Snow

Most of the country is in the grip of icy blasts, and until yesterday we had no snow here near Wells.  Then it started....

By about four o'clock yesterday it had started to settle.

It snowed all night with snowflakes smaller than I have seen before...instead of the mizzle, which is what we call the very finest rain, more that mist and less than drizzle, Mr S and I devised the name snozzle for this finest of snow.  As I looked out in the evening it was as if a ton of jewels had been cast across the snow surface as twinklings lights reflected off the surface.

The wind has been blowing all night in gusts, moving this fine stuff into drifts, sometimes catching a sizeable buildup on a roof and making it into what looked momentarily like a whiteout as the snowdust remained suspended in the air.  

In the morning, the views from upstairs were uniformly white, and neighbours were busy clearing axel wide tracts...even though no vehicle has entered or left the close.  Children were using the icy furrows to fling themselves down the 'luges', the laughter and joy was infectious!

In the afternoon heavier and larger snowflakes started to fall and having enjoyed watching the birds from the windows front and back, I decided to don hat, gloves, boots etc.  Mr S cried after me: "Is your journey necessary?  Is it a question of life and death?"  I replied: "yes yes!", as I went into the garden to spread more birdseed, raisins, and chopped up apples from the store.

We had been watching the birds and I had noticed that around the perimeter of the garden, fieldfares, redwings, blackbirds and thrushes had been busy clearing the snow to expose the heavy composted soil looking for worms and food, and finding perhaps warmer hollows in which to shelter from wind.  One had more or less tunnelled right under the fence to the next door garden..that is where I remember all the snails like to congregate!  I have never before seen so many of these birds in the garden together at the same time.

This picture of the redwing is taken from inside the study right to the end of the garden...so many apologies for the poor quality from my simple camera.  Of course the batteres for the better camera are flat...but they are now on charge, and I have set a couple of hours aside tomorrow to refamiliarise myself with its many functions.

We have each taken full advantage of the enforced isolation...I got out some of my pens, which have very sadly been laying idle for nearly two years..and I am sadly out of practice.  However you have to start somewhere...I've decided to make all home made birthday cards this year, and I wonder if this little fanciful sketch will end up in one?

In a Vase on Monday - Shapes and shadows

On Saturday, I was getting rather excited preparing for the visit of two IAVOM friends the following day, and felt a little gardening would calm me down.  I wanted to start the preparations for planting out new snowdrops and later I attacked an old potentilla shrub that miraculously survived builders as the conservatory was under construction last year.

Here we are Alison C and Sandra D and myself...very cold but enjoying good company, winter gardens, and snowdrops.

Sadly the the lovely angel sculpture within the Palace has been moved....but here it is from when I posted about a visit in 2017 .  I have a thing for angels in the same way that Sandra has a thing for pineapples.  I am sure she will be writing about her Pineapple experiences in Wells!

At first I didn't particularly like this shrub, and would have had it out, except that Mr S liked it.  It would therefore seem quite disingenuous of me to dig the Potentilla out whilst he was away running model layouts at the weekend with friends!  Besides which, I felt it had earned a little reprieve having flowered its little socks off almost until Christmas.  Usually if I like a shrub or plant I carefully research and prepare for the best way to reduce or transplant it...if I don't, I usually just go for it.  I have since read that from time to time Potentillas do need a seeing to and will bounce back from even the harshest of prunnings....so it will recover, but maybe not flower until 2019.

I got busy with the secateurs and quite soon what was once a shrub a metre high and across became much reduced.  As I worked through the bush I became to appreciate the shape and curves of the woody stems, and saw the first sign of spring growth.  I chose some stems and 'pushed' them into a lovely  studio vase which my father brought back from Japan in the 1960s.

The shadows on the wall too added to the interest, but I have neither the skill nor the patience today to show this to advantage and have just added one of those tones available on the photo storage system I have.  The black elephant again is pottery from my Husband's family home, and the two little keys rings, skillfully made from wire and small beads,  were brought as souvenirs by my sister after her holiday in South Africa. 

The stems reminded me of the thin leaved scrubby trees we used to drive through, in one of the drier regions in Mauritius near Black River, where,  as children we would imagine we were driving through African grass lands with  acacia trees with rhinoceroses and elephants.  We had no television in those days, but we had large books with black and white pictures of landscapes from around the World, which I often had my nose in.  We would even see Lions in the clouds. 

