Book review - John Lewis-Stempel - The wood - the life and times of Cockshutt Wood

"A wood is different to a forest. A wood is wild, but not so wild it is frightening. You cannot get physically lost in a wood, only spiritually and imaginatively absorbed." from the Preface.

This morning I finished reading John Lewis-Stempel's  - The wood. I've seen his writing recommended in several places and thought it was time to dip my toes. A diary based on his last year living with a mixed woodland as part of his farm in Herefordshire it's peppered with beautiful haunting imagery, practical observations, wry humour, poetry, quotations and even the odd recipe. This is wood managed in the old way - livestock is grazed here, "pests" shot and usually eaten, wood and other crops harvested and room made for nature in a practical part-of-everyday life way. It is not a woodland left to run wild, it's not a playground, it is a core part of his life.
There is joy, sadness, beauty and cruelty - after all nature does it all and this is a diary. I enjoyed the style of the writing and found it really easy to follow which was unexpected as I'm not a huge non-fiction reader by habit. The vegetarian in me wasn't offended by the hunting or husbandry descriptions - the writing is just too matter-of-fact, this is how it is, for that kind of nonsense to creep in. I also learned things in that gentle way you do when the writing is easy and facts generously shared - I didn't realise we call people crabby because of the tartness of the crab apple or that a shrew only lives for a year, I didn't know about tree hay used to supplement animal feed nor that grey squirrels will eat baby birds and eggs.

I'd also never heard this beautiful poem of Rudyard Kipling's set to music before but was inspired to see if it had on reading it in the midsummer entries:

This is a thoroughly recommended read and I think I might be heading off to find others of his soon.


There are no pictures of the book itself as I borrowed this one from my local library using their free Ebook service and as it is Libraries Week this week I thought they deserved a plug. Warwickshire use Borrow Box for Ebooks and Eaudio and I've found it really easy to use, wherever you are I'm sure  your local libraries will have similar services to supplement the traditional print ones as well as so much else going on so why not check it out?

(Disclaimer: I worked for Warwickshire Libraries until my diagnosis but that's by the by!)

Want to find a copy of the book?
Ebook ISBN:9781473542532
Print ISBN:9780857524584

Dancing with Bees - a journey back to nature by Brigit Strawbridge Howard

Please note this is not an unbiased review but it is an honest one!

I cannot explain the overwhelming joy I felt when receiving our copy of this through the post - Brigit is a long time friend who has known she wanted to write a book for all the years I've known her and I know that to finally have completed and published it will have created untold joy and excitement after one of the toughest times anyone can go through. Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing Brigit talk about bees will know of her infectious enthusiasm for her subjects and for the whole of the natural world and it is this voice that keeps you turning the pages getting more and more immersed in the world being conjured from the pages. Be warned though this immersion includes one of the most poignant chapters I have ever read - do not approach "The upside-down bird" without a hanky to hand, it is both a beautifully gentle and heart-rendingly sad recounting of the love for and loss of a parent that left me with tears streaming down my face but so very glad Brigit found the courage to leave it in the book.

Recounting her explorations of the natural world without pretension Brigit enables you to learn things without being preached at or feeling like you are somehow lacking. As a witness Brigit highlights the dangers of disconnection, of pesticides, of viewing nature as a purely human-centric economic resource and provides plenty of references to organisations, resources and papers for those who wish to pursue the research and follow the science as well as the emotion. As Brigit rediscovers her connection to the natural world you will find stories of close encounters with Gannets, Curlew and Corncrakes as well as elusive Moss Carder Bees and Great Yellow Bumblebees in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Further south you'll meet the delightfully named Hairy-footed Flower Bees and the elusive and artisanal Potter Wasps and join in close encounters with Hawthorn hedgerows, dandelions and a growing connection and re-connection with place and self that has left me feeling so very proud of my friend and so very happy to recommend "Dancing with bees" as an uplifting book of discovery for anyone who already loves nature or feels as if they could with just a little bit of help....

Ivy in the hedgerow - such a valuable plant for so many critters

Dancing with bees - a journey back to nature by Brigit Strawbridge Howard is published by Chelsea Green Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60358-848-5

September afternoon in the garden

Had a quick dead-heading session in the front garden this afternoon which turned into a "ooh that looks pretty where's the camera" and "that weed needs to come out of there" session followed by an "ooh that's got a bit warm and swimmy-headed from hanging upside-down and now I need a drink and a cool spot to catch my breath" - where would I be without my perching stool and J to grab a glass of water for me!

