With a few random bits and bobs to post about, it might not actually be seven but having posted something other than a Six on Saturday yesterday, Seven on Sunday has a certain ring to it!
Firstly, I would like to feature a close-up of ‘Rochester’, one of my eye-wateringly expensive witch hazels, flowering properly for the first time. The blooms are smaller than on some of the others, but do have a distinctly warm fragrance when you shove your nose into the shreds. Unlike cheaper witch hazels, the shrub has a more tree-like shape, so perhaps judicious grafting contributed to the cost.
A long overdue clearing of our lofts has kept me out of the garden for much of this last week, but seeking a new home for a knitting machine unused for over 20 years I came across a charity that refurbishes tools of all sorts (including knitting and sewing machines) and sends them to Africa to provide means of making a living. Some types of gardening tools are also on their wanted list, so today I have sorted out some duplicates to add to the growing pile of items to donate. The charity, for anyone interested, is Tools With A Mission (TWAM).
Emptying the last of 2020’s compost was a task I wanted to complete before the end of the year, and I was only a couple of days late; the Golfer can now dismantle the rotten framework and build a replacement, a job he willingly abandoned the loft to begin!
The recent relative warmth has meant Galanthus ‘Gabriel’ has fully opened, the drops bobbing about in the slightest movement of air:
Meanwhile, in the woodland the handful of ‘spare’ snowdrops I planted on a whim after discussion with some of my blogging friends early last year are doing really well, relishing, I think, the deep leaf litter they are planted in and furthering thoughts about relocating all of my specials here. Foolishly (and unusually), I didn’t make a note of the varieties planted here and, although all had been labelled, some of the labels have disappeared. All very odd, as the only cultivation that takes place here is the planting of bulbs. Hopefully, once they flower they will be more identifiable, especially if I check out which varieties I know I had spares of last year. In the meantime, I have had to pull out or cut back ivy which threatens to overrun the woodland, obscuring at the slightest opportunity the bark path alongside which these snowdrops have been planted.
Yesterday, I denied having any projects other than tweaking in mind, and moving all the specials would be a decision not taken lightly, whilst the future of a potentially empty border would require some planning, but the thought is certainly gathering pace in my mind, thereby potentially constituting a ‘project’. Similarly, there is a potential project involving one of the Anything Goes (aka Bold) borders, as I am pondering replanting it as a grass border…but that’s still just a thought, and a very vague one at that. Unlike the other two borders, which face south, this one gets much less sun, and most plants have never thrived:
Finally (and does this make seven?), I noticed today that buds on the stems of pink pussy willow Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’ I experimentally picked a couple of weeks ago are beginning to open…definitely worth waiting for!
Tools with a misson sounds great. Reas like you are getting ready for the go button
Yes, I am really pleased to have discovered them, Beverley
More of us should donate tools and useful items. Waste of resources is so discouraging.
Quite right, Tony, and more people are looking at recycling and upcycling these days, which is good
I tried to not get carried away on that topic. Hey, I did okay! I have a lot to gripe about in this regard, but not here.
Tools for Self Reliance also refurbish sewing machines (I am not sure about knitting machines) and garden tools. They, too, send the sewing machines to Africa and help locals earn from them but they also teach blacksmithing using waste car and lorry parts and import the tools which are made. They turn up at our local ‘Seedy Saturday’ with a stall and the Eco-shop in Cardigan stocks things they import. Because of the way they are made their trowels ansd hand forks never bend!
That’s really interesting to read, and it’s good to know there is something in Wales too as TWAM can only collect in England
That pussy willow is gorgeous
Yes, it’s really sweet, isn’t it? 👍
Oh ‘Rochester has delightful innards. Thanks for the link – our garage and loft both need a spring clean. Pleased to hear that your spare snowdrops have settled in and will be interested to hear what decision you come to about moving all your specials. Definitely a decision for much mulling over. I love the emerging pink fuziness on ‘Mount Aso’.
It’s certainly been liberating doing the clearing – although we are in an inbetween stage with some stuff out of the loft but still waiting to be taken elsewhere (we have done one skip trip), so the house itself is now cluttered! I am pretty sure the snowdrops will be on the move in due course…
Lovely to see your Rochester and beautiful Gabriel.. I get disheartened when snowdrop labels get moved about the garden or even disappear entirely. Mount Aso is early, but then everything is this year.
I keep a map of those in the snowdrop border, not completely accurate, but it does the job if labels disappear! It will not be as easy creating a map for the woodland if I move them all there!
Lovely post. Such a pretty pussy willow. And good to hear the snowdrops are spreading well. I believe squirrels like removing or moving labels around… my Mum has given up on labels altogether!
Squirrels moving labels – really? I wonder what they do with them…?! 😁