Bog Garden Revisited and New Carnivorous Plant Garden

 Back in 2020, we made our very own bog garden from a discarded water closet following a bathroom upgrade. The pitcher plants thrived and produced several flowers...The original and genuine bog gardenAs chance would have it, another lavatory became available when we had our guest bathroom...

First Garden Strawberries (2022)

 First strawberries from the garden in 2022 and a full month before the Wimbledon Championships. Mind you, the weather is cool wet and windy at the moment and not suitable for tennis or butterflies.   First Strawberry Crop (2022)I find strawberries easy to grow but we never seem...

More Rubbish and a Response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) Request

Last month, I wrote a post on one of my pet hates - lack of context when quoting numerical data. When, for example, mainstream media (MSM) and politicians give you the 'facts', they often leave out the necessary context required to decide whether the information is important or relevant. For example,...

View from the Rear Window - April 2022

 When you think of April, what comes to mind first? Is it, like us, April Showers? Well, maybe, we are going to have to rethink that one. Our weather station recorded just 10.2 mm rainfall for April 2022 and our rainwater water butts nearly ran dry.Perhaps we were unlucky (or lucky if you...

The Last Bluebell Blog of 2022

 Bluebells covering the slopes of the Malverns - 8/5/22This is definitely the last post this year about bluebells. It has been a spectacularly good year though; as it was for wild daffodils. The bluebells were prolific at Lea & Paget's Wood and we caught a glimpse of their splendour...

Future of Apple Orchards?

Not having enough gardens and gardening at the Malvern Spring Show, we attended the Putley Open Gardens event on the following day (Sunday 8th May). We've been a couple of times in the past but not for a few years. Most of the gardens were the same but there were a couple of new ones. In any case, it's...

RHS Malvern Spring Show and more Bluebells

 Yesterday, we decided to visit the RHS Malvern Spring Show today (Saturday 7th May) at the Three Counties Showground near Malvern. Buying the tickets in advance saves time queuing at the gates although by the time we belatedly arrived (2.30 pm) there were no queues! The event shuts at 6 pm so...

Lea & Paget's Wood - Herefordshire Nature Reserve

 During our recent visit to Common Hill Nature Reserve on 24th April, we took a small detour to Lea & Paget's Wood. This nature reserve, in the care of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, is described as "one of the finest, ancient, semi-natural broad-leaved woodlands in the Wye Valley...