SEASONS GREETINGS!

 

Winter tidying goes on.........

Wol

Pugh's Pew

More time has been spent trimming more conifers and burning even more brash.  With neighbours as brilliant as ours, we like to try and keep things looking just a bit tidy.  We had lots of extra help as the London team were staying for the weekend!

The  Western red Cedar bench - otherwise known as Pugh's Pew in the Aspen grove has had a lick of creosote for winter and for some unknown reason Wol had his photo taken! I think he caught my eye as the sun was shining! With all the recent high winds; it's a real wonder he's still up there.  As we're pretty much at the top of Witton Hill, PTC really does catch the wind.  I guess it's small payment for our view across the valley to Martley Hillside.

The poor old pear tree in which Wol perches is the merest shadow of its former glory but we'll keep it going for as long as we can. There isn't enough of it left on which to hang Christmas lights this year. You can just see the  tips of a Wild Service Tree (Sorbus Torminalis) behind it.  When we eventually lose the pear tree, as least we shall have something to fill the gap (help obscure the overhead wires) and hang Christmas lights on!

GROWING INDOOR RAMBLING ROSES!

With the help of Ian Grimshaw of Original Murals (http://originalmurals.co.uk/) we have managed to bring the garden into the sitting room.  We already had roses (in the form of an old Albertine) growing around the window on the outside.  Now we have roses twining around the inglenook fireplace!!  Ian is amazing!  Ian lives in Ombersley and can paint anything from full on African scenes including the herds of wildebeest sweeping the plains to tropical beach scenes if you're lucky enough to have an indoor swimming pool to go with them!  His website is well worth a look as he can do all the special paint effects too.  In the few days he was here, I learnt much about up to the minute materials as he allowed me to draw and paint a few leaves.  It's one thing doing this stuff on a piece of paper and getting the right perspective.  Replicating ideas on a wall is another matter entirely!  It's not helped by having to work on a vertical plane and getting into and around corners!  We had a great few days and Ian has promised to return in the spring and improve on my clouds in the conservatory!  The photos don't do the design justice as the gold changes so much in the light and is difficult to reproduce realistically.

Reds in the Beds!

Now the leaves have all dropped, things are looking rather bare so how nice to see the Dogwoods (Cornus Sanguinea) in the Aspen Grove with their brilliant red stems shining in the sunshine.  I cut these down every March to keep the colour of the young stems.  The offcuts can then be woven into colourful and natural looking plant supports.  I make a circle of uprights round a dustbin lid then weave horizontal stems and hey presto.  Even more seasonal, why not weave a colourful Christmas wreath?

Conifer Topping

Believe it or not: a whole two years has elapsed since Chris last topped the conifers (Cupressus Leylandii) so it was time to repeat the exercise.  With climbing gear and chainsaw in hand, Chris ventured forth, well, ventured up actually.  He worked steadily dropping the off cuts while I lugged and stoked!  Even 2 years growth was a pretty big job and once down on the ground, I was convinced that the offcuts had quadrupled in volume and weight.  Their untopped neighbours are now at least 60 feet tall.  It's not even nice to burn because it's so resinous and sticky.  So rather than log it up, it was time to light a bonfire and did we ever have a good bonfire!!!  It burned for 2 days!

Lugging all the heavy offcuts uphill to the bonfire got a tad wearing as there was further and further to drag them as the day wore on and it was all uphill.  All this went on well after dark and again the following day but, all is now neat and tidy once again.  When all is cold, the wood ash will be composted.  The other bonus was interesting shots of sunlight piercing the smoke, leaping flames and clouds of sparks not to mention a view of a fab sunset again.  All in all: a super worthwhile job.

More interesting photos of sunlight through smoke and sparks against the night sky can be seen at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100788191989823327785/BumplesBIGBonfire6122013

'A rose by any other name...........'

After a little prune

Now here's an interesting take!  Roses don't come any more common that the ubiquitous wild Dog Rose (Rosa Canina).  It just goes to prove that expensive cultivars can't always beat Mother Nature when it comes to the simplicity of this beauty.  Chris  get's all the credit for growing it over the Pear Gate.  We were in and out of the gate all afternoon and it showed neither gratitude nor mercy and - snagging him everytime he walked underneath.  Worse still - drawing blood on each occasion.  There's only so much ingratitude one can take! It therefore suffered some of the conifer's fate and underwent a bit of a haircut!

Conifer pruning.

Before...

.....& after.

A DSM uplit silver birch.....

.....& Fantastic Mr. Fox!

VERY dark indeed!!

Thank goodness for a few dry days and the ability to hoover up masses and masses of 'dry' leaves, cut down dead Michaelmas daisies, weed around the base of fruit trees, prune conifers and have a monster bonfire all in the interests of a major autumnal tidy up at PTC!

All the countless loads of leaves have been duly composted and (nearly all) the conifer brash burnt.  A few bigger lengths were logged up but with all the exuding resin, it makes really messy burning.  Ladders, chainsaws and hedgecutters were in constant use and, as O.I.C. ladder safety, it was either raining sawdust or conifer trimmings!  Needless to say, it was dark before we'd finished and as the camera was handy..........................!  Need I say more?