A touch of pink

In my little home I have a corner or two that I frequently change. I like to see change, it keeps the house from looking boring. This time the colour veered towards the pink, inspired by a pot of hyacinths given to me as bulbs by my mother. Sitting on the windowsill they grew as the day-length increased, until they sat there pretty in pink wafting their lovely fragrance around our parlour!

In the background lurks a copy of a screenprint by Angie Lewin called Lichen and Thrift. She is one of my favourite screenprinters. I particularly love the flowers she chooses, and there is always such wonderful movement in her prints.

I have a fondness of displays that are made up of collections of old and new, bought and made. Here the 'made' is a couple of felt cupcakes and a pink painted terracotta planter (with candle). A large enamel jug with roses and white painted hazel, an enamel oil lamp, some crazy Empire crockery from the 60s and a wooden darning egg all sit nicely together.

A sweet, silly teapot completes the display!

Meanwhile, outside, the bright pink flowers of the Bergenia brave the chilly, early March air to expose their reproductive organs to tempt any passing (and hardy) pollinator!

With a houseful of boys, sometimes a girl just needs a touch of pink!!

Our new edible hedge

The last section of our old Lonicera hedge really needed to be replaced as it had become old, woody and rather broad. Every time the snow lay thick the hedge would tilt at an alarming angle. The other section facing the road was replaced two years ago with a native hedge and is coming along nicely. Once a decision to do something has been made in this house, it generally gets done pronto. I am not one to procrastinate - life's just too short, and besides now is a good time to be planting trees and hedges. We purchased a new hedge from the nice man at HabitatAid, Nick Mann, and I excitedly waited for the arrival of a new edible hedge to replace the old one. Sounds a tad sad to be thrilled and whooping when it finally turned up on the doorstep, but that's the kind of gal I am!

Looked a little like a body bag had been delivered!

Opening up the goody bag :)

We had asked a neighbour, who is a contract landscaper, to remove the old Lonicera hedge, so that we could concentrate on getting the new one in as quick as possible. Steve made a rustic fence just to give the border an edge and the hedge something to grow against.

After a good drench in a bucket of water, Steve got the whips in, and although BB was supposed to be helping his Dad, he wasn't too impressed with the bitter wind, so watched on for a bit, before disappearing back inside! A final layer of mulch completed the task, and the job was done!

Today after a refreshing (!) walk with Zaf, we headed down to the local garden centre and picked up a dozen heritage (posh word for native) primroses and a couple of pots of Scilla siberica. Not only are the flowers of this bulb a lovely blue, but my honey bees enjoy the nectar and pale blue pollen it provides. Hopefully these and the primroses will naturalise and produce many more plants in years to come.

In case you were wondering what's in my new edible hedge, here is the species list:

Prunus cerasifera (Cherry Plum)
Prunus domestica (Bullace)
Pyrus pyraster (Wild Pear)
Malus sylvestris (Crab Apple)
Corylus avellana (Hazel)
Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn - produces sloes)

But if you fancy a walk past our hedge in Autumn, I'm afraid you might have to wait a couple of years or five before any scrumping is likely...

Prunus cerasifera - Cherry Plum

Have a really good (and hopefully warmer) week ahead!

Down on the farm in the Cotswolds

Last week we had a few days away from Sussex and headed towards the very pretty Cotswolds. We stayed at a farm - a rather large farm!! That's it at the bottom of the hill on a rather frosty morning. We had lovely sunny weather for our stay, but, boy, it was cold.

The farm is run by the 3rd and 4th generation of farmers, and there was also a tiny 5th generation son about, so perhaps one day the farm will pass down to this little chap too.

There were five horses of various sizes. Zaf was a little worried, not being used to such huge creatures.

The main area of barns and outbuildings, with a view of the farmhouse at the rear.

The road prone to flooding was lined by trees festooned in mistletoe

Lots of evidence of recent flooding, many fields still under water

I've never seen so much mistletoe in one area!

Lots of pollarded crack willows

The neighbour farm. You don't see many farms this size in our part of Sussex, but there were plenty around Tirley

Walking Zaf along the narrow lanes lined with pollarded willows

Town Street Farm

BB really enjoyed jumping around the bales of hay in the huge barn! Think this was one of the highlights of our break.

The little piggies on the farm were very sociable

The farm produces beef and lamb, and although we didn't see any sheep on the farm there were plenty of cows

Think Dad enjoyed the bales too!

Sam's looking at the rows of cows munching on their lunch

Look! How sweet is she? Love the expression on her face!

Some of my favourite things..

At the moment these are some of my favourite things:

A very sweet skirt, with lovely embroidered twittering birds! I found this scrunched up at the bottom of a plastic bag with other bits of linen in a thrift shop for 50p

A great find - an original piece of art - found in a thrift shop some years ago, it remains a favourite item, there's always something new to discover when you look again...

An ever changing little corner filled with treasures - including bowls from Anthropologie and a selection of bird skulls :o)

Pretty embroidered cushion

Vintage patchwork knitted blanket, and a Christmas present cushion from my good husband

My white roses from my lovely hubby

A really nice book about growing plants with edible flowers

My latest haul from my favourite charity shop, appropriately in spring colours!

Interestingly, few of my current 'special' things are new; they are mostly pre-loved or hand-made. I am not really a bling girl, nor do I particularly go for the boutique look!

Do you have some special peachy things at the moment?

Seedy Sunday

Seedy Sunday is the UK's biggest and longest-running community seed swap event, held in Brighton each February. In return for a donation or in exchange for seed they have saved, growers can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables, to take home and grow. It is also a campaign to to protect biodiversity and protest against the increasing control of the seed supply by a handful of large companies.

We've been meaning to attend the event for a couple of years now, but for various reasons - mostly to do with a lack of organisation -  we have never managed to get there. Until this year, when FlowerScapes finally managed to have a stall, manned by me, your guest blogger for the evening, Kattegat's hubby.

The FlowerScapes stand, with our new jars of seeds

 At the heart of the event is, obviously, the seed exchange, where members of the public can bring their spare seeds to exchange for something new and different. But around three-quarters of the hall was taken up by other, related stalls - allotment societies, Friends of the Earth, a mushroom producer, the Brighton & Lewes Beekeepers, community composters, even a cooperative pub!

 

Being Brighton - home of the UK's first Green MP - the turnout was fantastic; over 3,000 people came through the doors, more than twice as many as in 2012. And the atmosphere was great, everybody very interested and friendly.

I was given an early slot to off-load my wares - 8.30 in the morning - and had the stall all set up by 9.00. That gave me an hour to wander around, drink thermos coffee and recover from the early start. But once the doors opened (there was a queue outside, apparently) at 10.00, I was on duty, on my feet and talking to the Great British Public for the next six hours solid. During that period I had maybe 2 or 3 minutes at the most without someone to chat to.

Before the hordes descended

By mid afternoon I had run out of 5g packets of seeds, had given out dozens of leaflets and was starting to flag. But the visitors kept coming, and right up to 4.00 people were still stopping to chat, even as I was packing away.

Everyone I spoke to had something positive to say about our work, and the new range of seeds in honey jars attracted lots of complements.

All in all, a very successful - if exhausting - day.