GARDEN GLIMPSES 19

Here is a shot of the front yard, taken the second week in May. As you can see it too is a bit of wilderness amidst a village in natural decline. As the council steal more country from our countryside village, I turn more built up area back to nature. SOMEONE has to care more for wildlife than human pleasure.

I have the pretty yellow poppies flowering, along with grape hyacinths and a single bluebell. I am not sure how the bluebell arrived in the front yard - wind or bird no doubt are responsible. Sea-bells, aquilegias, dandelions and flowering weeds all grow together in peace here, circling the pieris tree which is currently yellowing.

This shot shows the back yard again - and the area where lily-of-the-valley are begining to bud and bloom. It will be a day or two before enough are flowering to scent the air, however.

We move on to summer months, and as June began I took some photos of the yards' progress. The first were of the large fluffy yellow roses, which were the first to bloom this season. The next photo is of the olde fashioned pale pink rose in the back yard near the patio - along with some blue weed-flowers and bird poops.

A shot of the 'overgrown mess' of my wildlife-loved back yard shows the foxgloves now flowering.

SPRING CLEANING 35

The first shot in today's piccies is of my windowsill. It demonstrates how large my geraniums re growing, despite having just come through a British winter. I seem to have a flare for growing these plants. Back in Australia, my son picked up 2-3 broken discarded stems of geranium and we placed them in soil. When we moved to Wollongong, these THREE STEMS populated the entire front and back garden edges with strong shrubs of bright red year-round flowering plants within 2-3 years. The plants were so good, we had 3-4 passer-bys and neighbors ask for cuttings or rooted pieces over the next 4-5 years.

In this country, geraniums are rarely left outside over winter and are generally considered to be a pot plant suited to indoors, or indoors winter and outdoors summer. My dad had a couple of plants he had bought and took cuttings. A few of the discarded stumps of shoot that he wanted to throw away, considering them to be of 'no use' ended up in pots on my windowsill - and the above photo is evidence that what a professional gardener discards as useless, can be grown by those of us with the geranium flare!

On to more serious matters - via the turned out wine closet and pantry. You will see that along with wine, I have a few beers and oddities along with some Indian Tonic Water which doubles as a mixer for the vodka and on its own as a medicinal fluid for sinus-caused fevers.

This time, the pantry turn out has resulted in my ordering it with jarred dry stuff at the base - flours, beans, grains, dried fruits etc. Next are two stages with similar items stacked in best before date order with spices at the sides, with drinks and sugar/rice milk/salt at the top shelf - or at least the next to top shelf - I cannot reach the very top one without a stool.

Finally, back to the task of the upper hallway. As June arrived amidst a burst of energy, it began to get tackled - finally. I began by polyfilling the 3 large cracks.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 18

This shot shows the success of transplanting my father's weirdly placed group of 'flowering onions'. I have no idea whether or not they are edible or flowers from onion-like bulbs, merely that that is what he called them. he expected them to surface and shoot into big purple floral heads each year - but - for some strange reason - placed them in his veggie plot area. I therefore dug them out and transplanted them as soon as the yard became mine.

Above you can see the back yard. Whether you view it as a beautiful array of natural over growth, a combination of wildness and man-made areas, or a mess depends on your viewpoint. My father would have had a total fit, much preferring neatness to naturalness. Now the property belongs to me and I prefer nature to 'show garden' neatness.

While I do plan to 'trim' the grass that has grown around the bird bath and my veg plots and use the cuttings for my compost, I have no intention of pruning the giant cooking apple tree more than once every 5 years, no intention of cutting back the giant holly that overhangs from next door, no intention of chopping out - thought I may cut back - the tree with pinky-mauve conical blossoms, and no intention of creating a show garden. I like the way bluebells pop up around the bird bath, the apple tree and holly/mauve-tree blend together, and honeysuckle falls over the fence as a backdrop to my veg plot.

That last shot is an update on my vegetables. It also shows how the flowering onions are about to flower and a small row of 'somethings' that blend in with the grass. Those somethings have come up this year - but were planted last year. Therefore, I cannot recall what they are. From the growth so far I assume them to be chive, spring onion, or onion...probably spring onion... I shall wait and see. This photo also shows clearer the grass patch that I aim to snip into submission shortly.

SPRING CLEANING 34

I agree - under the diapers and bags of my childhood clothing was this black space. I do not agree that it was as empty as the photo makes out however. More bags lay with 'treasures' inside. At least, treasure to other people such as my parents - but not in my eyes. The space made when removing this JUNK is of more value to me.

