Sarah

April in Oxfordshire

The weather here has been true old-fashioned ‘sunshine and showers’…. real April weather.
I have been trying to dodge it over the weekend, attempting to plant a box hedge without being battered by the sting of hail.

I took this through the rain, as it fell, lit up by sunshine.

It gave the garden a surreal, scattered with diamonds look. At the back of the house, the sky was a deep purple – grey, like a mulberry stain, lit up by a faint rainbow.

March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.

A Walk in the Park

The spring weather is now cooler, blustery and bright.
After a day spent largely in the garden I met a friend for a walk in the park – Blenheim Park, about 6pm. Most of the tourists had gone home.

Continue reading “A Walk in the Park”

The cherry blossom

It may not last long, especially as the weather will be cold and there’s a fair wind, but the cherry blossom is looking wonderful. This evening as the sun went down it looked beautiful against the yew hedge, with the sun shining through it.

I grew up about 80 miles north of here and the cherry blossom in our garden used always to be out for my brother’s birthday in early May… are we really a few weeks ahead these days?

A Grand Day Out

Cold and wet with a blustery wind: that’s what we woke to this morning. The forecast did not suggest any improvement for the rest of the day.
After that lovely spell of hot Spring weather a week or so ago, we have returned to normal Easter Bank Holiday weather, here in Oxfordshire.

What to do?
With two boys disinclined to join in (understandably as both have major exams in the coming Summer term, and both need to revise) we three adults, Cyclomaniac, his mother (Milly) and me, decided to visit a National Trust property.

We are members of The National Trust and as such pay an annual fee and receive in return a regular newsletter, a handbook and free entry to many properties around the UK. Some of them quite spectacular.

Today’s trip was to Claydon House in Buckinghamshire, only about a half an hours drive away. The house is managed by the National Trust, but the gardens, grounds and other aspects are still in the hands of the Verney family, who live in a wing of the house.

After wandering around the outbuildings where we found arty shops and galleries, plus the cafe for a quick lunch we considered the garden tour, but given the biting wind and the earliness of the season, we decided to come back to investigate another time. We went next to a small bookshop… second-hand books in a warm snug room, with comfy chairs and several families enjoying the books. It was completely unmanned, and to pay there was a small posting slot in a door. All done on trust at the National Trust!
We came away with garden books, novels, a hardback copy of AA Milne’s ‘When we were Six’ and spent about £15 in all!

Next the house. Continue reading “A Grand Day Out”

Magnificent morning

Good Friday and no work. No need to get up early. So why did I wake at 6:30 and find it impossible to get back to sleep? Typical.

Anyhoo because of the early morning and the lack of anyone else being up I had an hour of two of solitude and saw the sun side-lighting the magnolia against the backdrop of new silver birch leaves which was something special.

I nipped out in my slippers to snap it and noticed a few degrees of frost… the top of my car was white, across the driveway. However the magnolia seems to have been spared, perhaps in part due to the place I planted it, fairly close to the house, in the more sheltered front garden, rather than in the wind exposed back garden. I noticed several creamy white magnolias with browned flowers as we travelled about the county today.

The early promise of a beautiful day faded to grey skies and a cold wind. Who knows what tomorrow brings?

CRIKEY! Judging now completed….. short story competition

This is difficult.

I have just read the two entries for the creative writing competition and find I’m completely stuck: I can’t make the decision.

Both Ara and Bilby have written stories that carried me forward, making me want to read on. Each story is so very different and that makes it harder still!

Ara’s story made me feel so sad for all boys sent out to boarding school at such a young age, especially as I am currently reading Andrew Motion’s memoir of childhood (In the Blood) which details the horrors of his schooling before common entrance. Her blending of the scary fearsome tiger into AA Milne’s Tigger at the end made me smile.

Bilby’s story of an evil man looking for a way out of a relationship is chilling – in that it could really happen! This man, an opportunist,emotionally cruel, and completely ego-centric, is caught out while the girl is saved by the skin of her teeth. Interesting stuff.

I’m going out into the garden where the frost has now lifted.

I may be gone sometime. By the time I come back in I shall have made a decision 🙂

I shall add it to the comments

Frost and sunshine

Today was beautifully lit by Spring sunlight which quickly melted through the sharp frost which had whitened the grass.

This afternoon I went into Oxford, stopping on the way to pick some pussy-willow on an impulse as they caught my eye, back-lit in the lane.

I parked in St Giles and walked into town which looked wonderful.

Here the forsythia simply glows with the light. I wonder if the cyclist realised the colour match when parking? Continue reading “Frost and sunshine”

The magnolia’s nearly out

Yesterday was so warm after lunch.
There is so much to do in the garden.
I should really have been out there weeding and seeding. Instead I sat in the recliner and listened to a rather good play on the radio then read for a while, before a long walk with a friend and her excitable lab. All wonderful in the beautiful Spring sunshine!

I thought I’d better make the most of it all, just in case these few days will be our ‘early Summer.’

Euphorbia

Continue reading “The magnolia’s nearly out”

Reminder – short story competition

A story of up to 2000 words in length, to be submitted by March 30th please, by mid-night, as a post on your own page, with a link to the comments here–

and to include the following words

penknife

string

milk shake.

If you wish use the prompts to get your story, but you don’t have to!

No entries so far….

Signs of Spring again

It’s an every day, ordinary drop of rain water on the hairy leaf of a common-all-garden lupin leaf, but it caught my eye, glistening in the light.

Lots of gardening today, but the sky was overcast, so that my solar-powered radio failed me and I had to collect the old battery-powered one from the bedside! Weeding and ‘Weekend Womens’ Hour’ and an occasional cuppa. Better than shopping any day.

Now that a lot of the winter debris has been cleared the flower beds look a lot more Springlike.