Missing Spring

          This could be taken two ways:  I miss Spring, the season, in that it really isn't here yet, or, I probably won't be around my home this year when Spring comes and thus will miss the start of the season.  I am meaning the second part here.  In the three plus years we have lived in this house, I have been diligently planting spring flowers.  The first year, in my misunderstanding of the British countryside and wildlife, I planted around 100 tulips, all of which made the local deer quite happy and me quite miserable because I ended up with 3 stalks and 2 tulip flowers at the end of it all.  While I was exclaiming proudly to my new neighbor, who had great experience in this matter, she informed me that the tulips would not see the light of day as the deer would eat them all.  Yep.  At least I had also planted daffodils and some lilies and those all grew and were lovely.

          So each year, I planted more and more daffodils and added crocus, more lilies, and anything else that looked like it might be unappetizing to deer (getting the lowdown from my neighbor).  I say, "I planted" as if I did the actual work but the house came with a gardener and I would get the bulbs and he would plant them where i said, "they would look good there, don't you think?".  Of course, he always agreed with me.  And more and more bulbs went into the ground.  

          As the house garden came already planted with some lovely rhododendrons, various grasses, some of which flower, some camellias, some fuchsia, some azaleas and a couple of lone rose bushes, my garden was looking more and more lovely each spring.  Plus there are plenty of different varieties of green bushes around and some red bushes, black bushes and other stuff that my gardener knows but I still have no clue.   Now I have to ask my gardener "Is there room" and I have not purchased any new bulbs for this year other than some tulips (yes 20 tulips - all in netted pots so no deer can eat them).

          So Spring comes, starts early, green shoots start coming through the ground, all over the garden, sometimes a bit early and then get covered with snow again, but they keep coming.  As we walked around the garden this weekend, I realized that almost all my daffodils have pushed through the ground.  The crocus are about to burst into bloom.  The rhododendrons  and camillas  and several other bushes have plenty of buds, and the roses are retaliating as well.   My garden is so dang beautiful when all these flowers bloom.  

          And then it hit me.  We are going on holiday soon - a slightly longer than usual holiday - actually leaving my daughter at home for once, instead of the other way around when she jaunts off to work in Africa and leaves us behind.  AND there is a very good chance that I will miss the blooming of the garden in a big way!   I am sure that everything will not bloom and die during the time we are gone but I am also fairly sure that most of the daffodils and crocuses will be up and well on their way to being gone by the time we return.   How sad for me!!!  

          Spring is such a joyous time here because it comes after such nasty winters, whether there was a lot of snow and rain or just cold weather.  Everyone here loves Spring.  You can hardly get into one of the local DYI stores or gardening stores because everyone is there getting ready for Spring.  When we lived in Houston, wasn't such a big deal.  There were flowers blooming all year-long so nobody was overly excited for Spring.  But HERE, it's a lovely occasion to celebrate the season, watch the glorious colors and plants come to life in your garden, shake off the winter doldrums, and start being outside a lot more.   I have fallen into this category of being delighted when spring arrives but this year I will be in the tropics, in a rainforest, and not staring at my garden, just delirious with joy at all my daffodils and crocuses and tulips and rhododendruns and such.  Not the best of planning on my part.   Well, luckily, we will probably be here for next year's spring as well.  I think I'd better go get some more bulbs.

Stealth Chopping

Our rental home is lovely.  Truly a gem nestled in some trees and overlooking one of the many surrounding golf courses.  When you open the front door, you see right through the house to the back garden and the golf course fairway expanse.  Sitting in the conservatory or working in the kitchen, you have that gorgeous view.  It is probably why we rented this house as other parts of it are less than stellar but we love the place and have been very thankful to live here and have a good landlord as well who is tolerant of my messing around in the garden and hanging many pictures on the walls (yes, I always do that but I always repair the walls when I leave!)


So last year, we noticed that our view was becoming a bit obstructed.  There has been growth!  Nature happened!  Trees get taller, shrubs get bushier, ferns shoot up.  Basically, nature is obstructing our view of the golf course.   We love looking out there because there are no houses in the way.  We see many birds and sometimes deer, and the golfers comprise some of the most interesting wildlife to hit the fairways.  


