And the consequence was...

Sometimes nothing you could possibly anticipate

Fingers crossed the alliums planted in autumn will produce something similar later this year

Hello, and how has your week been? I am genuinely interested so feel free to use the comments section or hit reply. 

I’m very pleased to report that the plaster on my foot has been removed as bone healing looks good. In truth it feels a teeny bit anticlimactic since I’m still somewhat hobbly and meant to be taking things slowly and gently which doesn’t really sit well with my gardening plans. 

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In The Garden

From almost every corner of the garden Spring is peeping at me; the magnolia has started flowering on its top branches, the lower buds swollen and ready to burst open; the roses I so recently pruned are already showing leaf growth and in the big empty border weeds are once again finding their way to the surface - a sure sign that the soil is warming up. I took delivery of some of the plants for this border earlier in the week and ‘though I’m itching to get planting, the bare rooted perennials that have arrived probably need some time in pots to grow a little lest over enthusiastic birds stick their beaks in.

I have planned two other new borders over the winter, one of which should bring a little lightness to the darker end of the garden seen from the house with a sea of frothy, white hydrangeas. 28 unprepossessing pots of twigs have arrived and are waiting for their place in the ground, in the meantime I have fed them, welcomed them warmly and hope they’ll soon look more vigorous. There is much to be done in the coming few weeks, but we’ve made good progress already - the hedge laying that will be completed this afternoon looks so good that the birds have already been busy location scouting for the perfect nesting spot.

Raspberries pruned, wood chipped and rhubarb well on the way

The hedge laying detritus and the tops of a couple of dead trees felled in the autumn have now been chipped and will be the perfect mulch for new borders, it feels smugly satisfying to know that we’ll be using our ‘waste’ within the garden and so productively.

Black Cornflowers awaiting their place in the new border

I spent a happy half hour in the plastic palace (as I like to think of our polytunnel) yesterday pricking out some cornflower seeds which I’d sewn in the autumn, the sweet peas are on their way and I think I’ll sew some tomato seeds this weekend in the mini propagator which looks so ugly on the kitchen window sill. I sometimes forget just how much I enjoy this sort of gentle gardening while listening to a book or podcast, on a good day with a little warmth from the sunshine or at any rate being sheltered from the rain.

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On Kindness

This week I wrote a few words on kindness for Feasts & Fables in response to a request for words on their Manifesto (photo below). I have a kindness to ask of you - if you enjoy my writing a click on the heart button at the bottom of this post would be so appreciated, each and every one brings a smile to my face. 

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Consequences

A few days ago the word consequences found its way into my consciousness, unhelpfully I can’t now remember in what context or situation but it prompted thoughts of its place in my life in two ways. My first proper understanding of the word consequences was, I think, the game. As a family we have spent many hilarious evenings around a table, pens, pencils and paper collected from kitchen drawers, desks and handbags, secretively scribbling and impatiently waiting to unfold the creases in the hope that we can reveal the funniest tale yet.

Should you be unfamiliar, it is a collaborative storytelling game of writing a contribution according to a formula (his name, her name, they met at, he said, she said), folding down the paper and passing it along to the next player for their turn, the final act being to decree what the consequence was. Many a prime minister and family member have met along the way and one particularly endearing memory is of Vlad the Impala making an appearance (we used to live in South Africa). I love the way our collective imaginations create wonderfully ridiculous and funny stories.

In real life I’m not always good at giving consequences due consideration. I don’t think this is always a bad thing, though there are certainly occasions when I could have been more circumspect. I sometimes wonder, if I could turn back time, what our lives might have been like had I considered the consequences of saying yes to moving overseas with Mike’s job. Would I have gone back to nursing after having the girls? Would we still be living in Hampshire? Would we have a group of local friends whom we’d known for 20+ years? Who knows, but if there is a sliding doors moment of my life, one in which I paused to consider the consequences, I think it is that moment in our cottage kitchen, our younger daughter just a few months old and my brain still hormone addled, when Mike casually asked how I’d feel about moving to Munich. In reality, I suppose I could never have predicted the consequences of saying yes, would never have imagined all the moves that would follow, so perhaps it’s a moot point?

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery” James Joyce

As I write the kiln is cooling, I absolutely meant to take a before photo of it loaded up before I switched in on, but perhaps if it’s not disastrous there’ll be an after photo instead. I find glazing quite stressful, it is to my mind it is a dark art and while I know that I must allow myself to makes mistakes I fear I am unreasonably precious about any items successfully thrown!

Gertie kindly posing for me (once I’d found something dry for her to sit on 😂)

If you’ve read or listened this far thank you, and finally, let us just acknowledge (with huge gratitude on my part) that FEBRUARY IS OVER!!

With love,

Vx