wild strawberries

Found a real surprise on the wild strawberry bush; a good handful of fat, juicy berries that hadn't been pilfered by pigeons. With friends coming this weekend, I think they might make their way into an Eton Mess. Their flavour is far less tart than the usual strawberry taste, almost like the strawberry sweets of childhood. I've never managed to get more than a couple before the birds got to them, so this will be a rarey treat.

beet it

It's a year since I first pickled my own beetroot. A year to the day in fact, as I discovered when I sat down to write this entry. I liked it so much I ate it all very quickly, so this year I decided to grow two crops and to grow it from seed. The first lot have come up and been pickled (see last June's entry for recipe) and the second lot are enjoying the cycle of sun and freezing rain that we call summer time. So even if I eat everything I've pickled today, the beet will go on.

eggcellent news!

A few weeks ago we were delighted and disappointed to discover that we had a nest in the wisteria beneath our bedroom window; disappointed as it was empty and we'd missed our ringside seat. Today I opened the windows and spied a brooding wood pigeon sat in it, so I left well alone, but when I went to shut them this evening, the pigeon flew off and revealed a pair of very lovely eggs! Let the Meadowside springwatch commence...

ps: no birds were harmed during this photography, I checked a while later and the wood pigeon was back on the nest.

fin-garlic-king good

Excuse the terrible post title; you may remember my bad gardening post from December, when I planted garlic for the first time. I feared that I had left it far too late and it took a long time before any shoots appeared. They grew, but it was hard to tell if their late planting had unduly effected them until they were dug up. They're not exactly whoppers, but they are good and garlicky and, most importantly, they are ours.

Pictured here in my new vintage (I think) trug, purchased on our recent trip to Porlock. Big, bargainous and beauteous in equal measure.

buried treasures

With all the garden work going on interesting things are being dug up all the time, from crockery to a victorian glass collection (all broken, sadly). The best bit, however, has to be our growing collection of ammonites...

owls about that

My very kind friends Marcus & Sophie bought me the biggest treat imaginable for my decade defining birthday earlier this year; a trip to the Exmoor Owl Sanctuary to fly owls! Actual owls. With it was the generous gift of a stay in their family's holiday apartment in Porlock, Somerset, a stunningly pretty sport.

Myself and the best beloved got up early and headed to the sanctuary discovering, to our joy, that we were the only ones flying the birds. We took out four, including Caspar the Barn Owl and Nada, the Indian Eagle Owl. Each was weighed before flying, to ensure that they were hungry enough to cooperate. Food was an array of chick bits, including feet, thighs and wings. As a long term veggie I blanched a little at handling them, but nature is red in tooth and claw...

The birds were beautiful, graceful and light as air. They were also unintentionally comical and gave us the greatest morning of fun that either of us can remember.

robin

All babies are commonplace miracles, but there is something even more special about the eventual arrival of a longed for child after many years. Sharing a name with the best of the birds here, at last, is little Robin Stephenson...

hat's the spirit

The Winchester Hat Fair is an annual event celebrating the best in busking and street entertainment. As first timers, we wandered too much and saw too little, but the atmosphere was lovely and it was brilliant to reconnect with good friends. Highlights included the random pedal powered hippo and an impromptu tea dance under the disapproving gaze of King Alfred.

sun day

It's an incredibly beautiful day and, for the first time in months, I have the time and the energy to do some gardening. In with long neglected, and seriously growth stunted tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, parsley and mint. A plant swap with our lovely neighbours means getting rid of a glut of leek and beetroot plugs and gaining a handsome looking cucumber. Whilst finally planting out some cabbages I even came across a charming and tiny toad.

Please don't look too closely at the crate of parsley; it's been sat on the window sill, cramped into tiny quarters for the last few months. I am a bad gardener...

wild thing

Last year my best beloved spent days tirelessly toiling to rid us of a cavalcade of nettles; it was only a partial success as they all grew back, but before they did, he managed to spread a fair amount of wild flower seed. We waited for it to grow, it did not. We were disappointed. But this year they've sprung up and created a few square feet of Little House On The Prarie, filled with tall ox eye daisies and mallow. There's even enough that I've been allowed to cut some and bring them into the house.

landscape ahoy

In the two happy years we've been here, we've tried to maintain this beautiful garden as best we can, but frankly it's only as lovely as the previous occupants made it. Now, at last, we're able to put something back and develop the garden into something lovelier still. I say we, but the credit for all the back breaking labour and ideas must go to our friend Matt, landscaper extraordinaire. In just a few weeks, he's already cleared a mountain of soil and detritus and is well on the way to transforming an already picturesque retreat into a garden we never thought we could have.

