Returning Guests - How lovely it is when guests who came regularly, from afar - return and enthuse and mention that their memories of reading under the Wellontonia Tree and travelling in lush Herefordshire. 

We've also got members of the Maple Society staying at present - they succeeding in bringing the sunshine - unfortunately those from afar, aforementioned, managed to bring the artic chill too - they left home at 4 am today in snow - so keen were they to see us! 

Actually they had been nudged towards the Flavours of Herefordshire Food Festival which is in an inaugural zone right next to the Cathedral this year.  What a treat, surrounded by newly developed Cathedral Close (by one of my favourite designers - Robert Myers from Kington) and with Mary Berry joining in too on Sunday.  That is us sorted - the samples and buzz available at previous Festivals has been amazing - so wrapping up snugly we will be full of anticipation.

Now other things to look forward to ... I have been busily producing 25 identical prints to enter the 20:20 exhibition which shoots around the country and is exhibited at our own Herefordshire Print Shed in Madley.  Next week some gorgeous felt is on exhibition at Bear Steps Gallery in Shrewsbury and yours truly is busily massaging and rolling little delectable items to join the accomplished artists.  Most notable have to be the ponytail hats - photos to follow!  (Tilly, the horse's tail is safe, although a little was combed out to help a dear friend complete an outdoor kiln! - it's never dull in Kinnersley!)

If you are wondering about the strangely surreal nature of this particular shot there is a perfectly reasonable explanation!  I produced a series of Cashmere, nettle and blue-faced leicester felt works as a response to a brief to exhibit in Hereford's Old House.

25th,  26th, 27th August

This weekend is the Lingen quit show. Lovely refreshments and definitely worth a visit if you like all things fabric.  I'm still buzzing from the fabulous festival of quilts just up in Birmingham last week.
Lingen is a great place to visit not far from Bryan's Grounds-one of my favourite Herefordshire/Shropshire borders.

Hay Festival

What a great year again, despite the chilly starts.  House full of same cheery stewards and lots of felted gloves ready for a show at the HerefordArt College.  If you stay with us over the summer there will be lots of felting going on ready for the Lingen Quilters Exhibition over Bank Holiday Weekend in August - in aid of Alzheimer's Society - do join in!

New Year, new course, new me ... and you!

Goodness, what happened to the last few months?  Well I've been pretty tied up with a few family issues but I am back!

Very exciting news - a new course starting in February - with an amazing discount as I have been so remiss in not blogging.  Here it is ....   a chance to see the developing gardens, take time for yourself, meet us and rejeuvenate.
Even better a chance to spend a whole three days with www.lynnadams.co.uk to really make a difference to you ... and me!

September, Seasons of Mists, Harvest all done aaah

So finally we lop into September - a quick dash to Bristol to be nurtured by the kindly and specially trained people at the Apple Store.  They must go to a special special school for unflappability - all deserve medals for those of us who have finally succumbed to a Mac - I have hankered for 17 years and finally for one of those unmentionable birthdays it happened.  It is never straighforward though is it - happily going through life as a leopard I now have to navigate and move up to being a lion in order to be the same as the techies who currently abide here.   It should mean dear blog slogger that my photos are clearer and even more excitingly the right way up.  A lesson is to take place tomorrow - we will see! For now I will have a quick peruse on the camera to see what joyous snaps we have for the last week.

The Bank Holiday Weekend was filled with the gorgeous flower festival at Lingen - the Church was full of stunning quilts and flowers depicting biblical scenes.

Bank Holiday Monday I had to act as chauffeur to Ross and had an hour to spare - do pop into Labels on the M50 Ross-on-Wye if travelling to stay with us.  Wiggly Wigglers now have a mini shop upstairs and there is a lovely little food hall.  You can of course get sucked into retail therapy downstairs but I averted my gaze - well apart from a lovely little Italian white, pin-tucked floaty coat - for a split second I thought I could match our new bedlinen and be very corporate serving breakfasts and then ... well I restocked up on our ecover washing up liquid and bought a few gluten free nibbles and read a few packets (still looking for sugar free, gluten free, dairy free TASTY biscuits).

