Permaculture gardens, handling grief and dancing swallows.

I have just returned home for an over night stay, then back on the road to Cornwall.

The view across the Torridge from Tapeley Park.

Tapeley House.

  Each August I return to Devon to celebrate my youngest daughters birthday, this year she would have been sixteen.

On this trip we decided to make a vist to Tapeley Park, it is situated on the old Bideford to Barnstaple road, at Yelland.

Their Permaculture Garden.

Perennial Vegetables

Unusual Edibles

 The house dates back to the 1310's, it is mentioned in the Doomsday book as Tapelia, Hector Christie the current owner and his family have been there since 1855.

Hector like so many of us, did not during his youth appreciate the beauty of his family home and inheritance, for a while he turned his back on society and lived a hippy lifestyle.





   With age and the dawning of responsibilty, he has now firmly taken the reigns of responsibilty and put Tapeley Park back on the tourist map.

Most of the hippies have now left, the house and Italian gardens are well on their way to being restored, the walled kitchen garden is very productive and there is a fine adventure playground in the woods for younger children to discover whilst on a walk through the woods.

The Herbalist

Organic gardening.

Compost and manure.

   Several of the outbuildings have been opened to the public showing the mixed history of the site, there is a cafe in part of the historic house, which has a patio with a spectacular vista of the italian gardens, looking down over the valley towards the lake


All of which were lovely.But not the reason for my trip, I had heard that as well as the restored kitchen garden, and a 'green house build' for less than £700, they had also trialed a permaculture garden, and I was very excited to see what it was like.


And in truth.......it was rather.......full.The garden is bordered by large trees, which rather than shading the plants seemed to enclose them in a sense of security. There were lots of little grass paths running through the garden and plants and fruit trees in every direction you looked. All the beds were mixed, except the soft fruit bushes which were covered in nets and shared with chickens.

The Forest Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild and crazy, but definately working, the garden was brimming with fruit,vegetables and a few flowers.

It was amazing to see so many plants growing together in each bed. My photo does not do the plants justice.
If you are at all intrested in permacultural garedning, it is definately worth a visit, it does reenforce any beliefs you may have that you can grow a huge diversity of plants in a relatively small area and grow enough to keep a large family and probably their neighbors.

On the 10th August we made  our way down to the 'Daisy' project to plant some trees and have a birthday picnic in honour of our Daisy.

GF BBQ

New hedging plants.

Some of last years.

Sisters sunbathing!

Silver Birch

Next years job.....clearing the stream.

saplings.

Water Iris

Last years water Iris, growing so well.

Luckily for the first time since her passing ,we had splendid weather for her birthday tea. After the planting had been done and we had eaten our birthday tea, we were able to sit back and watch the swallows dancing, it was truely spectacular and a very magical end to a very beautiful day.

The field is now full of wildlife, as we sat,there were too many butterflies to count and although the wild flowers in the meadow were pretty much passed, as you walked through the culm grasses you kept stumbling upon little floral beauties, a true treasure hunt.

I dont think I will ever get used to the sudden and shocking death of my baby, I know she was no longer a baby, but to me all my children are still my babies, what ever their age. But spending time away from the house doing something positive on her birthday does seem to help in some ways,  I was delighted to find the purple [Daisy's favorite colour] wind flower with a pink butterfly [Daisy also loved butterflies...which was the seed that lead to the Daisy project] at a small shop in Torrington just before we left for the feild. It felt so right. All in all , it was a near perfect day, and the swallows were the icing on the cake.

The knitting too has progressed, I have now finished all the flowers for the top of the teacosy, leaves next followed by the cosy itself , more photos to follow .

New bathroom blinds and the 'garden' teacosy pattern reveal......

A day of rain is not to be wasted, as my husband set about decorating the bathroom, I thought I would quickly make up some new blinds, nice simple ones.

We dont really need curtains in our bathroom as we are not overlooked by anyone, but I do like to have some fabric at the window, bathrooms can with all the tiles seem rather cool rooms .

The room is being painted lilac and antique white, the tiles are white so I have had a look in my fabric cupboard and found a fabric with lilac flowers. The fabric is rather 'country' so I thought I would add a gingham trim. Ginham always looks fresh and I thought it would make the flowery fabric look a little less Country shabby chic and a little more modern.
 Next for the pelmet frame I have recycled some old skirting board, making them into an 'L' shape, this then enables me to screw in some old cuphooks which I will be able to hang the blinds from.

 I do love my staple gun, it is a fab tool and is always in use, I have stapled the pelmet fabric to the top of the wooden pelmet, once this has been screwed up the pelmet will then hang over the front covering my old  skirting board.

 To hold the blind stiff to the width of the window , I insert a peice of dowel top and bottom.

On the back of the blind I have stitched curtain rings 8" apart so I can thread a ribbon through, when the ribbon is pulled up it will gather the blind to the desired length.

Then I tie the ribbon off in a big bow.

