Spring time

This is a childhood memory of the garden at Orchards; the daffodils not yet in flower were late flowering 'pheasant eye' narcissus.  The large cherry on the left an early casualty to honey fungus which became rampant in the garden. In the immediate foreground heathers which Gay planted for low maintenance!
These were removed in the late 1970s and in the early 1990s Philip built two gravel terraces with wide steps to the lawn and more borders for a grey garden, later a grassery. On the lower terrace a long wooden bench was placed against a bank of early rhododendrons, with a view across a shady border down the vista.

A busy time for Arthur

This picture shows Arthur in the 1950s taking a break from his writing; cutting the grass around the sea of daffodils which were planted on the south facing slope at Orchards.  Arthur and Gay planted all the daffodils in the garden in the early 1930s for the cut flower market except for the few native daffodils struggling in the scrubland that was evident when they purchased the land.  Note the small dark 'blob' - this Cryptomeria japonica Elegans Group - grew into a small colony - and became my one of my favourite trees.

I prefer handling photos

For the last week I've been going through numerous cd's - reminding myself - as if I needed to - of the beauty of Orchards.  The main structure of the mature trees further enhanced by the lush herbaceous planting introduced during our time there. How much nicer I think to curl up on the settee and browse these images at leisure rather than at a desk - staring intently at the photo and seeing if any improvement can be made to the light or contrast etc.

Oemleria  cerasiformis flowers in the background of the photo it has various common names; Oso Berry/Indian plum & Oregon plum.  An underrated plant with tiny insignificant bell-shaped flowers which fill the winter/spring garden with almond scent.

Editing the manuscript

I was told this is where the hard work starts and it's true.  Critiqued and encouraged by a professional writer who on the whole had nothing but praise for my writing; the errors found this morning after a dozen read throughs outloud and further editing by my husband Philip still reveals errors.  Which proves that we read a word as we want to read it!