Post archive
+ The First Blog Update of the Year! (20/01/2012 - 21:27:47)
The First Blog Update of the Year!January 20th, 2012 Yesterday was a spring day – blue sky, bright sunshine and soft air, well, I know we’re going to have frost and snow some time, but what a wonderful winter it’s been so far ! We’ve had so many blue tits, coal tits and great tits, chaffinches, nuthatches, woodpeckers and robins it’s a full time job filling the bird feeders! A pair of mistle thrushes sing to us as we garden, and we hear the wren and many long tail tits as they sing in the blackberry bushes near the greenhouse. A pheasant with clipped wings has adopted us and we hear him squawking as he eats the hellebores. Lizzie has christened him Charles, and Kieran is hoping to tame him! The garden is looking fantastic, and we have been able to keep up with maintenance as well as planting, clearing and weeding – Kieran is a wonderful help and is becoming expert at pruning and planting, as well as the more mundane jobs! Sally is working on a new insect hotel –bigger and better than the old one which was demolished when the willow shed a large branch! I’m working on the sales area, and soon we’ll all be sowing seeds! What fun! Here’s Kieran with an unexpected visitor in the cottage! ![]() Tempest!After a few little tempests of our own, the skies cleared at last for a production of Shakespeare’ last play, The Tempest. The storm which opens the play swept us into the world of Steampunk complete with flying machines and a genuine ship’s wheel. So much happened in those first few minutes, and we were quite astonished to see a QUEEN of There wasn’t a dull moment in this production, every character was strong and clear cut, this island was indeed full of sweet noise and brilliant colour – Prospero’s cloak deserved a round of applause of its own – so our thanks to Southend Shakespeare Company for a truly magical afternoon. Loveliest of trees...“Loveliest of trees,the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough..." and every other tree is showing off for Spring – the blossom in the cottage garden is almost overwhelming. I’ve never seen the magnolia so magnificent!
Maybe,unlike us, they appreciate a cold winter? Spring fever has touched the birds too! Goldfinches, nuthatches, tits of all kinds, chaffinches and robins surround the feeders, while blackbirds, thrushes, wrens and woodpeckers sing their presence in the hedges. On Sunday, And now “About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow” Why don’t you join me? In the deep midwinter...!Yes. we know Spring is here (we think!) but as a reminder of the winter escaped from you might like to have a look at these fairy-tale pictures (taken by John Harvey) of the Cottage in winter... This link: http://goo.gl/TBEXJ will take you there, without you having to suffer the temperature change! See you all soon...! Spring is here!
Spring is coming to Willow Cottage! The tender shrubs and roses have shed their fleeces, birds are singing, bees are buzzing and snowdrops are out in force. Last Sunday we had our first visitors of the new season, and we hope that the next few Sundays we’ll see many more to cheer us up. Look out for the new yew hedge at the back of the border, tulips and daffodils coming up everywhere, and in the “little treasures” bed just outside the cottage, the reticulata irises are a small delight. Welcome to all our visitors! And now...Dick’s Day and the Beekeeper’s Meeting are behind us, and summer is here. Dick’s Day was a great success, in spite of a cold wind and massed clouds. The music was beautiful,the poetry inspired and the picnics abundant. The sun came out to light our way home! So we shed our fleeces and pretended it was summer. Thanks to Ken’s very successful classes, there were a record number of beekeepers, and it was encouraging to see so many young people honing their skills. After a fascinating talk, we sat on the lawn and enjoyed the delicious tea with yummy home made cakes provided by Jenny Johns and many other beekeepers. Now we look forward to Henry the Fifth and Cinderella – and what a bizarre evening that would be!! Hope to see you there! Programme details: http://www.willowcottagetheatre.org/page2.htm Dick’s Day!The missel thrush (who built her nest in the antlers of the deer head outside the shed) is now raising her second brood, and we hope they will fledge before Dick’s Day! That is next Monday, Spring Bank Holiday! when we hope the sun will shine…the garden looks beautiful, full of scent and colour…look out for a spectacular peony in the round garden.