Next the pelmets are screwed in place and the blinds are hung, they can easily be altered to the desired length, and when you want them dropped, just undo the bows.

And now to my 'garden teacosy', my next knitting project which I have just got ready for my holiday.

The pattern book.

The pattern.

My choosen wools.

 And now am off to find a few other little projects to take too , just incase of wet weather !.

Sad loss and new creations

I woke up nice and early yesterday morning after a good sleep, but was too warm to linger in bed, so thought I would creep down to the kitchen and put the kettle on for an early brew and let the dogs out for their own early morning needs.

As I passed the kettle I flicked the switch, stepped over one dog and leant over the other to turn the key in the back door.As the door swung open, no one ran out, Oscar just stood at my side and looked down the garden path, Jake did not stir, I called him, no response and as I looked down at him it dawned on me that today he would not be running out into the garden for his early morning bladder release. He had passed away in the night, one can assume gently and hopefully quickly, he looked like he was grinning to himself, peacefully dreaming, I guess we would all wish for that.

He died as he lived, quietly ,peacefully and unassuming. He was gifted to us quite late in his life, he had had several happy homes before ours I believe, he came to us not long after my daughters death and was a huge comfort to me, he was very soft and gentle, and knowing.......I will miss him very much, he loved human company, I loved his.

Waiting for Santa

On an evening if I sat at the computor he would lay at my feet or if my armchair was empty of craft , he would curl himself into my chair and watch me type.He did like his comfort and would climb onto any available seat if he thought he could get away with it, I remember coming into the lounge last christmas to find him on the settee by the christmas tree, he looked like he was waiting for santa, I hope that he has found lots of long grass to run in and a big feather cushion to sleep on, bless him.

So once all the formalities had been dealt with, I had to keep busy. So into the basket I went, and found some small balls of wool, and I set about doing something nice and fiddly to keep my hands and mind busy.

These are the results , four sweaters for eggs, I thought they were amusing enough to humour me, whilst useful enough to be used for egg warmers when required, I hope you like.

Today has been a productive day, first I went off to get a few more frames, I have been updating my rogues gallery of my children, family and friends. Once home the weather was far too nice to spend indoors, and so I set about weeding my flower pots, collecting all the saplings which had taken in the bed and potting them into one large pot ready for transporting to our Daisy project in Devon next week.

Heavily flowering rose arch.

So scented.

Since my daughters death evey year we have a picnic to celebrate her birthday, we go down to Devon to a peice of land my father bought which we call the 'Daisy project', each year we plant trees in memory of those we have loved and lost, it is a small nature reserve, it has a woodland area and some rare culm grasses,it is a haven for butterflies and other native creatures, its very peaceful and rather beautiful.......

Berkley blueberries for dessert.

The most astonishing discovery was that my blueberry bush is still fruiting, I ate it bare last time I was gardening, unyet today I had enough for dessert, mother nature is wonderous.

All ready for planting up.

I hear it is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I think I will be using my new frames and getting my wools etc ready for my holiday, but who knows what tomorrow will hold.......

weddings,vintage outfits and knitting baskets.....

Bride and some of the bridesmaids.

On Saturday we were very priviledged to be guests at our neices wedding, and what a perfect day to have a wedding, warm with a gentle breeze, not too much cloud and no rain. The wedding took place at a large house in South Glos, the bride and bridesmaids arrived in a VW camper.

The ceremony was lovelly, with lots of personal touches, there were alot of 'home made' and crafty ideas to be seen, I thought the use of the tiered cake baskets as confetti cone stands as inspirational.My sister inlaw had worked long into the previous night making up the bouquets, the table centre peices and not forgetting the button holes, a wonderful job was done.

The creative use of my cakestands as confetti cone holders.

Vintage handbag with homemade corsage and antiquecrochet gloves.

All in shades of pink and lilac.

I eventually had decided on my outfit, I went for a Raspberry linen/silk mix dress, with an old favorite cream feather hat, a vintage handbag,satin shoes and a pair of antique cream crochet gloves.

The table plan.

My eldest daughter was one of the bridesmaids and she made the seating planner which stood on an easel at the entrance to the dining-room.After all the ceremonies had been completed those that didnt fancy a game of croquet or a stroll around the gardens could be found sat on the terrace taking in the lovelly views of the country side, it was just perfect.

And finally the beatiful views over open countryside.

This evening I have decided to empty out my knitting basket, as I knew there were several items waiting to be finished off.It would seem I had got as far as the sewing up, but not got around to the buttons, bows and ribbons, so I think I shall have to remedy that.

Baby knits waiting for buttons.

I find its all too easy to move onto the next project when I have found the next perfect pattern. Over the last few years I have managed to make quite a collection of knitting patterns from the 1930's plus, which when knitted up in the supersoft baby cottons available today, make the most perfect new baby gifts.And so now I am off to my button cupboard to see what little gems I have squirreled away ready for outfit completion......