Anyway mission accomplished and a few splashes of beauty to share on this Friday afternoon.

Blue scabious continuing to provide food for the soul as well as the bees

These white dahlia mignons are proving popular with a whole host of bees and bugs

Gentle Hermione on her third or fourth flush of flowers

Flowering currant now giving berries for the birds

We thought we'd lost all the plants from last year -  I think they are phlox but here it is quietly coming into bloom and adding more late colour to the bed.

Happy Friday folks

Six-on-Saturday 7th September 2019

Afternoon Blog-land today is my September link-up with The Propagator's Six on Saturday meme. I missed August but please check out The Propagator's post here for instructions on how to join in and take a look at his blog for links to lots of wonderful gardens from all around the world. My previous posts can be found by clicking on the #SixOnSaturday label.

Today was a trip to the allotment to see what we could harvest and to plant out the leeks, spinach beet and beetroot that has been languishing on the shelves here at home for far too long. We picked courgettes, Uchiki Kuri squash, dried beans, chickpeas, spinach beet, beetroot and apples plus a couple of lovely bunches of flowers. Then we had a look round to see what was to come.

1. Butternut squash doing well - 8 decent sized fruit on the now stopped plant. Cleared away the leaves to help them ripen.

2.  Some lovely sized eating apples on the small apple tree

3. The Borlottis are ripening well and in a few weeks they will join the bag of already dried beans that we harvested today .

 4. The first of the Achillea Cerise Queen has flowered at last adding their colour to the Rudbeckia rows in the cutting bed

 5. Their stems may be too short to cut but these sunflowers are still giving so much joy as bud after bud opens.

6. And in a sure sign of the changing seasons the sedum is putting on colour in the front border.

Bonus picture - we love our wildlife but it would have been really nice if the badger had left us just one sweetcorn cob to enjoy....grrr....

September is the season for shuffling

After the pot-shuffling at the weekend this week has continued to be about tidying the garden and preparing new plants for the coming season. Tuesday was a spot of pot weeding, cutting back gone over shrubby plants and herbs and generally tidying up the patio pots. It was also an impromptu slug and snail hunt as every pot I moved or emptied seemed to be offering up a hiding place for the hungry little beasties. Yesterday we pinned down a dozen or so strawberry runners to replace our ageing plants - strawberries will last several years but according to the experts their productivity drops off after two or three so we always try and generate our own plants from existing stock. J then emptied the coffee sack planter that was threatening to spill all over the patio and retrieved 1.6 kilos of lovely clean potatoes ready for cooking over the weekend and then weeded some more of the pots before ducking indoors to avoid a passing shower.

Pinned down and ready to root

You can never have too many strawberries

Tidy lettuce pot - should get one more meal from these

Today is a bit more house-related as Mum arrives to stay for a few weeks which we are really looking forward to but I did pop outside briefly to take some photos of the flowers in the sunshine and was rewarded with a newly minted Red Admiral and what I think could be a Tawny Mining bee, but my ID skills aren't brilliant even with the aid of the excellent Field Guide book by Steven Falk.

Red Admiral and friend on Rudbeckia Marmalade

Bee on perennial wallflower

Growing nicely...

It wasn't just the spuds that were thriving at the weekend. 

There was plenty of wildlife around on the beds, in the path edges and circling above all adding to the joy of being outside for a few hours

bees on the sunflowers

crickets in the paths

ladybirds on the edges

and rooks and buzzards overhead

The other plants were also bulking up nicely for our late summer and autumn harvests. The beans will be left until fully formed and dried for winter stews and soups. We hope the squash will start setting fruits soon - it's first flowers are already peeking through the leaves and the sweetcorn is looking healthy if a little short but there's still time for them to set cobs.

beans podding up nicely

butternut squash taking over the bed

Sweetcorn spreading

The promise of harvests to come and joy today

Glorious couple of the hours at the allotment today, whilst J cut the paths and tidied a few corners I had a lovely wander around checking on the plants and look forward to future crops.

