Step Exercise.

After last night's thunderstorms I woke this morning to a typical British summer's day- grey, wet and chilly. A good enough reason to have a bit of a lie-in watching both pairs of birds that have taken up residence above the bedroom windows as they flew back and forth with food for their hungry broods. Eventually I made it out to the garden, via the PC and my jigsaw, and found that it had stopped raining and warmed up.

Today's task was to sort out the steps and path leading to the chickens' run. I am not so happy with my handiwork as it is a bit of a bodge job and I'm thinking about losing the bottom step and leaving it as grass. In spite of last night's storm the ground is very dry which made it easier to dig. As I was muttering to myself about the presence of that solid clay which needed attacking with a mattock I suddenly remembered the first serious gardening I did in London many years ago. As part of a local wildlife/environmental group we were involved in creating a community garden out of some derelict land just off Cable Street in East London. We used no mechanised tools at all but relied on pickaxes, mattocks and crowbars to dig our way through the foundations of houses that had been bombed back in the war. We would have given our eye teeth for soil such as I have got now. The local mounted police donated us a mountain of stable manure to compost and I remember one memorable occasion when the heap combusted and the fire -engines were called out, possibly by the nuns who lived in the convent across the street. The community garden became a successful venture and some years ago I saw a TV programme which showed local families growing vegetables there and enjoying the outdoor space. In that area just outside the City nobody has any sort of garden, only balconies or window boxes. This was where Peter grew up and now we live in the least populated county in England in a beautiful rural valley. We are so fortunate.
I've just checked and the gardens are still going strong, hooray for local projects. More info at http://www.opensquares.org/detail.php?square=CableSt

Here Comes The Rain.

The weather forecast is for thunderstorms and heavy rain this weekend so when I got home I went straight out to the veg plot to move some perennials from the plot to the small space at the end of the remaining leylandii hedge. I shifted a big clump of day lilies, a random iris (I think) and something that some one gave me years ago which produces whorls of yellow flowers a bit like monarda. I also put in a keria which hopefully will cover up the bare end of the leylandii hedge. The bright yellow pom-pom flowers should compliment the yellow azaleas which are flowering in front of the hedge. The rain started just as I was putting the last plants in and if we have a wet few days they shouldn't flop too much. I know it is the wrong time to move them but that's just the way it worked out. Up in the scree garden the alliums are looking good though the leaves are showing the effect of the recent lack of rain. (There were lots of these at the Eden Project.)

School wasn't too bad today. The children had a practice go at the maths tests and although I was a bit concerned at the problems some of them were having, when I compared the test levels with the levels I had just put onto the school pupil tracker they matched pretty well.

I have over 20 varieties of hardy geranium because they do so well here. They like the soil(less) conditions and don't get eaten by the slugs, a big bonus.

Polling Day.

The rain finally arrived this afternoon. For the last week the local farmers have had the contractors in their fields, cutting, turning and taking away silage. The cut fields are a pale lime green which contrasts with the emerald green of the new grass and the deep terracotta of the newly ploughed fields. Today is voting day so I did my civic duty (voting is optional in this country) and went to the village hall to cast my votes for a local council election and also for the national referendum on changing the voting system. At the moment we have a single non-transferable vote which results in the power always being with one of the 2 major parties though currently the 3rd smaller party did a sneaky deal with the conservatives to form a coalition government. Today's referendum was to change to a system where you list the candidates in order of preference so that the least popular gets knocked out and recounts done until the candidate who is more popular overall is picked. The current government is terrified of this system and along with big business has poured money and lies into publicity aimed at persuading people that change would not be a good thing. I wonder why? The village of East Down lies nestled in a valley and voting was at the village Hall which lies at the heart of community life such as it is. It was absolutely pouring with rain so I took these pictures from the shelter of the porch.

I was rewarded for being a good citizen by spotting a notice for the annual plant sale in a few weeks time. Since I have been working full-time I haven't had the time to go to the WI meetings in the Hall so haven't had the chance to see the village notices or to buy the village magazine. I will definitely be going to the plant sale as the village is full of dedicated gardeners and I should be able to get some vegetable seedlings. I keep peering at my seed trays in the conservatory but nothing has happened yet. I feel like a little child wanting to dig up the seeds to see if they have germinated. The rain put me off doing any gardening this evening so I did a little on my puzzle instead.

Squawk!

The air in the garden is filled with the fluffy white seeds of the willow trees and there are plenty in the house as well.

A much calmer day today, helped by the fact that on Wednesday afternoons I'm on ppa time. In the morning the children had their first practice SATs test under test conditions, ie in silence and sitting widely spaced around the room. It was a spelling test which I marked in the afternoon and they didn't do too badly. Unlike our weekly spelling test when they are given a list of words to write, one side of the test paper has pictures of the things I ask them to spell and the other side has a story with gaps. The story is read through first and then a second time when they are asked to write the missing words.

There are simply not enough hours in the day to do all the things that need doing. I didn't get home until 6.30 so didn't have that much time in the garden. Still every bit helps and I have started work on the path from the drive up to the chickens' run, skimming off the soil and filling it up with stones instead.

