We made that

I went up to the top garden on Friday to check on the hostas. The only benefit to having had 66 days without rain (the driest spring for over 100 years in this part of the country) is that the slugs and snails have been non-existent. We put out (home-made) slug traps in the third week of February, which attracted the over-wintered early spring ones (hundreds of them, and a mouse), and haven’t seen any evidence of their nasty destructive habits since. We used to use slug nemotodes, but they have become so expensive, and we would need so many packs to effectively cover the area of our garden, several times a year, that we had to find a better way.
As I turned round to go back to the house I suddenly noticed how the spring flowers had come out this week.

“Ooooh!” I thought as I looked at the display. “We made that!”
A great feeling of achievement, finally back to where we were down south about 10 years ago (when we were at Peak Garden, before local development aorund there took the joy out of everything).

And for not very much: a lot of plants from cuttings or divisions from our garden down south, a lot of plants bought very cheaply at local village plant sales or from roadside stalls, some grown from seed and some grown on from small plantlets bought cheaply from online commercial companies. Oh, and a lot of nurturing, largely by Mr BW, who actually likes weeding.

To further our future-proofing plans, after a lot of research, we have bought a ride-on mower for the orchard/meadow. Last summer it was taking me 4 hours every week to cut just the paths with a powered petrol mower, and Mr BW 4 knackering days (on and off) to cut the lot down with a petrol strimmer and then remove the strimmings in late summer (as you need to do with a meadow). I can’t manage to mow for 4 hours every week any more, and there are plenty of other things Mr BW can do with 4 days.
Plus, Vroom Vroom can do the job much better than I ever did, in 28 minutes flat, including getting out and putting away (and I’m getting quicker every time). Mr BW is not allowed to use Vroom Vroom as it is far too much fun.
Vroom Vroom can’t access the garden lawn, so we bought a Goat.
However, it proved impossible to train it or keep it under control, so it went back to The Long River. Let’s not even mention the saga that became, but it did involve a Section 75 intervention.
As the technology clearly isn’t quite there for our upper lawn needs yet, I decided that we would reduce the garden lawn area. This is the third time this border has been extended (it’s never been quite right anyway), and, given the grow-through of what was once sheep-proof grass from when we originally made the border in 2020, and extended it two years later, we reluctantly decided that we needed to kill the grass with weedkiller before we started.
Mr BW sprayed in late evening, after our Buzzers, and other beneficial insects, were home for the night. We garden organically, using permaculture principles, and it grieves me very much to have to resort to chemicals. But, I guess it is all relative, given the horrors that the local farmers constantly spray on their food crops, by date rather than need.

In another week we will be able to remove the dead grass, add grit and compost to the expsoed soil, and then plant up. We have lots of perennials, grown from bare roots, to put in.

The weather at yesterday’s show turned out OK – just a couple of short light showers, but those who go regularly say that there were far fewer attendees. For a one-day agricultural show, with a usual attendance of around 20,000, this could be disasterous.
I spun up 420g of fleece in the day, which is a huge amount (the carded prepared batts filled a 42 litre trug), and talked to what seemed like hundreds of people (one of the stated aims of the group is public education), but could have been more or less. I just know that we got home at 5.23pm and I was fast asleep an hour later.

There were supposed to be 8 of us demonstrating, but one pulled out the day before due to her husband being unwell, so another also couldn’t attend as she couldn’t then get a lift. This left 6 of us, and, unbelievably, only two of us had brought anything to display, or indeed our traditional wooden sp1nning wheel5.
Only two of us were there demonstrating all day: the others seemed to spend their time wandering around and returning with carb-laden sauce-dripping handfuls of unnecessary calories that made me feel unwell just looking at them. As soon as one ‘snack’ was finished, they seemed to go off in search of the next. Each of them must have spent at least £40 in the day on over-priced and unhealthy food and drinks. Mind you, there seems to be a large plateful of some chocolate-based confection with green lumps (smarties?) in it, attempting to hide in the fridge, and I did not make it or indeed put it there.
This is what happens when events are just left to happen rather than be properly organised. I must sit on my hands and keep my mouth shut or I know I will end up with the show organiser role.
The pigs were in the next but one marquee. This isn’t a pig county, so there weren’t many, but there was a Middle White: my second favourite breed. I always think they resemmble a Large White that has had an argument with a wall:

There was finally rain here last night – enough to fill the smaller water butts where there is only one on a downpipe. It’s been intermittently showery today, but with sunshine in between. The rain has finished off the final tulips, but the alliums have taken over.