Yellow courgettes

Hazlenuts in the hedgerow

White currants

Plums in the orchard

Willow for winter weaving

All the while watched by the wonderful wildlife:

Jenny Wren

Meadow Brown (i think...)

Red Admiral #1

Red Admiral #2

Home tired but happy with bunches and bunches of cornflowers:

Ten Minute safari

A quick 10 minute session dead-heading the roses and admiring the sweet-peas in the front was followed by an impromptu safari in the back garden when I spotted a rather faded but nonetheless beautiful butterfly enjoying the lavender, then there was the bumble on the poppy and the ladybird on the bindweed, not to mention all the other unnamed buzzies and flutterers surrounding me and enjoying the sunshine...

in for tea with a smile on my face...

Super surprises

Oh what a lovely surprising weekend we've just had. Saturday morning sunshine meant a brilliant couple of hours at the allotment watching goldfinch parents monitoring their fledglings as they fluttered from hedge to apple tree to rose bush and back and a blackbird male judiciously gathering food for unseen (but definitely heard) chicks in the hazel hedge whilst J planted out our sweetcorn, squashes, peppers and some more flowers. Then in the afternoon my brother and sister-in-law appeared on a surprise visit. For various reasons planned visits had had to be cancelled over the last year so a truly wonderful surprise and a great chance to catch up, share a meal, have a laugh and just generally be together. A happy weekend.

Blackbird dad

There's a goldfinch at the top of that tree, honest

Sweetcorn and squashes in.

Happiness is lavender coloured

After many weeks of cutting, sanding, glueing, screwing and shaping in his very limited spare time J has finished constructing a wonderful bird table for the front garden. Made from scrap pallet wood and a fence post plus a couple of coats of deep lavender wood paint (my choice) and I'm now the proud owner of this beauty:

We've added the seed - now we've just got to wait for the local flocks to find it...

Thank You, love!

Harvesting...

After a couple of wonderful wet days - yeah I know, strange statement, but the garden and allotment were desperate for a soaking and the front garden water butt was completely empty - today we popped up the allotment. Our onions have been a bit hit and miss so far, probably due to a vole or a mole we think, so J picked up some shallot sets in the bargain box of Poundland, at just 50p a bag we thought a late planting was worth a chance.  So let's see what happens now.

While he was doing that I picked some more cornflowers for the house. They are amazingly abundant this year and even after picking enough for two bunches for our house and another posy for our neighbour there are dozens and dozens left for the bees. The whole row of plants was covered in them and they even landed on the posies as I was cutting them - a really joyful sight and sound to behold and one of the many reasons we have flowers dotted all around the plot and never use pesticides. I made the most of the self-sown chamomile at the edge of the bean bed and added a few stems of that to the posies for contrast and scent too.

Next job was to pick some of the broad beans that are, at last, starting to develop plus some leaves from the chard plants and a few stalks of asparagus, we can truly say we are getting harvests from the plot now and are looking forward to those to come.

Climbing beans , peas and tagetes doing well

Purple Podded Peas and broad beans 

Pea flowers to rival any ornamental

Soon there will be spuds!

Chamomile and Cornflowers

Happy Place

A gorgeous couple of hours at the allotment today. Really warm and beautifully sunny, we were surrounded by tweeting, cawing, croaking and buzzing as we planted out our climbing beans, peas and courgette. We also added tagetes and sunflowers to the mix so with a bit of luck that's extra food for the buzzies and blooms for my late summer vases. 

Thanks to all Js hardwork prepping the no-dig beds in the cooler months planting out was a relatively quick and easy job, I even managed to put a few of the Blue Lakes and Borlotti in the ground. The paper cup, loo roll inner and plastic punnet plants had really healthy roots and transplanted really easily. We're now hoping the promised Bank Holiday showers actually materialise to supplement the watering we did.

Last job of the day for J was to mow the paths whilst I sat in the shade and watched the goldfinches flit about in the willow hedge chirruping madly at each other. Unfortunately these joyful little critters seemed to be camera shy so no photos of them but I did manage to capture a few bees on the comfrey and what I think is a 20-spotted lady-bird on the alkanet.

 Harvest for the day? Two vases of cornflowers and cerinthe blooms plus a couple of asparagus spears for tea.