Inspiration for Block One

Lock down has made a lot of changes to people’s lives around the world and we are very fortunate that none of our family have suffered any ill effects from the Corona virus. In fact, the bubble of calm was heaven as I spend time with my husband in our beautiful garden and a welcomed release from a very active year. 

I deliberately did not cut back an ivy on my fence this year as Monty Don told me “it’s perfect for a gardens wildlife” and wow, was he right! It has harbored two nests, one of a wren and the other a black bird.  We watched and heard these two nurture their brood as the babies fledged. The wren’s babies stayed a while and were like fluffy balls of wool bobbing around my garden. The bird song was unbelievable especially the song thrush who sits atop of my workshop each evening. In just one week I counted five common blue butterflies, flitting about. What is this all about, did I not have the time to stop to look and listen before?

I love to grow a few seeds here and there in my beloved greenhouse, I’m a bit hit and miss but nurtured an old packet of sweet peas I found These sweet peas were feed watered tied in, de-twizzled and loved. As I draw this block they are coming into bloom, huge long stems, big pink fluffy flowers but not much scent! Such a shame, perhaps it was a pack from a magazine whose flowers were bred to be straight and large. Give me a tangled mess of purples and blues, short stemmed and fragrant any day! 

The highlight of our month has been our allotment that my grandson and I have nurtured on alternate days, social distancing of course. I found a large wooden reel that I was going to use as a table but a great tit decided to make a nest in it and lay five beautiful eggs. We watched them being fed and grow and fledge. A lovely treat for us both to share in this lockdown, so that Great Tit, makes an appearance on our block.  To top off the block, our long and winding street celebrated VE Day by making bunting by the mile and picnicking in our front gardens, it was a magical day and we met many neighbours that we hardly knew. 

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