Spring is here?

I decided that today was the day to plant the new roses. The irises, crocuses and snowdrops are blooming and the daffodils are ready to burst into yellow gloriousness any minute. I had ordered the eight roses mentioned in the previous blog post although I swapped the George Arends rose for The Alnwick - a softer cupped rose that suits the others better I think. It was certainly not great to keep the bare root roses for two weeks unplanted but the weekend the order arrived, so did the snow followed by rain. The ground was too cold and then it was too wet. Piers had planted hundreds of bulbs in the late Autumn so I had to plant around this but I don't think that matters. The 8 roses now spread down the side of the glasshouse in front of the two pale pink climbing roses that had been planted there years ago. Once the Spring bulbs have flowered we can lift them and plant other plants and Summer bulbs among the roses. It won't be a traditional rose garden by any means but it will be a riot of colour and scent. Can't wait!

Blue irises

Snowdrops

 White, yellow and purple crocus

Any minute now!

A line of roses down the side of the glasshouse.

A close-up - hope the take it to their new home.

Roses, roses and more roses

After much deliberation and research I think I have narrowed down the roses I would like for my rose garden. It was not easy as there are so many gorgeous roses to choose from. The ground is no longer frozen and the crocuses and snowdrops are starting to peek through so I think it is time to get started. I have chosen to go with David Austen roses. They are famous throughout England and have a reputation for being easy to grow, hardy, healthy, reliable and importantly, beautiful.  Being grown in England they are also prepared for the climate. Our garden is a bit of a mish mash with different colours everywhere so I am not being precious about choosing shades of one colour scheme, rather I have chosen a mix of colours to brighten the green in the summer. also, each of these roses has a fragrance, which is important as I would love the garden to smell lovely while sitting in the garden on a summer evening with a chilled glass of wine in hand. What do you think of these?

Pat Austen

Darcy Bussell

Jude the Obscure

Queen of Sweden

William and Catherine

Rhapsody in Blue

Janet

George Arends

Dust

It has been a while since I have posted anything about Duck House. The reason is that I felt like there wasn't really anything to post without pictures (plus we were away on a wonderful holiday in Australia for 5 weeks...). The house renovations continue but it has been all about stripping away the excess and unwanted in the house such as the horrendous fake inglenook above the fireplace and knocking through the wall in the guest bedroom cupboard to where the boiler is currently housed. These two spaces together will make room for a new ensuite. All necessary and extremely hard work but work that can't readily be seen as progress in photos and the photos don't do justice to the amount of work Piers has done! The house is made of reconstituted Cotswold blocks on the outside and on this inside they have used grey cement bricks, which Piers says is like knocking through rock. No such thing as timber frames and plasterboard in this house! The dust is unbelievable and is almost magnetic, sticking to everything. We received the details from the structural engineer yesterday and wait for a few final tweaks from the architect. Once we have these plans apparently the real building work will begin!

Big wins

We have been living in Duck House for five and a half months now and I have learnt the hard way that renovating a house is not a quick process. We are reliant on architect's and structural engineer's time, and making decisions just takes time. Having said that we had a big win this past weekend. When we moved in the house had night storage heaters. They are very old and not all of them worked. Many of them had burnt out coils inside. Piers removed most of them as not only were they bulky but also a hazard and so we have been without heating. Luckily it has only just got cold here in the last few weeks. But on Friday the fantastic Mick came and installed our multi-fuel stove and we were toasty warm all weekend. Bliss!

Kitchenware

There is a lovely new shop on Little Clarendon Street in Oxford. It is called The Oxford Pantry and stocks the most lovely things including these canisters, which I couldn't resist...

I have also been keeping a close online eye on this place. Can't wait to visit: The Original House.

Entry for Annual Garden Show?

It turns out there is the Annual North Leigh Gardening Society Show and it is on today. We went and had a look and the flowers were gorgeous. There was also a variety of cakes, biscuits and jams also. Piers definitely has to enter his jam next year! And maybe we can enter a rose or two next year? Our first rose after the big garden clear out has appeared. I have taken the photo a day late but it is lovely in amongst the herbs...

Herb garden

In all the digging and weeding in the last few days while on holidays I also have managed to carve out some space for a herb garden. The chives and mint were there and I have added some thyme, coriander and parsley. We have so many slugs and snails that I initially planted the basil in a pot because I was worried it would be chewed up until Piers suggested wood chip to deter the little rascals. At Wolsey Road we had hedgehogs to eat up the slugs but unfortunately we don't seem to have them here or at least Daisy and Lulu haven't alerted us to their presence yet... And yes, that is another little rose that I found. Can't wait to see what colour it is!