The Husband is feeling a great sense of achievement at the moment - the Wisteria has flowered for the very first time.

It doesn't sound a great thing, except we planted it as a young plant against the back wall if the house at least 12 years ago. Neither of us had any experience of this type of plant and, of course, we were both working at the time and so we left it to do its own thing. This was a big mistake as we later discovered as it needs proper pruning to shape the plant and to encourage it to start flowering.

Once we had both finished with work the Husband decided to try and get the wisteria to flower. So for a couple of years he pruned it, albeit rather tentatively. Nothing happened. The Husband got a little frustrated about this and announced that the wisteria had one more opportunity to flower or he would dig it up and throw it away. I wouldn't call his pruning this time as tentative - it was more like buchery. Real kill or cure. After he had finished this task there was very little left, it looked like a few stems and very little green.

And it worked. We've had a good first flowering from the plant. And, hopefully, we'll have more flowers on it in future years.

The Christmas Decorations are up

It took the Husband later than usual this year to decide to put up the decorations, not surprising given what he has been through. But in the last few days he decided the time is right and called the Stepdaughter around the other evening to help put them all up.

I've taken pictures of some of the decorations but not of the chains. Luckily these are chains we've had for years because it's now difficult to find them in the shops. I can't imagine why as I always feel that they give a really Christmassy feel to a room.


And yes, that's a picture of us to the left of the clock, taken on our wedding day. 14 years ago now.

How time flies.

Sometimes change is sad but inevitable.


When we moved into this house, about 12-13 years ago there was a cherry tree in the front garden, almost on on the boundary to the pavement. It had obviously been there for some years, we assume since the house was originally built. I used to enjoy the green leaves that really added something to the view from any of the front windows of the house from spring to autumn. And, of course, for about a week every Spring it was a mass of pink which decorated the entire street. For this beauty we used to put up with the layer of pink petals that used to cover every surface of the car, flower beds and drive immediately afterwards.


Anyway last spring there wasn't as many blossoms as usual, in fact they were very sparse. And as the summer continued leaves on the branches died several months prematurely. It became clear that the tree was in a poor way. I knew we had to do something about it and we had decided to remove it. I was getting a bit worried in fact as after every strong wind there would be twigs laying on the road and in the garden. My (always active) imagination began to play visions of a branch falling onto a passer-by on the pavement. But I'd no idea of where to find a good tree surgeon.


Then one day last week I heard the sound of a circular saw close by and looking out of the window I realised that one of the houses nearby was having some work done to their sycamore tree. In fact they too were having the tree chopped down. This was a magnificent specimen but I knew that they wanted to get rid of it and clearly they had found a company capable of doing the job. And to my eyes they looked very capable.


So I nipped along and had a word with one of them and asked for an estimate to remove the cherry tree. He had a look at it and told me that at some stage it had been pollarded and then left to grow naturally, something that always weakened a tree.


Two days later an estimate arrived in the post and it was much less than I expected both to cut down the tree and poison the roots. So yesterday I rang them up and asked them to do the task. Their first action was to contact the council to check that there were no planning restrictions on the tree and no preservation order. They rang us back this morning to say that they had heard from the council, all was well and they could do it today. I nipped down to the bank, for obvious reasons, and by the time I had returned home they had already started.



It didn't take them long. And when they put poison on the roots (to avoid suckers - a real problem with cherries) they also did so on my neighbour's sycamore, which explains how they happened to be in the area.


When he had finished the tree surgeon told us that the cherry's trunk was almost completely dead and that if left the branches could have been a health & safety hazard. So we were right to have the tree cut down.

But it hasn't stopped both of us feeling sad that the tree had to go. It was lovely in its prime. But life moves on. In the Spring I shall look for something pretty to cover the stump.

Upon due reflection I would have to say that my favourite piece of kitchen equipment is my stockpot. After I retired I started make a lot of soup and realised early on that my largest saucepan wasn't big enough and even the pan from the pressure cooker wasn't really up to the job. So we went shopping for a stockpot and bought the biggest and heaviest domestic one we could find. Even in a Debenhams 20% off sale it was still a lot of money but it was worth it, definitely. I use it frequently and it has the weight and the volume I need, although at times I still wish it was a bit bigger, especially if I've sized up a recipe as I often do. Anyway, here it is, full of scotch broth and sitting on a chopping board made by my father when I first left home. When he retired from work he developed a fascination with woodwork and although this is just a big piece of wood with no carving on it at all it is definitely fit for purpose as a chopping board.

It always astounds me that the hardy geranium in the front garden does so well. I've said before that the front garden is incredibly dry and open to the elements. Well, this geranium is actually up against the front wall of the house - and the experts always say that you should never plant anything directly against a wall as it will be too dry. But other than a couple of handfuls of pelletted chicken manure in the Spring, if I remember,
and the odd watering can of water when it's been very very dry for quite a while I totally neglect the plants. And you can see how well they are doing.

I'ver had a busy day today but stole a few minutes in the garden with my camera. The rock rose and the hardy geranium have both been in flower for a few weeks but this week has been the first time for a while that the weather has been good enough to take pictures. So, here they are.

I'm a bit busy and tied up with things at the moment but will be back as soon as possible.

I'm very fond of Nigella, otherwise called "Love-in-the-mist". The plants in our garden originated with a packet of seeds some 6 or 7 years ago. And they've come back every year by seeding themselves. They not only look very pretty they survive in the most problematic flower bed in the garden which has clay soil that is baked hard by the sun every summer.

