Holy Island - New Year's Day

A Couple of Gardens

Now I know gardens are really Karen's more regular territory (although her own amazing patch doesn't seem to feature in her blog too often) but I've visited two really interesting ones recently so thought I'd post some images here but more on Flickr ... she'll be interested even if it's a bit 'off track' for other readers here!

The first was actually more of a park than a garden ... it's the one that forms the Thames Barrier Park which is a good new day out from Hackney as you can now get the DLR right to the park and there's a nice cafe. The park is actually almost bleak, lots of space and mature trees, but then right through the middle is a really interesting sort of glorified ditch filled with this odd topiary (you can't have enough topiary in a garden for me). Apparently the various levels of the hedges represent the previous level of the ground pre-development.

By contrast the second garden is a more intimate affair but certainly (on New Years Day this year) also rather bleak but beautiful. It's the garden Gertrude Jekyll made on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) if you look at the panorama below it's the sort of blip in the wall you can see, which shows you how exposed it is. Basically it's a tiny walled garden in the shadow of the castle with fields and the sea around it ... a pretty amazing space - I'd love to know more about the history of it.

If you're interested in gardens there's more images on Flickr (including the shed and planting plan that it seems even the great Gerty needed!)

Gertrude's Garden

Blog Backup ...

Over the Christmas and New Year period I've built up a terrible Blog Backup of wish-list entries, not to mention a potential iphoto problem ...

One of the causes of this has been my own self-confessed inability to relax. Karen and I were working on editing the footage from our re-enactment work right up to Christmas Eve, and for once I left for the New Year break feeling pleased we'd finished this and potentially with not much 'holiday' work to do.

Slightly panicked by the thought of a week long expanse of leisure time I convinced Tim that it wasn't a good idea to buy some costumes on ebay for the children we were going away with (a present I had for some reason become obsessed with finding) and that it would be much more fun for all involved if I made them, especially as my new 'Elna' sewing machine fits neatly into any luggage situation.

Needless to say I spent a few evenings cursing the puff sleeved design of my 'simplicity' Wizard of Oz pattern whilst the others enjoyed late night DVD binges ... and have only just finished one 'Dorothy dress' for my God daughter Ruby.

So if you like the look of this one you can either order the pattern from the States (yes for some inexplicable reason you can see it in the John Lewis books but they won't sell it to you) or get in the queue which I dare say will now be carrying over to next new year behind the Lion, tin man and Glinda still on my list ... by which time Ruby will have no doubt grown out of Dorothy.

Let this be a lesson (in case I need one) regarding my Kentwell Tudor costume this year ...

Beverley Heights

Snowmen lawn
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Before I forget, if you find yourself in Southampton at Christmas time I can not recommend strongly enough a trip along the (once a year) one-way system of Beverley Heights & Broadwater Road. Increasingly there are many that try to emulate their multi-bulb glory but they remain top of my Christmas lights tree!

Ginger rides again ... ?

The weirdest thing happened when we arrived back home from our New Year holiday last night ... we've been to Northumbria (which was great and more of which later) with a regular gang of friends plus we had a visit from the (former) owners of Ginger who featured to popular acclaim some weeks ago on these pages ... I didn't make a formal announcement at the time ... but sadly Ginger passed away a shortly after his Blog debut.

Anyway back to last night, we got home about 1.00 am having collected our cats from an unplanned (on their part) holiday at my Mum's, let them out their baskets and were pleased to see how quickly they reverted to their old selves. So quickly that I became instantly convinced we had mice, as they paced the patch of floor by the washing machine. Moments later I heard Tim sigh and shout out that Liquor had already caught a mouse ... No it's a mole ... No it's a ... HAMSTER!?

Near to hysteria I scrabbled to keep the cats back and control Tim's rather over zealous 'spade-capture-technique' (he had thought it was dead) and we got the poor thing into a box. Now the question is where did it come from and what do we do with it?

Could it be an escapee Christmas gift from the flat next door & how did it get in? I did wonder if kids had shoved it through the letter box, or worse still flipped it over the back wall from the estate ... but these seem unlikely.

Despite the ordeal it's happily tucked into Christmas nuts, but sadly (as you can see) not ready for a Ginger-style photo call as yet ...