Time flies when you're having...fun?

I wouldn't call this year fun. It hasn't been bad, just busy. With interludes of fun. I don't suppose it helped that building work began on our extension in the darkest days of winter. That there have been days of mud and noise and disruption. Frozen fingers, endless cups of coffee, and more questions for the architect than I ever thought possible.

I am, however, maintaining my zen. The hens are laying again. The dogs get on well with the builders. The spring bulbs are out and the sun is shining.

Mr B ran the Marrakech marathon in a personal best time. We stole away for a few days of couple-time in Dubai. We have managed a family crisis, a serious bout of man-flu and a dramatic visit to the vet for two excitable Boxer dogs.

We have made time for friends and family. Going out with friends gives us a break from talking about the building work! And soon, we will be able to have friends round to our home, not to a building site.

The work we do for the ICDC Surrey support group is taking up quite a bit of time, as we prepare for the annual education day. Despite repeated requests for volunteers, maintaining the website and social media still falls to me, and I worry that I'm not doing enough.

The practice is still evolving and demands my attention on most days. Happily, our secretary is settled in her new home and so calm has been restored. Thank goodness the patients are so understanding.

My own work is taking a back seat. No writing for some time, and certainly no networking or business planning. Even my hobbies have been neglected. Very little photography, painting or sculpting.

The recent spring-like weather has prompted me to sort out the solar lights for the garden, and these do cheer me up, even if I don't have much time to garden. I have been looking after my compost heaps over the winter and I can't wait to use the lovely rich compost for my tender spring garden.

I'm getting ahead of myself. There is a bit of winter yet to come. So I'll light the fire and snuggle down with the Boxer dogs. That'll be fun.

See my dog blog at Surrey Life.

See my travel reviews.

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

Spring in Shackleford

Leaving behind spring in Shackleford for a week, we travelled to Copenhagen.

The marathon has loomed on our horizon since the end of January. I never know exactly how the training will go, but as marathon day gets closer, I can see the readiness in Mr B. He is already rather tall and skinny, and the training makes him leaner and more intense. He is very focused. The arrangements are left to me. He doesn't want to know the minutia. So the pressure is on, to make sure that everything is organised and as trouble-free as possible.

I chose the destination for the spring marathon this year - Copenhagen. If my Mother had been alive, she would have sung 'Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen' over and over again. She saw the Hans Christian Andersen movie in 1952, starring Danny Kaye, and the theme tune never left her. Nor did the wonder of seeing The Little Mermaid, when she travelled Europe as a young woman. She might be disappointed to hear that my favourite memory of Copenhagen will not be the tiny statue. My lasting memory will be beautiful parks and gardens, friendly people, stunning food and elegant design.

Do you agree with my choice of (some of) my favourite views of Copenhagen, from one week in spring 2014?

TripAdvisor reviews here.

Stylish street lighting

Sunset reflections

Spring in Tivoli Gardens

Colourful planting in Tivoli Gardens

Hotel Nimb - exotic delight in Copenhagen

Nyhavn from the Canal Tour

Gelfion Spirit

New Opera House

Linking up with Older Mum (In A Muddle) for #One Week - Spring '14.

Photography by Lesley Beeton

A spring garden

Linking up with Older Mum (In A Muddle) for #One Week - Spring '13. Delighted to be joining in again.

Autumn planting gives spring colour

We've been busy in the garden, taking advantage of the warm, sunny days and long, light evenings. And it's paying off. The bulbs we planted in the autumn are just about finishing their showiness, just a few alliums standing tall and purple amongst the last tulips.

Rhododendrons
in spring woodland garden

Our garden is a woodland spring garden, having its best colour at this time of year. The glorious azaleas and rhododendrons are magnificent in their colour.

We have also been busy making more structural changes. It started with the re-locating of the compost area earlier in the year. This has made space for the new potting shed. The little greenhouse has been moved too, and the site marked up. So, any day now, the men will come to lay the concrete base.

