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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 child, wrapped up in coat, hat, scarf and gloves, kneels in the Spring sunshine blowing bubbles.
Crowditch

Springing and Sprunging

by Lydia March 27, 2023

Despite the fact there was snow yesterday, and an almost-frost on the ground this morning, I really do feel like Spring has Sprung. It’s here, I know it. Even the chill of the shade today couldn’t overpower the warmth of the sun.

March 27, 2023
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A decorated Christmas Tree with warm lights stands in a corner of a room. To the right is a table with a small Araucaria heterophylla and a hand-made snowman made from a glass jar and cotton wool, with a green knitted scarf and a paper top hat.
Crowditch

Croymas Has Begun!

by Lydia December 5, 2022

Scapa has just returned from her walk and, noticing I had a blanket ready to put over my knees on the settee once I’d settled down with my cup of tea, pointedly stood there staring at it and me until I ended up opening it out and lifting it up so she could curl up under the blanket herself. No room for me.

There was a thick frost on the ground this morning, and it still hasn’t entirely shifted as we step into the afternoon. We are due snow this week – Wednesday, apparently – which is all very exciting. Auri, who at nearly four entirely equates snow with Christmas-time for obvious reasons, can’t wait and keeps describing the snowball fights we’re going to have. There are a series of seasonal milestones that are all wonderfully jumbled up in her head right now: Pip being born; Tonton Neeps, Tatie Aurélie and Baby Cousin Ailsa arriving; Christmas; snow. There are probably more. I was trying to explain the concept of ‘Christmas-time’ as opposed to ‘Christmas Day’ to her this morning, when she asked why we already had our tree up if it wasn’t Christmas yet.

We bought our tree and decorated it on Friday. Auri chose it, and a grand job she did, too. Fortunately, Scapa has never been too interested in Christmas Trees other than sniffing them and paying attention to certain ornaments; unfortunately, she has no idea what her tail does at any given time, so there have been a handful of ornaments brought down already due to pre-walk excitement.

So, Croymas has certainly started! And it is a particularly special one this year. Crowmas will officially begin on the 23rd December, when we drive up to Stempster for a few nights. All in all, we have an exciting month ahead of us.

December 5, 2022
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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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