Saturday’s Look Back!

Waterford, south-east Ireland. 31st October 2020 We have moved into shorter-days, gardening-rained-off, quagmire-underfoot, leaf-collecting and heavy-pruning season; days to treasure anything which continues to give colour, anything which chooses to perform at this mucky end of the year. The ground here has become very soft and, unless we get a few days of good drying, …

A Gathering Gloom Dispelled.

It rained all day yesterday, morning to night without a break. The branches cut from a crabapple tree in the garden on Wednesday had been left on the ground and I was unable to go out to clear them away. There was no gardening nor any hope of it; no walking either. We had a …

Squelch, Squelch, Squelch.

Our garden can be very wet in winter, a high water table and Ireland's abundant rainfall means that the ground becomes saturated quite easily and then we have wet, heavy, mucky, squelchy conditions underfoot so that any work in the garden is likely to do more harm than good, simply damaging the grass or making …

Sissinghurst, The Dream Garden

With this book Sissinghurst has received what it so deservedly merits, an author whose writings do it justice, for reading Tim Richardson’s book has been an enjoyment comparable to visiting Harold Nicholson’s and Vita Sackville-West’s garden. Both are simply superb. The garden’s creators are no longer with us; the garden has been in the care …

The Weekend Review

Waterford, south-east Ireland, Saturday, 24th October 2020 We are in deep lockdown, Level 5, due to the big increases in Covid 19 cases in the past weeks and will live under these restrictions for the next six weeks. We may travel no further from home than 5Kilometres, except for essential reasons. We do our shopping …

Before We Can’t!

There is a certain desert-island feeling about today; well, certainly with ourselves and two others we spoke to today. This morning, we met a friend while walking and she was going to make a visit to her favourite bakery - The Seagull Bakery in Tramore - to enjoy some of their delicious confectionery as she …

No Day for Gardening!

It may not have reached storm conditions today but it was bad enough. We had a yellow warning from the meteorical service, Met Éireann, telling us there was a danger of coastal flooding as heavy rain and southerly winds coincided with high tides and their forecasts were accurate. I saw on the news that Cork …

It’s Saturday…and time for a gardening week review.

It has been a good gardening week with good weather, those bright and sparkling days of autumn, that very special light that comes in October - ten in the morning is the very best time when the fog and darkness clears and those strong shafts of light cut across the garden, almost like spotlights, and …

On Psyche’s Lawn: The Gardens at Plaz Metaxu

Few of us could identify what inspired the design of our garden. Generally, we have muddled along as our garden developed, adding a bed here, a border there, a feature, a seat, a specimen tree, a vista, the lawn, the general planting etc. etc. However, there is absolutely no doubt about it, we each and …

The Photographer in Pyjamas.

Breakfasts are leisurely matters these days. The days of rushing to work are long gone, no children to organise, no lunches, no timetable, no clocking in, none of that morning running around. There is time to catch the news and weather on morning tv, to catch up on all the latest news from a range …