of year when there's little in the way of colour in the garden, it's difficult to beat bark. Whether the light shines through it or actually on the bark, it's still much needed colour. Here we have an Acer griseum - a tad on the slow growing side but its peeling papery bark is the equivalent of arboreal dreadlocks!

Acer sango-kaku

The Cornus sanguinea Midwinter fires are always guaranteed to give colour when its most needed as long as sufficient spring pruning ensures young stems. The other (much younger) Acer: a Sango-kaku dissectum also known as the coral bark maple has a third name: Senkaki. Whichever you choose, its bark colour won't disappoint. Ours, however, has a bit to go before it catches the Griseum when it comes to size. On a long and dark winter's day when the sun makes no effort whatsoever and it doesn't even seem to get properly light, these little gems of colour are even more of a valued necessity.

Cornus sanguinea Midwinter fire

Marmalade from Home Grown Lemons.

All 26lbs - should see us through the week!

Softening the fruit

It's been a couple of years (thanks to red spider mites) since we had such a crop of lemons but this weekend saw another mammoth marmalade production line over the weekend! Our lemon tree certainly came up trumps as I picked a full 6 lbs of fruit which made 26lbs of marmalade. Good job it wasn't more as I wouldn't have had enough jars!  As it was, I was really scraping the barrel. It had to be made in 2 batches and I substituted much of the sugar with Xylitol - a natural birch sugar which can be metabolised in safety by those for whom sugar is bad thing! Lemon Marmalade - from tree to jar!  

In the greenhouse before picking.

Cecil the Caterpillar

Cecil the caterpillar!

Allow me to introduce you to Cecil our caterpillar! It's not the best photo but he really is taking shape these days. He's actually a Euonymous - possibly a japonica Microphyllus which Chris has been trimming for about 3 years now. He actually looks more realistic than this photo suggests as his feelers hardly show up. Chris has sculpted bulging cheeks and even eye brows to go with his feelers! The advantage of having a Euonymous variety is: he doesn't eat other plants!

January Pruning.

A dull overcast and bone chillingly cold Saturday was spent pruning the Wisteria, trimming and cleaning out a conifer and giving the caterpillar a hair cut! The Wisteria is always a bit of a fiddle as it's such a thuggish monster and even though we pruned all the whippy side shoots off back in August: with no leaves to hide them; we managed  to find all those we missed in the summer. Weird how they force themselves into the tiniest and narrowest of gaps. Why does nature do that? It would be so much easier to just hang and flop out! 

I'm posting a photo taken in May just to remind me that freezing my socks off on top of a pair of steps really is worth it! Weather permitting: it's the apple trees next week........shiver!