My Hero comes to the rescue

 I was just about to put two home made pizzas in the oven, and Pouf!  the element went on the large fan oven.  The pizzas had to be cooked in the small top oven, which I hardly ever use, as it is also the grill.

With instructions manual etc, a replacement element was soon ordered, and received back very quickly.  Luckily there are two pair of hands, and two strong people.  As we fitted the oven, ourselves over four years ago, Mr S knew how it all fitted together.  Due to screws having been inserted with heads on the back, the element could not be replaced without taking the whole oven out, and removing the back panels. If only it had been fitted from the front, changing the element would have been a doddle. I am just the extra help with lifting out the oven, and passing tools etc, Mr S is the problem solver and fixer on this project.

I'm very happy to report that everything is in working order, and the first and celebratory loaves has now been baked.

In a Vase on Monday - Perseverance

 If there was someone who would wave a magic wand and grant me three wishes, one of those would be the ability to paint, draw, sketch etc. I would not ask to be an artist: famous or even selling a few paintings, just the ability to apply myself and end up with something reasonable that I would not be unhappy to hang on the wall. 

I've grown to understand that effort and perseverance is required to achieve many things, and without even first trying, or even 'try, try, try again' : My mother always used to add the extra try, and another word she used say was needed was 'Perseverance'. I just haven't tried enough. A few one hour zoom lessons from our WI group recently has got me going. I've decided it isn't too late to try.

Getting going: assembling materials for the task, and having failures along the way, is something I find hard. I have a cupboard with a couple of shelves of 'art' things: paper, pencils, water colour, and all my calligraphy things which have not been touched often, since calligraphy lessons and also a few art sessions with Helen Clues  at the Gecko Studio and Gallery in Old Town, Kenilworth.

So following on from the zoom classes, and from posting about one of the plants in the gravel area, this Sunday I spent a couple of hours with my pencils and brush trying to paint from real life.   I had doodled this on my lap whilst watching a film on the TV the night before, to obtain composition, layout etc, but drawing in 'my book' from real life, brought on a few butterflies! 

In my vase was a little spring of Phlox bifida Ralph Lauren. with its cleft petals and elusive light blue periwinkle coloured flowers. At breakfast this morning, with not a pencil in sight, I shall fall deep in the perfect beauty of each and every detail of this charming flower.

Having started In a Vase on Monday, arranging flowers from the garden and celebrating their beauty with others has brought a rhythm to my life. Will I persevere with art as I have persevered with gardening or picking posies, only time will tell. Cathy's weekly coming together  has been a worthwhile gift  with several In a Vase on Monday arrangement to view and ponder about. Having viewed her arrangement this week, I may well have found my next subject for sketching.

Another new Wood visited: Beacon Hill

I nearly didn't go as I was feeling below par the day after my second vaccine.  However I was delighted by the enchanting woodland.  I was there for the Geology of course, and having received the excellent field notes, maps, and diagrams, looked forward to this field trip, as there is nothing quite like having 'our' Professor guide us.  

We were standing very close to, and examined some interesting exposures of andesitic lava flows and agglomerates, the later much sought after during the Iron Age and Roman periods for querns, millstones and the former as sort of grit tempering found in the distinctively decorated Iron Age Pottery found at Glastonbury.

The band missed the little patch of Wood Sorrel emerging from the thick blanket of decaying leaves: 

Standing Stone on Burial Mound

The site is rich in Archelogy, which was been very much disturbed in the past when ridges were ploughed when replanted with some beech  in the 1950s.  There still remains some interesting mounds which I will read a little more about on the Beacon Hill Society's Page.

"In Roman times Beacon Hill was probably at its busiest. Two main roads – The Fosse Way and a road from the Mendip lead mines to Southampton – intersected on the hill top, though little of their original construction is visible today. More apparent are the rakes, quarry pits and working platforms in the wood, that represent a considerable expansion of the stone extraction industry. The querns and millstones that continued to be produced here have been found at Roman settlements like Ilchester, Shepton Mallet or Camerton, as well as at villas and farms in the region. The sandstone was also used as metalling for surfacing the Fosse Way at Shepton Mallet at least."

We came across some wonderful old Beech Trees, not yet in leaf.  

The bluebells were also far behind compared to those lower down and further West along  the Mendips.  On Wednesday it was a jumper, hat and gloves cooler than Wells.  I was already wearing my warm coat and I shall remember to put further layers in the car next time.