Took this photo last year - obviously as it is all so green (AND he who is important mentions that the plough now has one extra furrow on it  -thus conserving fuel)- we are really struggling with lack of rain - I am definitely getting out my Beth Chatto Dry garden book.  I bought a few different miscanthus grasses in Hereford from an old colleague the other day and have great plans for a mini prairie in the Cottage gardens - after they have been well mucked and green manured first.  It is so mild I thought I'd try some mustard to break up the cloddy red Herefordshire earth but this time I must remember to trim it before digging it in!  Learning all the time!

Escape to Alnwick

Can't believe I am the owner of a new greenhouse and I've left it and all the apple crumble seedlings.  Still - visiting Alnwick gardens has been a wish for about four years after reading the book about the development of the gardens whilst at Pershore College.  It did not disappoint - and a most ungardenworthy comment has to be made about the amazing food in the treehouse.  Youngest daughter was bribed with promise of the Poison Garden, getting wet in extreme fountains and a meal in the best treehouse ever.  Best of all we had a lovely chat to Trevor Jones, Head Gardener and discovered some more details of the next phase of the garden - going to revisit in 2014 to see.  Hopefully to stay in wonderful self-catering in Alnmouth too and return with he who is most important who hopefully will not be harvesting then.

Anyway a few photos to wet appetites.   Tomorrow we are checking out Trentham Gardens, the Prairie planting and restoration of the Italian gardens and then hope to resuscitate they who were just peeping through!

The Keder Greenhouse ... is here!

Greenhouse, end of term and the Royal Welsh Show
There has been a bit of a gap with blogs since June as THE greenhouse arrived - really efficiently popped up by gentlemen who made it in Evesham.  The next day the Rudbekia seedlings in various forms were transplanted and the difference the heat and space made was phenomenal - two weeks later they are ready to go out - or would be if we had had - you guessed it, some rain.  Some strange seeds bought at Chelsea Physic Garden are sitting under perlite - which when watered coloured up and now looks like I am growing apple crumble.  I decided against transplanting the tomatoes but benefitted from some heavily discounted monsters from Country Homes at Wellington.  I rescued some aubergine seeds too and they are already sprouting.  A kind gnome - who will become the Upper Newton form of The Stig - sealed and popped in a water tank for me so now no excuses for not sowing all the lovely new seeds harvested throughout the garden.
Royal Welsh Show
Becoming a bit of a tradition now - our favourite local show - it keeps us busy all day and we are all happy to go our separate ways and just meet up for foodie samplings.  Our feet were needing some tender care by 4 pm which is a great time to head for the stands and watch the hilarity of the Hunt races and the magnificence of the procession of livestock.  This kind of display really grounds us and instils a terrific pride in the agricultural workers and breeders who take three days to show their stock - although of course their awards are the result of years of breeding and months of training.
A bit like the allotment section in the floral marquee - you wondered when the gardening was coming in!  Well lengthy conversations were held with me deliberating whether to plant/trial one of the new tomato plants in a straw bale - I still have a suitably soggy one down by the pond tap, used as insulation during our two periods of -16 degree winter - hard to remember that far back now!
Mystery Solved 
This reminds me, we saw Kim Hurst at the great Aardvark Books at Brampton Bryan Food Festival a few weekends ago and she identified my pretty blue flower - it is salsify, so now it can be sown both for the garden and the veggie patch.  I suspect it may be in competition with the Jerusalem Artichokes in antisocial effects but we will see!
Pembridge Show and Trotting Races
Busy weekend with lots of choice locally of fetes and shows - we opted for the above.  Lovely countryside setting by the bubbling river in Pembridge.  Lots of ponies, lots of dogs both in a dog show and also an obedience show.  As a bonus local folk had really interesting stalls and we were able to take lots of pictures in gorgeous sunshine.  We arrived home to happy farmer with completed oil-seed rape harvest and baleing in full swing - will be interesting to see if the weather holds for hay-making.

Brampton Bryan is featuring pretty heavily as Sunday we visited the Festival and had the privilege of listening to Edward Harley whilst he explained the amazing history of the castle next to his home and particularly the incredible story of the Cromwellian castle siege when the chateleine widow 43 year old Lady  Brilliana  held the castle.  I loved the understated planting alongside the castle walls - irises and a superb clump of deadly nightshade.  The flowers remind me so much of bupleurum. What she would have made of the scarecrow trail around the village I am not sure but we thought it was great fun as was the Milliner's Shop with the discussions about hats from Brampton Bryan seen at the Duke and Duchess's wedding.
What a long blog - a respite now while I transplant Nicotiana and return to the landscaping around... The Greenhouse!