When I first got home I was greeted by the familiar sound of jackdaw chicks ....... coming from the roof space. Those pesky birds must have found a way in somehow and now we will be serenaded by the hungry squawking of their brood. I'll have to go back up in the loft at the end of the summer and really make sure all the holes are made bird proof.

A tropical flower that was the size of a grapefruit.

A Stressful Day.

A bit of Eden's peace and tranquility.....

.....which I certainly needed after a chaotic day at school where everything seemed to be going wrong. My first annoyance was turning up to find someone had removed 3 chairs from my classroom. As all our chairs are different sizes and colours I had taken the precaution of labeling all my chairs before we took them to the playground for our wedding celebration last Thursday. By the end of the day I had located all my chairs and put them out as usual ready for a new day. I was almost the last person to go home on Thursday but I do know that another teacher who had not found all his chairs was working in school over the week-end but of course denies any knowledge of my chairs. What a petty thing to do and then lie about. Then last thing on Thursday my classroom printer started to play up and is still not working which is a major problem. I tried to get round it by emailing stuff to myself and printing it from the staffroom printer but everything came out as gobbledy gook. Luckily at the end of the day I managed to print in somebodyelse's classroom which solves the problem for the moment but we have no on-site technician so it may be a long time until I get my printer fixed. I then spent the rest of the day losing things in the classroom and the children were quite noisy (everybody found this today) and I had to speak sternly to them which I dislike. It was also extra rushed today as I had to spend the whole of my lunchtime going into town to do a few jobs. It was a real relief to get home and still have time to spend an hour digging in the veg garden. The clay does not seem to extend all over the plot and the digger broke up some of the soil so it wasn't such hard work today. Hopefully by the time I have finished some of my seeds will have grown and be ready to plant out.

The long spell of warm dry weather has meant that the farmers have started taking their first cut of silage. Mr Lewis has changed his dairy cows from the poor bony holsteins to these prettier ones which are healthier looking. Not sure of the breed, Guernsey or Guernsey cross possibly?

Back to the Eden Project.
As someone who rarely eats out I was fascinated by the cafe which seemed very different to anywhere I had been before.

This side was serving sandwiches (2 kinds only, egg or salt beef) freshly made with locally baked bread (click on the photo to see the wonderful giant loaves) and help yourself salad. Coffee & tea from the girl on the right. There was no paper work but when you had finished you simply went to a till by the door, told the person what you had and paid.

This was the other side of the same cafe earlier in the day. There was a selection of pastries or toast. On the long tables were big bowls of jam and nutmeg to put on your toast. Instead of plates or trays you put your food on wooden slabs. On the far right chefs were rolling out dough to make pizzas and other savouries for lunchtime. The smell of all that delicious food as you walked along the balcony was enough to tempt you down but we had brought our own food with us. Later in the day there was fresh soup and stew. As we won't have to pay entry next time we will treat ourselves then. In the Mediterranean biodome there was a stall where you could buy fish stew or a bean stew which were cooking tantalisingly in enormous open pans, mm.

Bank Holiday Monday.

It was rather blustery this Bank Holiday so this morning we went for a beach walk. There were quite a few families at Barricane beach which was sheltered and fairly warm. The beach cafe has reappeared, literally. It is in a cabin at the bottom of the ramp leading down to the beach and they must take it away on a trailer for the winter. I like this cafe because you get your tea in a proper china mug and he seems to have an interesting selection of ciabattas and salads. Must try them one day. Out on the main beach it was pleasantly deserted and we walked along the water's edge for a while.
In the afternoon the sun reappeared and although I was meant to be doing my school planning for the week I was tempted out to do more work on the veg garden.

I decided that I would not be doing a proper job if I left that layer of hard packed clay under the top soil so I've started working my way across the whole plot. I often work on my knees in the garden as it is not good for my back to use a fork & spade (which is why I haven't replaced my broken spade and am using a shovel instead) and today I felt like an archaeologist as I scraped the soil away to reveal the hard packed clay and stones. I'm not sure if it is a natural deposit or if it was dumped there when the previous owner was in one of his landscaping moods. In any case the clay and stones are so hard packed that nothing can get through. Fortunately the layer is only a few inches thick before you get to a normal layer of sub-soil which is not so hard. I'm using the clay for the path and then breaking up the lower soil with a mattock. All the weeds went to the chickens who spent most of the time watching me from the gate especially when I spent ages digging out a metal post holder that was in the wrong place. One of the hens even sat herself down comfortably to watch me do this job. Eventually I reluctantly called a halt to this satisfying work to knuckle down to do my planning.



And to finish off a few tropical flowers from the Eden Project.

Working On The Veg Garden.

After a leisurely lie-in watching the trees thrashing in the wind and a small bird bringing food to its nest above our window, I ventured out to work on the veg garden. The bed only measures 7ft x 16ft but it is going to take quite a bit of work. This is the only place I have top soil in the garden and even that only extends down for 6". Under that is a hard packed layer of clay and stones. I decided to take off the top soil from the small path and remake the path using sub soil dug out from the bed. I certainly would not be able to grow any root crops there or at least the carrots would have to be very short. And now some more Eden pictures mainly from the tropical biosphere.
There is quite a lot of art around the place that uses re-cycled materials.

One of the buildings showing how natural materials are used.

This is the balloon that is used for working at higher levels.

Inside another building showing a typical forest home.

A road side stall.