May Bank Holiday Blog

What glorious weather we have been having and now we have to weight for the change in wind direction and an icy wind to appear, I suppose it couldn’t last forever and it is still very early in the year. It has meant that we have been out in the garden, this is the time of year we pull up the forget-me-nots. They self-seed every year and create a lovely carpet of pale blue early in the year which I think looks lovely. They also help to suppress the weeds and I’m all for that.

The gooseberries are swelling and we look like having a very good crop. It is very difficult to buy gooseberries and we have dessert, cooking and a red variety. Last year with the sun, even the cooking ones were very sweet and one could just eat them off the bush. The tayberry is covered in blossom and I have to make sure that the black bird doesn’t get them, we have a pair who are particularly fond of fruit, black currants, redcurrants and tayberries and guaranteed to excite them. Black birds are very vocal with their disapproval and if the male decides that you are not allowed near one particular shrub that he particularly likes, he has no problems about shouting abuse at you.

The bird life here is always interesting and the sky can get very busy. The moorhens have four chicks which are nearly two weeks old. They are very good parents and share the parenting. We had a coot visit the lake to give it the once over and the male moorhen was having nothing of it, even though he is about half the size of the coot it did not stop him attacking the coot in the water. They both went onto their backs and hit out with their feet at each other. Later the same day the chicks were out and a crow appeared which is a lot bigger than a moorhen. That did not stop the moor hen who ran straight at the crow and when the crow took off, he followed him to make sure that he had got the message. So brave and so protective. He has also learnt how to get on top of one of the bird feeders which enables him to reach the seed in one of the others. As you can gather, they are giving us a lot of pleasure and amusement and their little bundles of black fluff are also great fun to watch around the water.

The vegetable garden is getting full. I have grown a red flowered broad bean this year which is very pretty and a lovely contrast to the white and grey flower of the usual bean I grow. The mange tout are taking off up their canes, as are the dwarf peas. Growing vegetables is so rewarding and the flavour is so different from a supermarket vegetable. I grew some peppers last year which did nothing and I put two of the plants in the conservatory for the winter, they have flowered and have set peppers which are growing well. It is so rewarding when something like that happens. 

So many plants in the garden are cuttings from plants in friends’ gardens which at these very strange and disjointed times is lovely. I can walk around the garden and remember weekends in different parts of the country with friends and at conferences where we visited the local garden centre. Outside of York there is a place called Breezy Knees, if you are in the area drop in, the gardens are lovely to walk around and they have a very good tea room as well. I have plants from Essex which were bought at the local church fete. As they grow every year they bring back happy memories which are very special this spring.