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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 little girl in a summer dress and hat stands in a shallow burn (beck, stream) by a bridge. She is smiling and striking a happy pose for the camera, her hands in the air.
Crowditch

Mess Jungle Feral

by Lydia June 6, 2023

Resurfacing after a mad two months, half of which hasn’t been spent at home. Catching up with messages and somehow wondering how Elfi is six months already this week.

Current status: the house is a mess, the garden’s a jungle, and the children are feral.

June 6, 2023
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QuotesThoughts

Back to Front

by Lydia February 7, 2023

There is also a curious aspect I hadn’t thought of – that of writing facing the front of the house again. Our bedroom faces south, to the back garden – I am now adjacent to the north-facing window looking out onto the front garden. And, suddenly, there is a strange mental shift to being part of our village facing the front rather than the back.

Notebook, Lydia Crow, 7th January 2023
February 7, 2023
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A close-up of an oak tree, some leaves green, some russet - and all the colours in between.
Crowditch

Autumn Leaves

by Lydia October 25, 2022

There is something very satisfying about raking leaves. I always absentmindedly find myself humming Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “This Shirt”, and repeating lines from “A Song of Sherwood” by Alfred Noyes (even if most of the poem is out of season right now).

Oberon, Oberon, rake away the gold,
Rake away the red leaves, roll away the mould,
Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red,
And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.

The pears and plums were the first to fall (only a hardy few hanging on), followed by the apples (half down to date). The larger cherry is turning yellow from the inside out, and falling oh-so-slowly. Only two or three have fallen so far from Osa’s Oak, though the colours are stunning.

A close-up of an oak tree, some leaves green, some russet - and all the colours in between.

October 25, 2022
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A garden, with fog drawing in from beyond the fence. It's clearly a wet morning, and the trees in the garden are either bare or have leaves turning yellow.
Crowditch

A Misty, Moisty Day

by Lydia October 21, 2022

I am sure that I picked up the phrase “misty, moisty mornings” from Susan Hill’s “Through the Kitchen Window” many, many moons ago. She was describing those autumn days with mushroom blooming everywhere. It seems fitting for today.

A garden, with fog drawing in from beyond the fence. It's clearly a wet morning, and the trees in the garden are either bare or have leaves turning yellow.
October 21, 2022
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A trug of freshly picked apples sits on a table in a sunny garden.
Crowditch

A Trug-full of Apples

by Lydia October 11, 2022

We’ve had an excellent harvest from our apple trees this year. I’m still frantically trying to figure out what to do with them all.

A trug of freshly picked apples sits on a table in a sunny garden.
October 11, 2022
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A back garden, looking over onto a Village Hall carpark, a house, and woods beyond. There are striking clouds in the sky, and a pinkish light filters everywhere.
Crowditch

Morning Sky

by Lydia October 9, 2022

There was a stunning sky this morning, as the others slept. A beautiful pink light filtered in between blinds and curtains.

A back garden, looking over onto a Village Hall carpark, a house, and woods beyond. There are striking clouds in the sky, and a pinkish light filters everywhere.
October 9, 2022
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Two little hands reach up to pull down a red apple from an apple-tree.
Crowditch

Apple-Picking

by Lydia September 10, 2022

Apple-picking season has begun!

Two little hands reach up to pull down a red apple from an apple-tree.
September 10, 2022
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A cottage garden. Yellow, white and orange flowers in the foreground are lit by the early morning sun shining through the trees in the background.
Nature

Stempster Cottage Garden

by Lydia September 2, 2022

Early morning September sunshine in the cottage garden at Stempster.

A cottage garden. Yellow, white and orange flowers in the foreground are lit by the early morning sun shining through the trees in the background.
September 2, 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.

#ElmHunt #ElmWatch 2024 art Auri Autumn beach Black Isle books Caithness Christmas creativity dogs Elfi elm Euan fog food frost garden habits Highlands home house Lydia lyrics mushrooms news notebook Osa rain reading Scapa school Scotland seasons snow Stempster sun Tove Jansson trees walks weather woods writing

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