Wednesday, June 14, 2006



Hullo again, I have missed blogging and reading blogs these last three days! My computer has been looked at and has been temporarily fixed, though I might need a little more work done to it, but it should last until my son makes a flying visit again [as he was the one who fixed it for me]. I think I have caught up now with what people have been doing. I have had a busy few days since I last posted, and I have just had a walk around my garden and promised that if the weather is fine tomorrow I will do some work in it, I always like to keep on top of weeding and deadheading. I thought my garden felt it was a little neglected, never mind, I will give it some TLC tomorrow. I have just been sitting at my garden table listing the few things I would still like to get for the garden this year. In the evening I love to sit facing a silver birch tree that is over the other side of my wall, I love the way the wind rustles through its leaves and it sounds like whispers. Silver birch is my favourite tree. I am quite concerned about my honeysuckle, I have had it three years, and every year it starts off with beautiful lush growth, but about the middle of June, its leaves start dying, they look as if they have a white powder on them, I don't use chemicals and can't find what I can do to help it. I find this very frustrating this year as it it the first year it has grown buds and is about to flower. Anybody got any ideas?



I have been trying to launch a local history group in my village. I held an afternoon session, about a month ago and only one person turned up, which was disappointing. On Monday I held an evening session, and achieved four people. I am moving the evening to a Thursday, because I have been told there is another activity in the village on a Monday evening, that some people who were interested in the group attended. I am all set to go now, on the first Thursday of every month I am so pleased I gave it a second chance, and hope that it will keep going. The photograph, above is of a house in our village. It was built in a Victorian Gothic style and is what is called a calendar house. The whole house is to do with measurements of time, in this case, this means there were 365 windows, 52 rooms, 24 chimneys, 12 reception rooms etc. It was built by a local manufacturer, then it became a nunnery and now has been converted into luxury apartments. There are some interesting buildings and stories in and around my village and this is why I wanted to set up a group to research these.

7 comments:

David (Snappy) said...

well done on the history group, as the saying goes if you dont succede at first...
The house is beautiful with all the numbers.Was it deliberate do you think?Who was the architect?I hope you get out to sort out the weeds, deadhead flowers, and enjoy the garden.
I love those jobs as a short ten minute break from the world.You are on your knee's admiring plants and flowers from close up.keep blogging, hope to see your pics soon when scanned!!

VintagePretty said...

I am guessing your honeysuckle is suffering from powdery mildew, usually treatable with either burgundy or bordeaux mixture (dispersible copper). They are an organic treatment, and completely safe to use on many plants (read the label first). You can buy powder sachets from a good garden centre. I wouldn't use any non-organic compounds as I just don't trust them at all!

Good on you for starting a history group in your community - community groups seem to be disappearing at a terrible rate these days. I hope you get a good turn-out to your next event!

Alice said...

Whilst in England we visited the Arboretum in Wiltshire. It was mid-winter and a heavy frost. There was a very tall Silver Birch just covered in frost and when the sun came out briefly, it looked like a magnificent silver waterfall.

Annie Jeffries said...

How interesting. I've never heard of calendar houses. What a clever idea. Are there many like this in England? I wonder if there are any in the US? If so, probably in the East. Good luck on your local history group building to a nice size group.

Boxwood Cottage said...

Hi again, I've catched up on your blog today and found out that we have so much in common!

About your honeysuckle, mine has had that same disease last year and I've just cutted it back and this year it's grown back nicely and it looks perfect again, so don't worry too much!

Jeremy said...

That's a fine house. Are there many similar ones up there?

A friend of mine used to look after a 'poacher's cottage' in Northamptonshire where the number three was used in an obsessive way:
http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/notable%20houses/rushton%20lodge.htm

Good luck with the history group.

Gina E. said...

What a great idea to launch a historical group for your area, Daisy. Isn't it funny...I would have thought a place like England with so much history and old buildings, would have a historical society in every major town or little village! Even with our short history of European civilisation in Australia, lots of suburbs in the capital cities as well as rural towns, all have their own local history groups.