Greenhouse for sentimental value,
on the plot for the new potting shed

Our wildlife area is home to bees and spiders and baby birds, and many other creatures I hope.

Bee nest, for solitary bees

Blue tit box, always in use

Bumble bee box, now home to various spiders

We moved the old veggie box into its new position next to the hedge, a perfect spot for the raspberries. I have to treat the timber first though, and line the box, before I can sieve the compost back into the box, erect the tall bamboos and put up the birdnetting. All quite achievable.

Renovating the old veggie box as a new raspberry planter

Mr B's lawn, and potato planter, mini greenhouse for
tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines, new planter for raspberries

The veggie patch is planted up. The kitchen garden is planted up. After last year's awful crop, I was a bit wary about doing veg this year. I heard a garden expert on a local radio station talking about the problem of the long cold winter and what home veggie gardeners should do to get a crop this year. He said (more or less) 'Don't sow seeds, buy good quality plants. The plants need to be strong this year and raising weak plants from seedlings in the cold spring won't help. Buy lots of plants. Plant densely, especially in the kitchen garden. This will keep the pests down, and encourage cut and come again picking. And finally, he said don't swap self-propagated plants with your neighbour. In doing this, we risk passing on plant diseases, weakening the crop in the future.' Wow, that was a lot of do's and don'ts.

Veggie patch

Kitchen garden

Last weekend, I popped out to the garden centre and chose loads of veggie plants - sweetcorn, carrots, leeks, red onions, dwarf beans, broad beans, beetroot, celery, sweet pepper, beefsteak tomato, aubergine and cucumber. I planted densely, but less so in the veggie patch. I had already planted my early potatoes and those plants look fabulous in what has now become 'the potato planter'.

I did get a few cabbage plants from the neighbour's Grandma. They are doing well, and in return I sent Grandma a few celery plants.

So veggies planted, brambles under control, hens eating the weeds, I painted the metal warthogs red. Job done. 

Metal warthogs, travelled from Africa

A serene setting for the warthogs, next to a bench
and watched by the wood carving man

I think we can relax for a bit. Except for Mr B, who loves looking after his lawn.

A passion for lawn mowing

And a couple of mad Boxers thrown in for good measure

Photography by Lesley Beeton

How does your garden grow?

On a positive note, I'm linking this post with a new post, celebrating spring in the garden. And I'm linking up with Mammasaurus garden linky too.

 

Two sides of the same garden.

A metaphor for life.

My Mom was a keen gardener. A life-long devotee to rough hands, dirty nails and an aching back, she was immensely proud of her garden.

My parents thought that traditional, formal gardens were the only way to go. I am so different, mainly because I don't have any help in the garden. It's just me and the Boxers, and occasionally Mr B with the chain saw!

So I laughingly describe my garden as my 25 year project. I'm 7 years in to the project and I can see so much progress. For one thing, I have removed over 4 tonnes of rubble which the previous owner buried in the garden.

As I dug out the brambles, up came the broken tiles, old bathroom suites and rusty bed springs - I kid you not!

But, bit by bit, I have exposed the thoughtful planting of decades ago. The mature rhododendrons and camellias. The bee-attracting pieris and the established copper beech hedge. There are other delights too, including euonymus, elaeagnus, choisya, viburnum and sarcococca.

And I have added my own touches, the masses of wild flowers, colourful bulbs, my veggie patch, not to mention the chickens and dogs.

When Mom fell ill, I abandoned my garden, along with my job, to look after her. In the 9 months it took Mom to die, my garden became a jungle. Last year, I gathered all my strength and made a fresh start. I was pleased with the results, but some areas still remained bare. In the autumn, I grabbed a bag of 100 bulbs and planted away. I cultivated the wild flower areas. 

After all the years of hard work, my garden is growing very nicely. It's not quite what Mom wanted for our garden, but I know she would have been very pleased.

