Nearer to home tthe Swallows are now nesting on the house and in the barns and the robins have rejected my soft felt bird pods and decided to lay and nurture their fledglings in the tidy pile of plastic rubble sacks for recycling - there is no accounting for taste!
The Malvern Show has been and gone - amidst it's usual mix of weather especially wind. I remember a few years ago helping a friend from Pershore College layout and plant up her competition garden in such a wind - a total change of planting had to happen as all the tulips were blown over and then petals blown off. Still at least those tulips were ok - something has completely destroyed my gorgeous Spring Green Tulips, they are now on the bonfire in disgust. Thankfully the amelanchier hedge - newly planted ready for a friend's Springtime wedding reception is focusing me at that end of the garden. I have also been somewhat focused on the dearth of ground elder, larger and stronger than ever before in two new beds - I must have divided something and inadvertently spread it last year. Thankfully two of my twitter followings involve forages so I will be looking up recipes - probably not for breakfast guests - never fear - well not until I am entirely convinced that they enhance fritattas.
The new deckchair covers have been made and the deck chairs given a splash of freshening up black paint. I bought one length of deckchair material from TinSmith's in Ledbury - one of my favourite haunts when over in that part of the world. I had some rather gorgeous black lace in my stash and decided I wouldn't use it in felting work anytime soon but an artful dash underneath the pillows I have sewn in should look quite splendid. I'll post photos when the sun decides to come back! Also I'll post photos of the Kadai for outdoor cooking I finally succumbed to on a recent visit up the A49 to Shrewsbury. It has a Hungarian goulash pot attached - well on the floor now after the winds of yesterday but now that Kington Building Supplies has furnished me with some sharp sand I am confident that the first summer stew will be upright. The sand is quite ingeneous - it filters charcoal and cooking debris that is accidentally dropped in so only water splashes onto the ground underneath. Of course now I am eyeing up small bits of farm mending thinking that a certain enclosed tube shape with two vertical holes and a removable lid at one end could mean that we could engineer our own charcoal in the embers .... It's always interesting at Upper Newton - no room to relax for this particular brain. Always projects for the benefit of guests though.
The next excitement is 22/23 June Gardens in the Wild based around Stagg Meadows.www.gardensinthewild.org/ Some really terrific speakers, Robert Myers (just post Chelsea), Anna Pavord, Anthony Woodward, Clare Foster, Mirabel Osler, Noel Kingsbury, Nigel Dunnett, Peter Clay and Stephen Anderton.
