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Crowditch

A Many Year Project

by Lydia March 2, 2025

Two of my sisters – Ginny and Diff – came down from Caithness this weekend, to help with various things. They made a serious start on stripping the textured wallpaper from the guest room, something that is going to be an ongoing project for some time, I suspect. There are some patches in the house – the stairs being the worst one – where it has clearly previously been deemed that to remove the paper was too hard a job, so it has just been plastered over. Naturally, the plaster is now falling off in chunks, aided by little fingers that can’t help themselves. As much as the work ahead of us is really only just beginning (I describe our very-much-loved family home as being a “many year project”), it felt good to be making a start on some of the comparatively frivolous improvements we’ve identified.

The next morning, we set up some solar-powered lights in the pagoda in the garden, an endeavour which caused much hilarity. Meanwhile, Euan finally finished setting up the regulation size basketball ball net that he got for Christmas, while the girls ran round getting colder and colder in the bitter wind, but having a hilarious time switching between garden toys and sticks and shells.

March is currently being lion-like rather than lamb-like, but it is exciting to be heading towards spring. There is much to do outside, and I can’t wait to carry on chipping away at it all.

March 2, 2025
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Crowditch

Gardening, At Last

by Lydia February 14, 2025

There was a healthy layer of frost this morning but, delightfully, the sun was warm enough that I made it outside this lunchtime to make a start on the front garden. Finally! I’ve been itching to for ages, but the weather hasn’t been playing ball. I couldn’t weed the rowing boat because it was still hard with frost, but I made progress on the beds.

The plans for the front are simple. I need to weed out the three skinny beds in front of the house, and I will certainly need to bolster the two at either side with more plants this spring. The one in the middle is a little different, as I am hoping last year’s peony makes a return this year, and hasn’t just given up entirely (there is new growth, so it is looking promising!). The plan for that one is to relocate the two roses in the archaic, broken wooden planters into the bed beside the peony, and hope that the reason they don’t seem to be thriving at the moment is because they need better earth that they haven’t already wrung dry of nutrients.

The tedious part will be weeding the gravel. I am not a fan of gravel, but it looks like we’re keeping it for now, at least, especially given the front of the house also acts as back-up parking. Once weeded, we’ll get another bag to layer over it, to better suppress the weeds and grasses that just can’t help themselves.

And then we have to order the hedging plants and the fruit trees. There is an ornamental cherry on the grass already, and Euan has assessed how many more healthy trees we can grow there. Auri and Euan are adamant we’re keeping the old rowing boat in the garden, so that will be planted up with wildflowers. The hedging will skirt round behind it, and I am yet to decide exactly what to do with the patch of grass in front. A bed, perhaps? Only I am hoping for something low maintenance. Bulbs in the green? We’ll see. I’m not worrying too much about that this side of summer.

The world, reflecting the afternoon sun.
February 14, 2025
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A man, a baby, and a little girl stand in the woods with their dog and a basket full of mushrooms, smiling for the camera.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

Mushroom Haul

by Lydia September 2, 2023

Quite the haul of chanterelles!

September 2, 2023
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A child's drawing of a family, with three stick people (one of whom is holding a stick baby) and a stick dog.
Crowditch

Family Portrait

by Lydia August 30, 2023

Family portraits don’t come much cuter than this.

August 30, 2023
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A child's Playmobil stable with some pink slime hanging off it.
Crowditch

Unicorn Slime

by Lydia August 24, 2023

Euan is back from a few days undertaking fieldwork for his elm work in Skye, so I am fortunately no longer the only person at home to do things like clear up half a tube of toothpaste smeared all over the sink and the bath, and wipe down toys which have been attacked with unicorn slime. Oh, the glamour of my life.

August 24, 2023
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A margarita sits on a table in a restaurant in the foreground, with a glass of cranberry juice behind.
Crowditch

First Day of School

by Lydia August 15, 2023

Somehow, today was Auri’s first day at school. Already.

As I did when Elfi started nursery earlier this month, I spent half the day flinching, thinking I’d misplaced a child somewhere.

Euan and I dropped Auri off in the morning, then went for a very civilised coffee and breakfast pastry in a mildly shell-shocked daze. Later, there was lunch.

August 15, 2023
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A little girl looks out to sea, watching for dolphins, on a gorgeous summer's evening. The long shadows of her unseen companions stretch out in front of her from behind the camera.
Crowditch

Sea-Fever

by Lydia August 12, 2023

Last night, Euan and Auri nipped along to Chanonry Point to meet some friends and watch the dolphins as the tide and the weather were both perfect. It was Elfi’s bedtime so we couldn’t join them, but it was a magical evening, and listening to Auri chattering away excitedly as she got ready for bed when she got back (waaaaaaaaay past her bedtime!) will be something that will stay with me forever.

August 12, 2023
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A young girl and a man stand next to an obelisk in some very green, very rainy woods, staring off at something in the distance.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

Catching Our Breath

by Lydia July 31, 2023

And… breathe.

A rainy, rainy walk today, though so much greenness! July bowing out true to her form this year, on both accounts.

July 31, 2023
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A woman and her daughter smile for the camera in front of a lawn, some trees, and a large white house. It is bright, but looks a little breezy.
A Murder of CrowsCrowditch

Catching Up

by Lydia April 13, 2023

We are just catching our breath from a busy last fortnight, just in time to rush into another busy month.

Last week, we were all up at Stempster. Euan spent a happy two or three days (mostly) in the Wild Wood, taking down fifty-two and a half trees (the half being some serious surgery to a victim of lightning). Auri spent many a delighted hour on the swing and generally wreaking havoc outside, Elfi was her usual cheerful self, and Scapa got in some much-loved beach walks.

There are several photographs to share, which I suspect will crop up at odd times over the coming few days. But enough of us. How are you all?!

April 13, 2023
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A close-up of wych elm branch in leaf.
CrowditchResearch

Treescapes Fellowship

by Lydia February 6, 2023

It has now been announced that Euan has been awarded one of the fellowships attached to the Future of UK Treescapes programme, focussing on the wych elm and Dutch Elm Disease.

The Wych Elm is the only native elm species in the UK and, much like the English Elm or clone of the Field elm, millions of trees have been infected and killed by Dutch elm disease (DED) leaving eerie standing skeletons across the landscape. However, even in the most infected areas, individual trees still survive, indicating that resilience to DED exists.

Future of UK Treescapes Fellowship: Dr Euan Bowditch
February 6, 2023
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Elosa

Take one Southern and one Northern. Throw in two determined (very) young women and their four-legged guardian and partner in crime. Immerse in the Highlands.

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