Photography by Lesley Beeton

Physiology of grief

After the last few uplifting Spring posts and photos, it's back on topic today. That's not because I'm feeling down. Quite the contrary in fact. I'm feeling great, thank you. And because I'm feeling great, I can now put into perspective the way my body reacted to the grief at losing my Mother to cancer last year. Some have likened the grief process to accelerated ageing, with changes to metabolism, increased muscle stiffness, joint pains, loss of vitality, and a general state of 'foggy' head. I have experienced all of this over the last seven months. When you are going through the grieving process, though, it's just all part of the coping mechanism; not to pay too much attention to the individual effects, and rather concentrate on becoming a whole person again, even though you have lost a loved one, an important part of yourself.

Bluebell foliage, March 2012, Lesley Beeton

I have written previously about how my grief started before Mom died, because her illness was so extensive, we knew there was no hope. I don't know if this helped or hindered my recovery. I don't suppose anyone can tell. It affected my sleep, I suffered weight loss, aches and pains, and felt hollow inside. After Mom died, there was a brief period of well-being, mainly relief because Mom was no longer suffering, and that it was all over. I wasn't thinking about the future, just getting through each day. It wasn't a conscious decision; again, it's just part of the process. The mind taking over to protect the body.

The legalities of death and probate hit you at a vulnerable time, and I found that many of the companies who should have specific staff to deal with probate and help families are woefully ill-equipped to do so. Banks, building societies and HMRC are the worst. If I had had more energy at the time, I would have created a scene - perhaps I still will. And for me, it was the legal and financial stuff that set me back. It made me angry, and that was unhelpful. It wasn't anyone's fault that Mom died. I couldn't assign any blame, but those companies made it so much worse. 

It's tempting to want to put a time frame, or deadline, on grief. I knew I shouldn't but psychologically Christmas, Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary, Dad's birthday and Mother's Day all came and went with a slightly numb 'let's not cry' feeling. We planned a wonderful holiday to a tropical paradise. I rested and felt restored, but still came home feeling so tired. So tired in fact that those around me thought I was seriously ill. Two more weeks past, and slowly but surely I was able to exercise for longer, and more efficiently too. But the aches and pains have been slow to recede. Arthritic flare-ups have impeded by recovery, ligaments in my feet have been inflamed too. It's not been all bad. Not every day is painful. It seems to be when something else causes a small stress in every day life, that my resilience is low, and my body tells me so.

It's been quite difficult to find information on this topic. Most of what is out there is written from a complementary therapy point of view. It seems a little recognised topic on the part of the medical people. I have already questioned the GP's wisdom about just leaving someone to grieve after a significant bereavement. I'm not suggesting that drugs are required, simply that more attention needs to be paid to these physiological, as opposed to psychological, symptoms of grief.

Spring days, warm sunshine, wonderful colours are all contributing to the healing process. Human beings are after all part of the natural world. I am fortunate to be surrounded by nature, renewal and re-birth, living as I do in the countryside. So if like me, you are grieving the loss of a loved one, be kind to yourself. Understand that it's not all in the mind. Your body will be taking a battering too.

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Monday mood board #4

The theme for my Monday mood board today is Green for GO! It's the Spring Equinox this week, the garden is ready and so am I. The passing weeks and the lengthening days make last year seem a very long time ago indeed. And so, today I have compiled a photo collage of green; things in my garden palette, which have reminded me about starting over, getting ready, steady, go. 

Green for GO! photo collage, March 2012, Lesley Beeton

What's on your mood board? Are you ready to go?
Pop over here for more of my photo collage work.

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Photo collage and composition

I'm enjoying my own little project in photography. The garden lends itself to photography at the moment; interesting colours and shapes everywhere. My point-and-click camera does a good job, but I am looking at getting something a bit more grown-up, to change my perspective on the world through a lens.

These are a small selection of my photo collage and compositions.