Among the remaining contents - after removing my child/teen clothing and the diapers - I found: around a dozen framed photograph and pictures, my school artwork and books, a few bags of stained and filthy curtains, some old rags that were once clothes of some description, a couple of old clocks which I gave to my son who is interested in old clocks, a silver spoon in a case, a bag of old socks, a pendulum, my old leotard and school cap, a wooden cookie jar, fluffy dust-balls, some weird looking embroidered items, a piece of art in the shape of a frankenstein hand I once made, and a plate I had made in pottery class.

I sorted everything out. 3 bags FULL will enter the garbage on trash day. 2 bags are filled with items that are to be washed and given to charity. I have begun to do this as you can see in my next photo. From beyond the black items that I currently do wear on the right all the way down to the left is 'old stuff'.

I will soon fish out the framed pictures to wipe over and sort out, but they will probably go right back in the blanket box again, as I havew nowhere for them to stand til I get rid of them and other than one that depicts a creature that looks a bit like a yak I do not find any of them appealing.

My next task is to polyfill the 3-4 large cracks and then complete the painting on the upper hallway.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 17

Perhaps you can just see how the back yard is coming along, although it is hard to get the right amount in a shot to show not too much and not too little. This view shows the bulbs sprouting by the apple tree on the left, the overgrown hedge wall in front of the shed, the dug-over and seeded veg plot behind the untidied raised plot behind the pond, and the fact that I need to pay attention to the pond - especially now we have tadpoles living in it.

This second shot gives a better view of the bulbs be the smaller apple tree - and my compost bin, which seeks a partner. Another few days passed, and I took this shot as the daffodils faded, grape hyacinths and tulips began, and pieris tree reddened.

As you can see in the next picture, a week or so later, the tulips were blooming

As May enters its second week, I will leave you with a shot of the veg plot in the back yard. Hopefully you can see that my garlic are doing well, my mooli are surviving (2 have been plucked and munched) and the strawberries are continuing to prosper and shoot into new plants - as well as next doors honeysuckle welcomed into my yard as overgrowth. In fact, the TWO plants my son brought home from his former job at a nursery have now become around 10. they are currently blooming, as are the wild strawberries situated around the pond.

SPRING CLEANING 33

Regular readers spotting the above picture will see that I have 'begun' to finish the upper hallway decorating. With the promise of my needed pot of paint coming shortly, I began...

I started by wiping down the cobwebs that were not still inhabited, waiting a few days, then dusting and moving the china cabinet out from potential harms way. I shifted a few more items about, gave the cabinet a good polish - mmmm, lemon oil polish smells nice! - and re-re-repositioned items so that we can live during the 1-2 weeks I estimate it will take me to complete the decorating job.

On my next spare day, I began to dust the blanket box, find somewhere to put the items that were housed on top of it, and then got on with the delightful (well...maybe) chore of sorting out what is inside the blanket box.

Can you guess what I found inside? The only clues I will give you are that both my late parents were hoarders...

Diapers! As I opened the lid of the Built-in blanket box I discovered 2.5 packets of insertion pads and a bag filled with those dreadful free net-knickers that the NHS issue. My Dad was given a supply - but did not take to them, so spent his attendance allowance money on pull-up diapers instead.

After removing this unwelcome top layer, I progressed to several bags of stuff. Stuff as in my childhood and teenage clothing that was stored for some unknown reason. As if I would EVER wear toddler PJs, bright yellow flares, or pink/white spotty frocks again! My parents obviously thought I would or kept them for some reason that I will never know.

SPRING CLEANING 32

The weather was still cold enough to appreciate a little indoor warmth. Above you can see my pomegranate/damson candle, with multiple pieces of left over candles added. Just perfect for a relaxing at-home wintry weekend. Officially the last weekend of winter, if you go by the first of the month changes rather than the 20-something ones as I do.

Spring sprung and a couple of weeks into March I returned from my weekend away in France. You guessed it, one of my first chores was to turn out that pantry of mine again! I have also been giving a thorough clean over to a few areas of the house, although not yet a full spring clean.

Not long afterwards, I reordered the pantry again. This time, so that all similar items were together, with the closest BB date at front/up top. I also spring cleaned the stairs - but before I could take a photo to share of the wiped sides and vacced stairway - my son trod mud over the stair carpet again, so....

Well, what have I been up to since then? Um, I did it again - re-ordered the pantry! As the sun poured in the windows, the photo came out much better this time, and you may actually see the items I have in stock. Although, it may be difficult to tell which white powder is flour, which salt, which sodium bicarb....

This time, I also fiddled around with the drinks cupboard. I have actually begun on some proper work too, though. In the next shot, you can see that I have swept away the cobwebs that do not still have inhabitants, cleared away the cardboard, and otherwise prepared one step closer to being ready to clean, polyfill, and paint the rest of the upper hallway.