A Word from Westyard

 The new orchard:  before & after (below)  It is highly satisfying, for me at least, to take a piece of rough waste ground that has let Mother Nature loose on it, and lick it in to shape.  I occasionally alarmed my hort. college colleagues with my voracious use of secateurs and pruning tools....this was in the days before my power tools!  Now....stand well back and watch. It took me just over three hours one Sunday afternoon. The Daddy hero had taken the small girl to a birthday party so I decided to head up to the area we have identified for a new orchard.  It is overrun with brambles, nettles and far too many Salix caprea that have run rampant (aka goat willow or pussy willow).  My trusty mower did the deed and together with a bit of hacking and slashing with my hedgetrimmer it has come up a treat.  I have now defined the edges and mown most of rough grass and nettles.  We can now invite the chainsaw in to remove the unwanted tree...

It is quite unfathomable that nearly six weeks have flown by since the last post.  But there again, when I download my photos to the black box for safe keeping and I edit thru, there's alot to look at! Bright & bold: spring Camelia And so here we are, nearly mid March.  I think my all time favourite photo of the moment is one posted on a well known social media website of a large suspension spring standing close to the edge of a building.  I got it straight away (brag-brag....) but it was a very bold statement cleverly depicted photographically.  I guess that is what this time of year is all about really - Spring is around the corner .  It is bold and bright and in your face.  The drab winter dullness is rapidly giving way to a multicoloured palette emerging from the ground.  For me it is exciting in the extreme.  Not only is this my first spring at Westyard, but it is only my second spring back in good 'ole blighty after an absence o...