The Husband doesn't like gardening and doesn't do the great proportion of the work outside - he leaves that to me. One exception is pruning the roses, almost all of which were drastically cut back and are only about two feet high at the moment. The one rose he didn't prune was a climber on the wall that flanks part of one side of the garden. Here are the flowers already blossoming there or about to come out.

One of our rhododendrons has come out in flower. I've always loved the acid-loving plants like the rhodies, azaleas and magnolias and fortunately they like one of the beds in our garden.

Free Knitting Pattern: My Red Hat Scarf

At the last Red Hat event that I attended I noticed that several other members were wearing scarves of purple and red. So I decided I'd have a go at knitting one for myself. I looked on the web but didn't find a pattern that inspired, so I thought I'd have a go at designing one myself. I chose the Old Shale pattern from this book, adapting it slightly. Then I looked out for appropriate yarn. I chose 4 ply in purple, as I didn't want anything too thick, and some eyelash yarn in red.
As the picture of the whole scarf doesn't give a true idea of what it is like, I've also provided a close-up and one showing the actual stitch pattern.












Yarn:
1 100g ball Sirdar Country Style 4 ply yarn - roughly US fingering weight (M)
1 50g ball Sirdar Vegas (C)
4 mm circular needle

Tension:
7 sts & 8 rows to 1 inch

To make:
Cast on 360 stitches, work in pattern.

1st Row Purl
2nd Row: K1, P to last stitch, K1
3rd Row: * [K2 tog] three times, [YO, K1] six times, [K2 tog] three times; repeat from * to end
4th Row K

Knit 49 rows in M, except for rows 4, 5, 24, 25, 44 and 45 which are in C.

Cast off loosely. Sew in ends.

The Red Camellia in my garden. I'm slightly confused though as they look almost dark pink here while they look red in real life.I wonder whether it's something to do with the camera?

We are expecting very cold weather, frosts and possibly snow by Monday. I hope it won't affect the blossoms too much. I fear so, though.

It's odd how using a camera makes you look at things more closely. I always thought that we had two types of daffodills in the garden: the little tete-a-tetes; and a bigger type of daff in the back garden. But I've just realised that we have several different types of daffodil in the back. The second picture is of one lot of the tetes, the other pictures are of the big ones in the back garden.

The most decorative way of walking into town is via Admiral's Park, although it is much longer than the other ways of going. But today was such a lovely day and so I decided to treat myself. Sitting by this lake in the park I decided to take some pictures of it. The odd thing is that it looks so peaceful that you wouldn't believe that one of the main railway lines from London to East Anglia travels on the enbankment in the background, so that dozens of trains pass by every hour or so, and that the town's railway station is only about 5-10 minutes walk to the right of this picture.

Some years ago, when both my parents were still living in Dorset, I took the opportunity when down there to visit a specialist Camellia nursery in a nearby town and to buy four really beautiful Camellias: one with white flowers, one with pale pink flowers, one with dark pink flowers and one with red flowers. Usually the pale pink flowers are the first to emerge each early Spring but this year they started to emerge about the time we had bad snow and freezing weather and so I haven't seen any more flowers from that bush. (Having said that I've just noticed that the bush has lots of buds showing, so I assume that they are just late this year.) The next set of flowers to emerge, however, are the dark pink ones and I looked out the window this morning and decided now was the time to take some pictures of them. There's lots of buds on the plant too. Lovely.

I walked this afternoon to Oaklands Park Museum. It's actually two museums in one: the Chelmsford (local) museum with displays covering the archaeology and natural and social history of the immediate area; and the Essex Regiment Museum. I must admit that I have never been in the latter as military history isn't really an interest of mine. The local museum, though I like to pop in every few weeks. In addition to the usual local things there is a room with a significant sized collection of 18th century drinking glasses which I always find fascinating. They also have 1 or 2 rooms where they have visiting exhibitions too, which I always try to see. I took the external shot of the building from one side. It's a bit early in the year for the flower beds to be full of flowers, however two of the beds were very interesting. Both were full of ornamental cabbages and have a real visual impact at this time of the year.

The Husband's attempts to lose weight have really worked and to date he has lost 4.5 stone (63 lbs) and is still aiming to lose some more. Most days he walks at least 10 miles. All his attempts really, really show and he looks so much better and so much healthier now.

Since the New Year he has also started morning exercises and today's pictures show part of this morning's session.

This Hebe has been flowering its socks off for weeks, despite us being in the middle of winter. Neither sun, frost, wind, rain, sleet or snow has stopped it being in full flower.

Waiting for Breakfast

I found out something about using the camera today. There is a slight timelag between pressing the button and the camera actually takes a picture. Now the timelag is only about 1-2 seconds but it is enough to make taking pictures of a cat as active as Nimrod the Mighty Hunter very difficult. The moment he moved into an attrective position I would press the button but by the time the camera actually took the picture he had moved. I deleted about 8 pictures like that. Also the minute I sat on the floor he came to investigate and sat too close to get other than a distorted picture. I'm certainly learning things about taking pictures.

Anyway, the pictures are of Nimrod and his sister Pickle outside the kitchen and waiting for their breakfast.

Today

I sometimes feel it would be nice to take pictures every day of my life to give myself a real record of my life. So I think I am going to try this, I think, not as a New Year resolution (a bit late for that and I don't really believe in them anyway) but just as something new and, I hope, interesting in my life.

So here are two pictures of the garden as seen from the sitting room and taken 90 minutes apart. The forecast is for much more snow and ice over the next couple of days. What fun, I don't think.

My garden always looks unkempt during the winter because I work on the principle that if I leave all the old plant material in place until the Spring then the palnts get a little extra protection during frost and cold spells. (Well, that's my excuse anyway, .)