Maytime!...and the garden is filled with cherry blossom, magnolias and rhododendrons - all especially beautiful this year after the harsh winter. The whole place is alive with drifts of forget me nots and the blazing colours of tulips. The cupresses trees at the back of the long border are down, and already everything looks better for the light and warmth and rain. Trays of seedlings fill the greenhouses, waiting to go out as soon as the temperature rises above freezing!! And we’ve had many visitors already, a great encouragement to us, as we do like a bit of appreciation!
Pictured left - Bee in training for the Essex Beekeepers' Meeting... Saturday, June 12th. Garden open at 1 p.m., no entrance fee.. Spring at last!...and I can emerge from my winter hibernation in the greenhouse, where I have spent an amazing amount of time playing with cuttings and seedlings and pots of soil, while wonder women Liz and Sally and other younger gardeners freeze outside in the snow! But now the sun is once again warming our backs as we plant, prune, dig and sow in Willow Cottage garden. ![]() The pergola, built by Paul, Sally, Liz, Dennis and Neil using dead oaks from the forest, looks pretty spectacular and may look even more so when covered by the roses, wisteria, clematis and grape vine with which it has been planted. In 1952 Dick bought a few cupresses seedlings from Woolworths. They cost 6d each and he planted them at the back of the border. They are now 40 feet high and out of proportion so next week five of them will be felled. In their place will be a yew hedge ( cloud pruned eventually!) which will be a deer-proof shelter for the plants. Meanwhile the daffodils are out, the cherries are coming into bloom and the birds are singing and nest-building and we look forward to a glorious summer! Some time has passed since my last blog post but
we have been very busy with the theatricals. This entailed preparing the stage
area and lots of mowing and edging. Now it’s all over for another year and we
can concentrate on the continuous jobs of weeding and watering. Also, happily,
on picking our produce from the veg garden. Sally and I were delighted to win
prizes at our local show for our broad beans, potatoes and peas. And now the
French and runner beans are starting to crop well. I thought I ought to mention a bit about
the history of the garden and especially about the trees as they are not, in
the main part, anywhere near as old as the cottage. The garden only came into
existence in 1952 when Dick and his first wife, Freda, bought the cottage.
Prior to that, the area around the cottage had been used as a compound for
dogs. The first part to be cultivated was the vegetable gardens to the west of
the cottage on either side of the round garden. All the produce grown was a
great help to the family and one or two existing fruit trees added to the bounty. The cottage got its name not from the
existing weeping willow at the front but from a row of huge willows that were
growing behind the ponds. These came down in the 1987 storm and none survived.
Luckily, the weeping willow had been planted as a sapling in 1973 so the name
of the cottage is still appropriate. The conifers around the garden were either
purchased from Woolies for 6d or grown from seed collected by the family on
their travels. For example, the towering one by the front gate is from seed
collected in the south of If you come to visit the cottage over the next
few weeks I think you will agree that the dahlias and the vegetable garden,
festooned with nasturtiums and sweet peas, are looking fantastic. I think Dick
would approve. Another warm day at Willow Cottage. The cottage itself
was beautifully cool inside – something we don’t appreciate so much in Winter!
But outside the sun burned and the ground baked. I was trying to finish
transferring the dahlias from their big pots to their site in the Hot Bed but
had to water the bare earth before I could manage to dig the holes. Christine decided to start off by watering our
burgeoning collection of seedlings and plants in the greenhouses.
Unfortunately, it was so hot that she spent most of the afternoon as a hose
attachment watering one or another recently planted area. The heat has not
triggered a thunder storm so we may have to repeat the process on Thursday. On the up side, the delphiniums are still looking
fantastic – all 8’ or more of them- and they have not been blown over. And the
clematis around the cottage are all flowering in shades of purple and maroon as
if we arranged it. We shared our drinks breaks with some lovely visitors
– Mary and Stella from Chingford and Ann and Beryl from The birds are not singing as much now but the blackcap sang for long enough for Christine to identify. The robins have fledged from their basket in the shed: they practiced manoeuvres in the shed for a few days but now they’ve gone. However we’re enjoying spotting butterflies instead: we had a comma and a red admiral today.
Although our gardeners are more at home with spades and trowels down with keyboards and mice, we are hoping they will find time at the end of their tiring but rewarding days to write a few words here on the continuing development of the garden... |