I am looking forward to a slower paced visit soon to explore this beautiful wood looking out for other interesting flora.  I did notice that they had a fine selection of ferns, mosses and  a patch of  bilberries.

Six on Saturday - 8 May 2021

1. Shell pink this isn't, however, this small and dainty hardy geranium, with her magenta blooms is starting off early summer with a bang.  Did I say summer?  It is still far cooler than usual, and the fleece hasn't been put away yet.  This little plant is quite hardy though, and no slug is drawn to it either.

Geranium cinereum subcaulescens

 

2. I used to think Aubretia was easy to grow because I was used to see it tumbling over stone walls in the Cotswolds.  This was has taken a couple of years to make a reasonable patch.  

Aubretia Blue Beauty

3. Phlox divaricata 'Chattahoochee' is much happier in its new position. It has grown into a good clump. Of the cuttings that I took, only one survived.  The slugs seem to like nibbling round the thin stems, and I ought to have kept them in pots till they were a little sturdier.  It is just starting into bloom.

 Phlox divaricata 'Chattahoochee'

I added a different phlox to this border: Phlox divaricata 'Clouds of Perfume'.  This one is taller, has  brighter green leaves, and soft blue petals. All I can say for now is I wished I had bought more, had room for more, maybe some cuttings taken this year, will find space.  

Phlox divaricata 'Clouds of Perfume'

I had seen this phlox growing in one of lovely gardens I had visited last year, so when this is out it will remind me to walk up to Milton Lodge Gardens and enjoy some of their tea and cake, and their views and their delightful gardens.

The Phlox bifida Ralph Hayward taken earlier this week demonstrates what I would have missed if I had cut it back.  Maybe after it has flowered will be time for cutting it back.

4. Over in the shady border it is time for the lovely creamy white flowers of  Dodecatheon meadia alba to be the one to draw me out into the garden.

5. Back in the conservatory, where I love to sit and view the garden keeping nice and warm, I have a few succulents, and my species Pelargoniums. Pelargonium ardens is just coming into flower.

6. As a young Mum I used to have an allotment to which I used to cycle, with my son on the child seat, and watering can hanging from the handlebars.  Allotment picnics were always a lovely way to pick salad and eat it still squeaking.  This must have been taken during the summer,  I must have gone in the car that day, as I was probably digging potatoes too.  Apart from the initial double digging, when I had a little help, I did it all on my own. In those days I sowed most things straight into the ground, but had glass cloches.

I now just have only a very small patch at a different garden, but still enjoy growing a few veg. These days I seem to start sowings in small pots.  Here are the courgettes:  two yellow, and two green, which will be garden ready by the time the threat of frosts will be over.

We shall all be waiting on calmer milder weather to start planting out less hardy things.  Whatever the weather we join in under the protection of Jon the Propagator, with much to entertain, inform and educate there from several other SOSs.

Trees in Spring but for how long for the Ash of the Mendips

 On our walk this week, I retraced the steps of a walk taken with my Geology Group, wanting to show Mr S a particularly lovely little valley. All of this is no further than two miles away from home.

Just beyond the last houses along Reservoire Lane, an old original boundary was engulfed by encroaching trees.  From small saplings growing upwards, after many years, the iron railings  are mere 'piercings' with the railings now going through the middle of the left tree, with the bark of the other two slowly growing over the railings. The trees are now holding up the rusting railings. 

Wide spreading Oak Tree

With leaves just about to burst, it was the shape of the trees, lit by clear bright spring sunshine, that brought me the greatest joy. 

For now but for how much longer, we must enjoy the silhouettes of Ash Trees.  Tens of thousands are being felled, and it causes me anguish when I see all the stumps along the lanes and roads.  The very sound of the saws all around the hills, over the last few months has been their death knell . Will it stop now we are in the nesting season?  Will this be but a temporary respite? I really do hope that trees away from roads and paths, and on private land will have some sort of reprieve, if only they could stand a while, who knows, they may survive, and scatter their seed.  But whom am I to judge whether the science is correct, and whether actions to remove all the trees, or leave some will be the right action.   I really think that many healthy Ash Trees have been felled, simply as a convenience cutting long banks along the roads, rather than just the odd tree which is damaged.  Returning in five or ten years was not considered, and it does not look as if any replanting is taking place at the moment, Time will tell. I can just recall the loss of the Elm Trees from the English Landscape....

Mr S and I have vowed to return as often as possible to our little grass covered and Ashy Dell, with its cool limestone stream,  as often as we can.  There was mention of a picnique, book reading and gazing into tree tops...

RIP Mendip Ash.........