 There are about 12 branches that have grown over the years and are right in the middle of our view.  I noticed that with the leaves gone, it's not so bad.  I have 12 sticks in my view but it is easy to look around them and watch the flora and fauna that parades past our house.  But come spring and summer, that is going to change and our view will again be blocked by these twelve rather leafy branches.  So I determined that action must be taken.


I am fairly sure that the property upon which these branches sit is part of our house lot.  I'd heard this from our neighbors but honestly I'm not totally positive as I have seen the golf course gardeners plow into these small sections of woods when the trees and such seem to be overtaking the greens.  We determined that we needed to cut down the offending branches and we have the tools to do so but the timing needed to be right.  I think that meant we needed to do it when no golfers would be out and about.  Didn't want to disturb someone's putt with the sudden abrasive sound of a mini chain saw.  We also determined that we needed to do this now, before the trees started putting out leaves and flowering for spring.  I think it's better for them to be pruned in the winter - or at least that was the understanding I had from my gardener.


So we set out to trim our branches.  Because of the golfers, we waited until very late in the afternoon to do it, so we wouldn't bother them.  And because it's still winter, we ended up trimming them in the dark!  By torchlight!  It felt very stealthy to me, like we were being sneaky and underhanded to do this but it was still very important to us to do it to get our view back.    We had to push our way into the holly bushes - which wasn't pleasant.  Finally, we are close enough to barely reach the offending branches if I shoved as hard as I could against the prickly holly and reached as high as I could.  I was just able to lop off each of the 12 branches but it wasn't a pretty job.  some of them were rather chewed before they dropped.  I am thinking this is also why those 12 branches managed to sprout upwards when everything around them was trimmed.  They were just too hard to reach.


But we did it!  Our view is back.  And I am out of the holly with not too many scratches and scraps.  I only hope we cut them enough that we don't have to do a repeat performance next winter.  

 

Evil Lurking - Gnomes in Danger

                      You would think that if a back garden is full of wonderful nuts and suet and mealworms and such, that the squirrels and magpies and wood pigeons would be happy.  Plus the stray cats that wander through the garden.  There's always some cat food or fox food out for them and the foxes and badgers.  I feed everything that wanders through my house or garden, two feet or four or wings.  I try to keep them all happy so that (1) my cats can see them from the windows and enjoy the spectacle, (2) I like to watch them all, and (3) if they are full, maybe they won't eat each other!

                       My fish pond provides water for almost all the animals.  I have seen cats, squirrels, pigeons, jays, crows, starlings, and foxes drink from it.  Most of them are quite content to not bother the fish who I think have gotten smart enough to hide under the lily pads when there are shadows lurking above.  Around my pond I have a number of garden gnomes.  They aren't super special gnomes (my two antique gnomes live close to the house so they don't get knocked over), but just your average gnomes with a few of them holding solar lights.  There is a ledge around my pond and none of the gnomes are standing on the ledge but are all slightly back from the ledge and on the deck itself.

                    Apparently this is not a safe place no matter how far back I put the gnomes.  For several days I have seen a vague red shape at the bottom of the pond but the water isn't quite clear enough most days so I couldn't tell what it was.  Today I suddenly realized, as I counted my gnomes, that it was one of the solar gnomes, sitting on the bottom of the pond, doing an impression of a frogman with a lantern!  Shades of evil squirrels or pigeons or cats or whatever.  Some four footed creature has knocked a gnome into the pond again!  This happens ever so often which is why the gnomes are moving slowly away from the pond each time I fish one out again.  Dang it because it was a solar gnome too and his lantern will probably never light again.  Those little four footed demons who, for some inexplicable reason, must hate sharing the pond space with inanimate objects that smile at them.  The only way to get one into the pond it so nudge it forward until it touches the ledge and then push hard to get it to topple over and into the pond.  And for some amazing reason, the gnomes always land on their feet so they are standing in the pond beneath the surface waiting for rescue.  Poor gnomes.   This one took several days to rescue.

              But I am generous in nature and spirit and will not punish my four footed freeloaders because they still are fun to watch.  I'd just really like to catch one in action to see who is pushing the gnomes into the pond and how exactly they are doing it.   There is some evil lurking in the back garden.