And didn't we have a loverly time...

Today is Js birthday and luckily it dawned cold and crisp with beautiful blue skies and hardly any wind so we bundled up in thick jumper (J) plus scarf, thick coat, woolly hat and gloves (me) and headed off to Warwick for the Snowdrop Day at Hill Close Gardens. 

A wonderfully resurrected piece of the town's Victorian past the gardens were once owned by individual families and are now beautifully maintained by a small staff and lots of volunteers. They are open to the public all year round and hold various special events too but despite working in Warwick for years, today was my first visit. It was wonderful and with the help of my trusty wheeled walker and a few carefully placed benches I managed to enjoy most of the gardens. Each one has it's own "personality" - for some it was carefully sculpted parterres and small hedges, others boasted mini ferneries and bosky glades, yet more had clipped lawns and sleeping beds or veggies, compost bins and fruit trees. several also have interesting little buildings well worth exploring and displays of art work, old tools or potting shed set-ups.

The snowdrops were planted daintily beneath hedges, in lawns, dedicated beds and even hanging from some venerable old apple trees. They were joined by emerging irises, hellebores, crocuses and aconites. Soon there will be daffodils and tulips too so if you are nearby I thoroughly recommend a visit.

Seasonal Day out

This weekend Stratford hosted its 2nd Victorian Christmas Fayre so on Saturday we headed out - our first trip on the bus with me in the wheelchair as we planned to be out for quite a while and didn't think I'd mange to walk that far - and had a great morning. It was very crowded in places which meant that the old claustrophobia was in danger of kicking in at times but there were just enough gaps to keep it at bay. It was great to see the town so busy and I hope the shops benefitted from the influx as much as the stall holders seemed to be.

There were lots of food and booze stalls which didn't really interest us but also a fair few crafts, local products and interesting gift stalls too so we may have made a few purchases.

Alpaca patterned hat

A great new hat made from Alpaca wool in Peru to keep my ears warm on cold Winter days.

Spotty kerchiefed reindeer

Some earrings which disappeared as soon as I picked them and J paid for them - they'll re-emerge on Christmas day for me to unwrap, I hope!


And this cheery fellow made by the stallholder and sold to support native woodland management in the area. It made us both smile so just had to come home with us - we convinced ourselves it was for a good cause!

We even managed to get a few errands done - our cards were posted to Canada in the hope that they'll evade the postal strike and reach their destinations before Christmas and I managed to pop into Marks and Spencer for some new slippers as mine were getting a bit worn.

Oh and we had to pause for a little while to enjoy the wonderful Alvechurch Morris performing in the heart of Town where all roads meet (or next to the Roundabout in front of the bank as it's known on an ordinary week day!)

Border Morris fun

Spuds, seeds and sunshine

The start of this weekend saw snow still laying on the ground but thankfully the extra coating that had been threatened by  our much maligned forecasters didn't appear so t'other half and I actually managed a "Day Out". Now a "Day Out" in our lives deserves capitals because they are quite rare - usually we plan or express a possibility of doing something not connected to home or work only to have something go wrong and plans change. This weekend it didn't :)

Spuds, Glorious Spuds!

So off we went to the wonderful Garden Organic Potato Day - okay so connected to the lotty but it wasn't at the plot and it involved a little journey so definitely gets to count as a Day Out :) After a dip into the Seed Swap area - and yes we did come away with a few packets but our resolve held and we gave more than we took so felt quite virtuous-  we then explored the potato marquee.  This little treasure house was a revelation, dozens of varieties under one roof, many of which were completely new to us. Of course, we came away with a great selection of seed spuds - two first earlies - our usual suspects the Pentland Javelin and new to us Winston, second early Wilja which is a change from Kestrel for us and for maincrops, 2 different blight-resistant Sarpo varieties from the Sarvari Trust, Mira and Blue Danube. Now if you haven't heard about the work of the wonderful folk at Sarvari please follow the link - and if you grow maincrop potatoes please consider Sarpos - they are GM free, resistant to the dreaded blight and if the ones we tasted are anything to go by they are truly tasty spuds.  The team from Sarvari gave a really interesting talk about their work and deserve much more support than they currently get.

Once we 'd finished in the potato tent we explored the gardens - still covered in icy snow they gave us a useful peek at what thrived or at least survived the winter - the main one being Chard or Silverbeet as I've heard it called and also something called Portuguese Cabbage which will require some investigation. We'll certainly be looking to plant Silverbeet at our plot this coming year as our usual perpetual spinach and other brassicas really didn't like the super soggy summer & autumn we had followed closely by a freezing January and we've missed our greens this winter.

Sole Surviving Kale plant

So that's another allotment area planned and ideas for a few others gathered, all that remains is the work so here's hoping for some dry weekends to come as this one has given us a real feeling of a new season to look forward to.