What was a fairly piddling postage stamp patio is being resized, bringing the meadow and the garden together and providing us with a huge space to entertain. The foundations are there, still to come a wooden pergola to train the rambling vines, clematis, climbing rose and honeysuckle that have been sorely neglected. A string of white festoon bulbs beneath will light evening barbecues in summers to come.

Matt has cleared beneath our trees, a scrubland of ground elder and half abandoned rockeries. Though it looks a bit scorched earth right now, the plan is for forest planting of hostas, ferns, hellebores and bluebells. During the process Matt has discovered a happy colony of frogs and toads, and even a few slow worms. He's relocated them all under piles of rotting and mossy driftwood, making a haven for creatures. Soon we'll also have steps and a stand pipe from the drive to the veggie patch, making it a bit easier to tend to the growing garden.

It is exciting beyond words and makes me love this place even more, a near impossible feat.

the bad gardener lucks out

Back in January I blogged about planting out garlic and onions much later than I intended. The ground was frozen solid and there were flurries of snow, so I really thought I might have arsed the whole thing up, but nature is more resilient than that. Despite my bad gardening, everything is finally coming up smelling of garlic...

ps: Those aren't weeds, I've companion planted the onion with carrots. I'm not that bad a gardener.

cut and print, hot of the presses

New art to adorn the walls; both presents for my 40th and things I shall treasure for life. The first, another Jonny Hannah print from the Cake and Ale Press, which adds to our mini collection of his work. This is a burning hand that I've had my eye on for some time and was generously given to me by the mother and sister ships.

The second is a gorgeous paper cut by Kathrine Anteney of the Red Hot Press, who exhibited at Winchester's lovely Everyman Cinema. Normally a printmaker, Katherine recreated this gorgeous East of England scene in finely detailed papercut. It reminded us of the swallows, house martins and coal black crows that swoop across our own fields. We fell in love with it and my best beloved very kindly bought it for me. Lucky girl...

The Long Good Friday

I am feeling blog guilt as it's so long since I've written anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. This year we're trying to grow more from seed and the windowsills have been sprouting life left, right and centre. We're going to add in three more veg beds, bringing us to a total of nine, in order to accommodate more of everything, but there's a few lessons learned;

• It is possible to have too many courgettes.
• Conversely, you can never have enough peas.
• When the gardening guides tell you to put tiles under butternut squash to stop them rotting, they aren't just being a bit anal.

Veggies aside, the garden has suddenly launched itself into full bloom. Every tree is covered in blossom and the white and purple lilacs have at long last leapt into life. Today has been spent alternately gardening and lying on a blanket, staring at the beautifully clear blue sky with cherry petals drifting down. The housemartins have finally returned, whistling through the air, dizzily lurching across the sky. All is right with the world...

The wonderful band Breath Owl Breathe have been raising money to release a children's record through the Kickstarter scheme. I donated some money and received this beautiful, handwritten thank you letter. As they say on The Princess & The Dragon, they have really good... penmanship.

Empty nest

Signs of spring and it can't come too soon. It's not even February but it's felt like a long, cold endless winter. Now, there are green shoots shooting and I found a tiny, perfect but empty nest on the ground. I am hoping that whatever was in it has flown instead of being taken out by the local cat population. I've put it under a glass cloche so I can keep admiring it's intricate beauty.

Life begins

I recently reached a milestone birthday and had a truly wonderful weekend, full of friends and excitement. My wonderful boyfriend took me to Barcelona and we watched the amazing and talented Joanna Newsom perform Have One On Me at the Palau de la Musica.

Then we returned home for a wonderful dinner with friends and some ridiculously thoughtful presents. Many of them were homemade, some vintage, all incredibly generous.