I am sure you would like colour and for that you will be enchanted by a flower originally from the same continent as the rhino, so head off to Cathy's post this week.  Cathy is the creator of IAVOM....and without this post I would not have had such a special day with two new friends.

Succulent Update

One of the succulents which I have found particularly easy is Echeveria Elegans...so much so that I have plants dotted all over the house, sheltering from the cold.  I even have this tray in the conservatory.  The three large ones left in the soil in the garden are finally surrendering up following all the rain and now the first hard frosts of the year here in the sheltered garden.

Echeveria Elegans

Even their flowers make excellent cutting and last a long time.

Doing very well at present are the Aeoniums.  I currently have four different types.  The large one for which I have no idea what it is called has a natural way of sending out  side branches from just below the lead one.  On this plant which was rooted about three seasons ago, the first set of side shoots is already sizeable. I acquired the original from my honey friends in Kenilworth.

I have my green ones which smell of honey growing well... fact I have several of them, but here on the table in the conservatory the central one is flanked by two which I acquired on my trip to St David's last autumn.

The Schwarzkopf is on guard in its trough, grateful for the recent sunny days, which have transformed its leaves from a wishy washey to a good dark colour.  I have shown aeoniums in local shows and enjoy sharing cutting and plants with friends.

Here is the little pan of recently propagated Echeveria purple purl, sorry I meant purple pearl...I must have had half my mind on knitting!!!!

I have some leaves of echeveria curly locks waiting to have the same treatment.

The pot of Delosperma: hardy ice plants looks as if they have started to take root.  I was interested to learn that they are hardy succulents with lovely flowers, and the trader at Wells market gave me this little selection of cuttings.  I had taken him a few of cuttings from a selection of my succulents.

I would like to explore the more hardy succulents, at least hardy enough to overwinter in the conservatory...and have discovered on line Surreal Succulents based down near Truro.  They have a handy filter on the site where you can select succulents according to their hardiness.  

Bacon, Cheddar and Jalapeno Loaf

The recipe for this loaf is on page 122 of Jane Mason's Book Perfecting Sourdough.  However I made a few variations.  Due to issues with consuming cow's milk, I went for goat's cheese made at the farm in Wookey. I have only had to travel a short distance from Cheddar too!  I'm just having a bit of a smirk as I think about this, as I am sure most people won't be using Cheddar Cheese from Cheddar!

For the chilli I used some chopped up yellow chilli which had been in the freezer since last year when a new friend Tiana had passed a few to me.

The only other change I made was that I set the finished dough to rise in a large cake tin.  I ought to have set the dough in a large 1Kg proving basket...but I felt happier not doing the turning out thing this time.

The bread smelled divine as it was baking, and formed the basis of lunches with soups and salads, and I found Mr S snuffling up a just a bare slice for his supper!

The flavour and texture of the loaf is excellent...but next time I would bake two 500g loaves and freeze one.  This is the first time I have had hot chilli peppers in a loaf, and probably would not have baked this loaf if I had not been in the Facebook group baking through all the recipes in this book.  However now that I have read about the Jalapeno Pepper, I am even willing to grow my own.   A few years back I was growing small red chillis and this was hugely productive.



In my view all manner of additions could be added to this dough...olives, spring onions....but then there are lots of other savoury loaf recipes in 'Perfecting Sourdough'.

In a Vase on Monday - Small offerings

In a New Vase...just the right size to show off a few snowdrops.

I had thought I had lost my smallest of ceramic vases so bought this at a stall at the Shepton Mallet Snow Drop Festival on Friday.  Alison C:  a Fair Maid from IAVOM joined me for a lovely afternoon at the festival.

Pride of place in the front is a flower from a new snowdrop bought at the show: Viridapice nivalis green tip  This is quite a common snowdrop I understand...but I love it as it is easily identified by the green on the outer petals.

Along side are  snowdrops which survived the move from the midlands, and a couple of periwinkle flowers from a clump of Vinca Minor.  Its not quite the right blue to match the vase..but I have little else in flower.

Whilst unpacking the last of my boxes of vases on Sunday I found the smallest vase...too small for these but fine for a trio of mud spattered primroses.

With it a spring of rosemary and a little stem of sedum a gift plant from Alison last year, which is starting to sprout very nicely.  I think it may be Sedum Autumn Charm 'Lajos'.  Here it is sitting on a very old doily which would have graced tea time tables in the days before paper or plastic ones.

Cathy has her arrangement on a tea cloth...do go and see what is on offer to wet your appetite there.