Hanging in there, photo collage,
March 2012, Lesley Beeton

Maui, photo collage,
February 2012, Lesley Beeton 

Chocolate cupcakes, photo collage,
March 2012, Lesley Beeton 

Mixed Spring composition, photo collage,
March 2012, Lesley Beeton

Boxers, photo collage,
March 2012, Lesley Beeton

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Spring into Wisley Gardens for Mothering Sunday

Mom loved the RHS Wisley Gardens. I gave her a gift membership for Mother's Day years ago, it was the best thing I ever gave her. Dad has taken on her membership now, but hasn't been for quite a while. I went yesterday, and the Gardens are looking absolutely lovely in their Spring-ness. The daffodils are out, although not completely. The formal planting in the little walled garden near the lily pond is delicious and inspiring. Even the ducks on the roof seemed to approve!

Orchid, RHS Wisley Glasshouse, March 2012, Lesley Beeton

Orchid, RHS Wisley Glasshouse, March 2012, Lesley Beeton

We wandered over to the Glasshouse. Preparations were underway for the Orchid Spectacular starting today. It was quiet, not full of people, and we even saw a butterfly left over from the display in February. Stunning.

Blue morpho butterfly, RHS Wisley Glasshouse, March 2012, Lesley Beeton

Two other lovely spring shrubs caught my eye as I was going round. The gorgeous Stachyurus chinensis and the sublimely fragrant Edgeworthia chrysantha.

Stachyurus chinensis

Edgeworthia chrysantha

The plant of the month for March is the Narcissus 'Tete-a-tete'. Mom always loved a Spring garden. 

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Spring pleasantly

Spring is sprung, look lively.

It’s a busy time in the Village. The birds are eating for six, getting ready for nesting, the squirrels are stealing the bird food, and the pigeons are hanging out in the owl box! There is an intruder in the veggie patch; a subterranean intruder which is very mouse-like and who I wish would just pack up and go before I have to dispatch him. I have given him warning that if he is still around when the pea shoots and broad bean shoots arrive, he will be sent packing. He will not eat my precious harvest this year.

The Woods are lively too.  A herd of deer stalks the woods. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just stood quietly and watched us, but they wait until we get close to them, then charge across the path, startling the Boxers. They are good though and a stern ‘Leave!’ usually does the trick.

We have a new walk-mate. We heard the familiar mewing last week and since then have seen the Buzzard returning to its roost each evening. Spectacular. I wish I could photograph birds. My little point and click camera is useless for that. And anyway, I’d have to make sure the Boxers stood dead still too…

The Stalker Cat has been out the last few evenings. Frank is a large friendly boy, but he does rather lie in wait for the Boxers as they go out for their late night tinkle. The little big dog has a very deep bark, sorry neighbours, but if it wasn’t for your cat…

There’s a new farm shop in the next village, selling their own free range pork, poultry and eggs. We enjoyed our visit to the farm at the weekend, and had a lovely drive from Puttenham over to Tilford for lunch. Puttenham Common is a fantastic place for dog walking. I prefer the top car park, the views are splendid and the sunsets are glorious. It is a vast estate, popular with dog walkers, ramblers, horse riders and bird watchers.  The Tarn car park next to the lake is a beautiful spot for anglers.

We had a lovely lunch at The Donkey (reviewed here); two gorgeous rescued donkeys hee-hawed happily in the Sunday sunshine. Sadly, the Boxers couldn’t come with us. Dogs are welcome but we were with friends and it wasn’t convenient. They did enjoy their sunset walk in the woods though, and a snooze afterwards in front of the fire. The evenings are still a bit chilly, and I’m still keeping tender plants under cover. The garden, though is ready for Spring, buds everywhere and lots of colour. Such a wonderful time of year for humans, dogs and wild life.

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Monday mood board #2

These are things that define how I am feeling today. Mostly spring-like.

Tea composition

Daffodil

Hyacinth

Skimmia

And elsewhere in the garden......

This little chap is due for his annual rust proof and re-spray.

Warthog

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