Garden
North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project
The beautiful Turtle Dove is our smallest European dove. This tiny power house of a bird flies 7000 miles to reach North Yorkshire from Mali in Africa each spring. Unfortunately Turtle Doves are in big trouble; their population has declined in both the UK and Europe to such an extent there may now […]
Sun’s Time
We lost an hour, and then nearly another putting all the clocks, timers and dials to the right spot. It is a funny shift we’ve imposed on ourselves! It does however seem to have brought much needed sunshine and a bit of warmth. I’ve carved this little stone sundial in a simple column shape, […]
Spring Welcome
Yesterday it said on my calendar Spring Begins – hurrah! Happy Springtime everyone
Cadeby Stem Vase
I’m going ahead anyway with thoughts of spring – it has turned distinctly cold with bitter wind here after half a day of warming sunshine earlier in the week. Birdsong encourages my belief that the seasons are shifting! I’ve been making some Cadeby vases, so at least some uplifting spring stems can be brought […]
A pot for a baby Pilea
I’ve just bought myself one of these sweet little plants – its a Pilea Peperomioides (or you may know it by its other names Chinese Money Plant, or Pancake Plant). It has rather squishy, rubbery leaves, growing on vigorous plump stems. Here it is in one of my stone pots. It is going join […]
The Yews are filled with birds
I’ve just watched Goldcrest, but Blackbirds, Thrushes, Fieldfare and Greenfinches are turning up too. They’re stripping the Yew Tree of its fruits. Unlike many conifers, the common yew does not actually bear its seeds in a cone. Instead each seed is enclosed in a red, fleshy, berry-like structure known as an aril, which is […]
Oaks and Acorns
About this time last year I collected acorns, eight in total, and planted them in pots. For a number of reasons, along with natural withering and rot, I let two dry out during the summer beyond saving, and the geese nibbled three which didn’t survive, I have only two oak saplings left. They’re doing […]
Abundance in Red
Already my geese have scrumped all the apples from the lower branches, and are very good as a team – one pulling at the leaves and twiggy ends, the other two jumping up to reach the apples. The riper the apples get, the easier this is for them, as a knock or nudge with […]
Common Red and Golden Ringed
The summer heat over the weekend brought out a mass of insects at the workshop – my bramble full of butterflies and bees and the grass stems alive with flying and crawling things. A dragonfly bumped into me – I was startled as it hit me quite hard on the head, followed by […]
Sculpture in the Garden – a map
This afternoon I’ve been putting together a map, showing the locations of my sculpture in the garden – so if you’re visiting Nunnington Hall you won’t miss any! Just as I finished I got a call from a lady to say she’d been round the garden today and loved her visit, especially coming across […]