Snow, marmalade and gardening!

New sign well and truly christened with the rosa rugosa stems tickled with snow.

The lower pond with Silver Birch and Cornus in the foreground - hope the snowdrops are ready to push through.  Splodge is a snowflake (top left) no time to photoshop - seville oranges to juice and peel and chop - jars of loveliness will appear.

Then I took one more photo and used effects on the camera - pretty stunning I think!  Hope you are having fun too.

Happy New Year

Hay Bluff January 1st

Emi visiting Eardisley Great Oak from Japan January 1st!

Just needed a bracing walk on the Bluff after all the rain, as you can see a clear, gorgeous day.  

In fact the bicycle came out too!  Goodness rare image of me being still!  Back to the sewing machine this evening, finishing off new gorgeous linen cushions for Chess Cottage bedrooms - makeover nearly completed.  A few sneaky photos are creeping onto the website. www.herefordshireholidays.co.uk

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!