Monday, April 10, 2006

It's still awfully cold here!



Brrrrrr ...... Night time temps are still dropping below freezing and we're lucky if it gets above 10C (50F) during the day.

Here's a worm's eye view of the Helleborus that Val White bought me earlier this year. It has settled nicely into its new home and has produced lots of white blossom almost the size of tea saucers!

First, I thought I'd tell you a bit more about the badgers. For the last week we've managed to entice 3 of them up onto our patio with peanuts. They've come every night between about 9 and 11 pm. It's such a priviledge to see them that we forgive them all the digging in the lawn!! I wish I could go outside and pet them, but they'd run away and probably never come back if I tried! There are two of them that sometimes arrive together. They are so similar that we think they may be siblings, and could be yearlings. Then there is another who is paler in the face. I think he may be an old boar .

Next, I am getting my petting done, but it's on our neighbour's dog - Ella. I volunteered to take her for a few walks. She is a golden retriever and the most lovable, loving dog I ever met. She can go off leash and loves to run on the hills chasing rabbits (although she never catches them). She NEVER chases sheep, which is a good job as the hills are full of ewes with lambs, right now. We've been heading up the valleys and up onto the Long Mynd where she can go off leash.

Yesterday we got so high the rain turned to ice pellets and then snow! That didn't stop her from rolling around on the grass and the bracken - in fact she rolled about so much she tumbled off the bank and into a stream! So she laid there and had a drink for a while before finding the muddiest piece of path to run through. After a couple of hours (we went much further than intended, but I just had to see if I could make it all the way to the top) we returned covered in mud (both of us), exhausted and happy!

Today was cold and sunny and we headed up another valley where she found lots of big fat rabbits. Of course they all took shelter in the gorse bushes after leading her a merry chase up the hills and down the vales, so no-one was hurt! She again spent a lot of time lying around in the various streams and brooks on our way. Jason used to do that, too! I took the precaution of rolling up my trousers and came back a lot cleaner this time!

Church Stretton has been voted the most dog-friendly town in England and it is really nice to meet lots of dogs on our walks. They also seem very friendly. Down in the main valley of the Long Mynd National Trust park there is a chalet which serves tea and coffee and light meals. They have a long verandah equipped with dog bowls too!


(Here's a white Aubretia from the rock garden)

Thirdly, we start an interesting volunteer project for the Shrewsbury museum, tomorrow. The museums used to be scattered about the town and they have been consolidated now into two buildings. However, they are going to move again and prior to that need to sort out the mess created when they moved the first time! Our job is to sort through the collection of Victorian stuffed birds. We have to get them out of the storage cupboards, make sure they're what they say they are and where they should be, make sure they're properly sealed up in plastic bags and then store them properly. It sounds pretty easy, but there are some extinct birds amongst them that we don't even know. The other drawback is that they may be preserved with arsenic. We're going to have to wear gloves and I'm going to wear a mask, too, as I'm allergic to dust.

If we do a good job on that there may be other projects, including a whole collection of birds-eggs to sort out. It's nice to get out and into a bigger town, and it's nice to deal with younger people too. The volunteer coordinator is quite a young man and the museum manager is a lot younger than us, too!


(The flowering currants are coming out now. And I've also seen an increase in bumble bees. They have quite a few different flowers to visit, and this is one of their favourites.)

And finally, in spite of the cold weather, I've been pressing on with the garden clean-up. In fact, I'm now done with phase one. This is a distinct relief. I've found lots more interesting things coming up including lots more astilbes and peonies that I didn't know we had. Remember, we first saw the house and garden in June last year, but we only had a cursory look around the garden. Then we didn't see it till we moved in at the end of August, so we've really no idea about what spring and early summer things we have.

Some things have been damaged by frost, but may recover so I've left them for the moment (e.g. Ceanothus and Rosemaries in the wall bed. I haven't pruned anything other than the bushes along the front of the house, yet, but some of our shrubs are getting very leggy and interfering with each other. I also notice that the two Pieris near the front door are both yellowing. Maybe they need a feed.

Now we need to start in on the various problems. John has promised to help with some of these.
  • Repair badger damage to lawn, reseed, maybe remove moss from lawn.
  • Prune the holly like shrub that is interfering with the big cypress tree.
  • Remove the dying parts of the Olearia macrodonta near the green gate (another holly like shrub).
  • Sort out the climbers on the various trellises
  • Weed to get rid of ground elder, dandelions, blackberry
  • Put up a framework to train the tayberry (a thornless, cultivated, relative of the blackberry)
  • Set up a composting system which is warmer and easier to work than the present one
  • Pruning on both sides of driveway.
  • Feeding and fertilizing

In addition I need to continue with my identification and documentation project. This involves photos, html documents and an Access Data Base - OK, OK, I know I'm a nerd!!!!!

One of the interesting things to emerge is a whole area of ramps (the American term) or ramsons (the British term) or wild garlic or bear's garlic or Allium ursinum. I'm looking forward to harvesting some of it for breakfast with scrambled eggs. The last time we ate them was with Tom and Jackie Wolfe in Guelph, Ontario back in the 60s!