Spring has sprung

Instructions on potatoes:  "Plant when the risk of frost is past".  Yes well that could be the end of April!!

Planted them yesterday, frost last night.  Oh well what the heck they'll be fine.

I also cleared out the greenhouse, which is only 6 x 4 and had become a repository for all sorts of stuff over the last two years.  So I have the staging back in a useable state, and a wee tomato plant in there now.

Spring is here!

Sunbathing on Easter Weekend...?

Today I feel that I have been extremely lazy. This is based on the fact that I spent a large number of hours sitting on my sun lounger in the garden reading 'Atonement', drinking tea and watching the birds going about their business.

Normally this would be virtually impossible for me to achieve. I would end up weeding or doing other chores that need doing, and not being able to sit still. But since I had all those months sitting around unable to do things, I am much better at it now.

Django did much the same, except that he slept in various sunny/shady places around the garden instead of reading a book.

We were out walking at 7.15am up on the Forest this morning, and then I walked into town to the market for a few things, so I wasn't a complete slob.  And now it's shady so I have my chores to do - watering the vegetable patch.

Walking in the evening light

I love springtime because I have time to take Django for a proper walk after work, now that it's not getting dark until 6.30-ish.

Usually we go on foot down to the fields because it's easy, but tonight I drove down to the sea for a sunlit stroll around the marshes. Here are some photos for you to join us...

There are few better ways to wind down from work.

When I got home I logged onto the computer to print out some study stuff to read through, and discovered the mark for my TMA4 ready to collect.  82% which is my highest this year - I'm really pleased because I worked extra hard on that essay determined to get a higher mark and over 80%.

There are only two more to go: the qualitative report I'm working on at the moment, and a final essay.  Then it's all revision time until the exam on June 14th...

Enclosed walking and a brief history lesson!

Today Django and I went out for a walk to somewhere we don't normally go, a wooded area called Wilverley Enclosure.  The reason we don't normally go there is because it's very popular and the car park is always packed; we prefer places that are a little more exclusive.   However, today I went out without a coat and it just started spitting with rain as I was driving across the Forest so I decided woods would be a good plan. 

For those of you who get confused with talk of going 'across' the Forest and much of it not having any trees on it, here is an excerpt from a short history of the New Forest:

"Once established [in England, after the Battle of Hastings 1066], the new King William I began introducing his influence over the land and had created areas of land throughout the country that would be used as his personal deer and wild boar hunting grounds, a favourite royal pastime as well as ensuring a continued supply of fresh meat to the newly established Crown.  The southernmost of these areas, by all accounts, was one of the most frequented and enjoyed by King William and his men.

This particular area of land was designated and named as the New Forest, in the year 1079.

It's important to note though, that the word 'Forest' in this context doesn't reflect the usual meaning of the word. In this case, 'Forest' was used to describe an area of land that had been 'afforested' (purchased under law) and designated as land to be used for royal privileges, ie hunting. 
The name, New Forest, is a direct translation from the Norman Nova Foresta."

Much of the New Forest is open heathland, but there are 84 sq km of Enclosures (or Inclosures). These are fenced off areas designated for growing trees for timber supply, including for the building of naval ships in the 18th C when the first Enclosures were created. The fencing was needed because of the number of animals that live wild in the Forest, who undoubtedly would be happy to nosh down on sweet little seedlings.

The 'greens' that I sometimes mention were, I believe, originally cleared for cultivation but I don't think were very fruitful.  Many of those that were all grass when I was young are rapidly being taken over by heathers now, so it would be interesting to see what the landscape looked like 1000 years ago when the Normans first arrived. 

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The main track around Wilverley Enclosure is a very dull, gravel tourist track with waymarked walking and cycling trails.  However, for those brave enough to leave those, there are much more pleasant sandy and grassy trails through the trees which are much kinder to the feet, and more interesting.  Thanks to my trusty GPS we managed to have a 3 mile walk walk zig zagging and twisting around with the minimum time spent on gravel tracks, and get back to the right car park rather than end up on one the other side of the woods!

So, today's training was a very neat 3 mile, 1 hour, 3mph walk with a bit of meandering and looking at the larches sprouting new fronds. Spring-a-ding-ding, indeed.

  

The contrasts of Spring

Training 2
Location: Hinchelsea and Longslade Bottom
Miles: 2.64
Time: 50 mins
Average speed: 3.1 mph
Terrain: X-country

After a reasonably sunny week, Friday was a miserable, wet, cold in-your-bones day but the evening cleared to a beautiful full-moonlit night and a sky sparking with stars.  It gave me that feeling of wanting to run naked round the garden, but I didn't.

This morning dawned cloudless and frosty, but the sun coming up over the houses had warmth in it.  I had arranged to go and see a friend who was house-sitting and looking after horses at a farm out on the edge of the Forest, so I took expensive biscuits and we sat in the garden drinking tea, and chatted to a couple of the horses. 

It was a day that insisted on me being out of doors, there was no way it was going to allow me to be inside studying all day, so after leaving my friend to the stables' mucking-out I went and picked up Django and we headed out for a walk.   I didn't intend it to be 2-greens long, it just ended up that way. We walked up on the sandy path through the heather, through the woods and back along the greens. By this time it was midday and warmed up nicely, I had stripped off my fleece and Django needed a drink-stop at the 'oasis'.

So, I ended up doing almost an hour's walk, which made up for the fact that I skipped cycling to work yesterday because of the freezing cold rain.... That's the thing about springtime, you never know what you're going to pull out of the Weather Bag.

Spring, spring, spring!

For all you doubters ;-)  Spring is definitely to coming to us here in the South of England.  Here are some photos of the new life...

Bluebells

Snowdrops

Narcissi

Snowdrops

Clematis (I thought this one might be dead, it was its first winter)

Clematis

Holly (self-seeded)

Laburnum