Boris Becka and a Fig tree.

Our friends Lesley and Paul came to stay over the weekend and they brought us a present a fig tree Ficus carica 'Black necked lady' which I have planted in a nice spot sheltered from the northwind and with a good sunny view to the south. I have made sure that I have restricted the roots as I have been advised that this will help promote fruiting.

One of the reasons they came to visit was to leave their dog with us while they have some building work done. As regular readers will know, and indeed some have met we have Boris a Ridgeback Mastiff cross, well lesley and Paul liked him so much they got Becka a female Ridgeback and as you can see she has settled in well.

What you can't see in the photo is Sharron who was trying to eat at the time so this is their 'What about me? I am a poor starving dog' pose. Oh and yes I did feel a right idiot when we took them for a walk last evening shouting "here Boris Becka' !

Gary's 100th Post and Village in Bloom result.

I am amazed to find that this is my 100th post on this blog as as it is I want to say thank you to all of you who have been reading it and giving me feedback, I love reading your comments. Those of you who read it and don't leave comments, please don't be shy and say hello.

There are also some people I want to say a special thank you too, first Sharron who puts up with me doing this and enjoys pointing out my speeling mistooks. Out there in the blogosphere there are some fellow bloggers who deserve a mention. Firsty Victoria at Victoria's Backyard who has been really supportive since I started, next I must thank Lucy at Pictures Just Pictures whose outstanding photographs have inspired me to work much harder on my own. I also want to thank Esther at Esthers boring garden blog for being anything but boring and for making me think and laugh, finally I want to thank VP at Vegplotting for the inspiration and feedback. I also want to say thank you to all the members of Blotanical for your support.


Now the big news the village won a Silver Gilt in the best small village section of Anglia in Bloom. Congratulations to everyone in the village reading this for all your efforts.

Kamikaze Dog visits Norfolk

As you can see from the photo autumn is upon us and the leaves are turning. I have prepared a bed to put my garlic in and will be going out today to get some materials for a landscaping project we have planned.

Anyway the story of the kamikaze dog. We spent the weekend up on the North Norfolk coast staying in a lovely hotel, The Lifeboat in Thornham, which not only serves wonderful food but also allows dogs to stay. On saturday we decided to do the cliff top walk from Weybourne to Sherringham a distance of about 3 miles. After about 400yards we watched in horror as the rear end of Boris vanished over the edge of the cliff. Scared stiff as to what we would find when we looked over the edge, we saw daft dog 6o feet below us down a near vertical cliff standing on the beach looking up at us tail wagging. There was of course no way I could get down there and equally no way he could get back up. So i had to walk all the way back to the start of the walk and along the beach to get him. The damage, a tiny cut over his eye, we assume he must have rolled onto the beach or hit something on the way down? Needless to say he stayed on the lead for the rest of the day!

I am sorry there are no photographs of the stunning Norfolk coastline with this update but I have been using my analogue camera (film, remember that?) for the last few weeks. Partly because I love using it, it's a Leica M6 probably one of the finest cameras ever made and also because I makes you think about what you are taking. I felt I needed to get back to basics for a bit.

Whilst we were in Norfolk I visited several galleries to look at local landscape photographers work, the quality of some of it is outstanding (see www.bringingtheoutsidein.co.uk ) I am already planning some winter photographic trips up ther.

Driving into the 19th Century and the Marrow contest-results

It was quite funny that on Saturday someone said to me that one of the problems with our village was that a few of the residents are still living in the past. Well it is official that at least transport in the village has finally entered the 19th century!






This fantastic old Traction engine came trundling down the lane yesterday lunchtime. The driver was looking for a fire hydrant as the old lady (they are always female apparently) was very thirsty. I did think about asking about it's carbon footprint, I am sure that it is worse than most 4x4's.

On Friday night we had our village pub night and the judging of the marrow contest. At the beginning of the year we gave out marrow seeds to all the villagers as part of the 'In Bloom" competition. We had no idea what the take up would be and were quite pleased with the turnout. My entry is the one at the far end which came 2nd to the one next to it. Mine weighed in at 7.6kg loosing by about 0.5kg.




Anyway, I am already planning tactics for next year, it involves a lot of manure.

Why I was awake at 4am this morning.

As regular readers of this blog will know I live in a lovely quiet little village in Cambridgeshire. We moved here from London a few years ago partly to escape the noise etc. Anyway twice now in the last couple of weeks I have been woken up at 4 am by a racket outside the bedroom window. The culprit, a Tawny owl sitting on the telephone pole outside the window calling to it's mate. Last night was actually worse because it's mate was in the tree opposite, owls in stereo .... wonderful!

Of course whenever I go out around here to try and watch Tawnys in the wild I can never find them. So I am going to start sleeping with my camera next to the bed so I am ready for them next time.

Tawny Owl

Verbena and Large white

Over the last few weeks my Verbena has been a favourite food source for Large white butterflies Pieris brassicae. This year I netted all my brassicas so I don't throw a fit and start swearing every time one flies into the garden, I can relax and just enjoy their beauty. Agreed they don't have the same impact as a Painted lady or my favourite, the Comma, but they are easier to watch as they do their dancing, courtship flight over the flower beds then fly off to lay their eggs on someone else's cabbages!
The flower clusters of the Verbena (Verbena bonariensis) almost glow as the sway above the other plants in the flowerbed and must appear as beacons to foraging insects.

I finally cleared enough space in the veg patch over the weekend to plant my leeks, hopefully not to late. I have been bringing them on in trays and they all had a massive root structure when I transplanted them so hopefully they will take quickly.