Early Harvest - a poem for Apple Day

In the Blushing Golden sunlight of autumn

they gather in the Parkland of the Garden Royale for the Gala.

Captain Kidd, master of ceremonies, conducts

Edith Smith, the Duchess's Favourite

as she plays Jazz interpretations of Greensleeves

and Lady in Red, enjoying her time in the Limelight

while a Jester juggles in the Grove.

Cardinal von Galen appears in his Flamboyant robes

to pray to the Saints Edmund and Everard

shadowed by Reverend Morgan his long standing Rival.

Doctor Harvey is close by in case of accidents

(the Flamenco and Polka can lead to collisions!)

and keeps a wary eye on his daughter

Annie Elizabeth, Sweet Sixteen, in a Silken gown

who's enjoying a Waltz with Johnny Voun.

After the dance, the young man gives Annie

a Red Bouquet as a Keepsake (oh what a Surprise!)

and is thanked by her sweet Maiden's Blush.

Karmyn de Sonnaville wanders round, nose in the air

and Pink Pearls in her hair, followed

by the Beauties of Albany, Sutton and Hampshire

all wearing sweet scented Garlands.

“This Porter's Perfection!” says James Grieve,

the Bedfordshire Foundling, who's Tickled Pink

as he lies by the Wayside and feasts

(as he so rarely can) on Scotch Dumpling with Cinnamon Spice.

They dance until the Rosy Glow of Sunset,

then watch the Splendour of the Northern Lights come out

and Saturn and Jupiter fall into alignment.

It could have been a State Fair! A Holiday! The Diamond Jubilee or even Christmas!

They agree as they go home. Everyone speaks in dulcet tones

and dares to hope for a Bright Future, Good Fortune and ultimate Victory!

Can we then think beyond Golden Delicious

and organise a Revival?

a poem for Apple Day.

and here's the website where I found all the names of the heritage apple varieties I used in the poem.  

 

You may also be interested in Apples and People, a website devoted to the global story of apples. 

Summer Day in the Garden and Making Friends with a Neighbours Cat

Another lovely day yesterday. We spent the afternoon in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden

It's looking lovely as ever and is a haven for insects such as this pellucid hoverfly

It was until recently also a haven for frogs but a heron visited recently and ate most of the frogs and this is one of the few left

We also visited the next door neighbour's new kitten, who is full of energy and very cute

 he was fascinated by my shoes

 He's going to be an indoor cat as one of their cats recently died after being poisoned.

Garden Drama

Sparrow-hawk falls from the sky
precision hunter, yellow eyes staring defiance,
pummels sparrow to extinction.

Domestic cat, disturbed by her internal tiger
leaps from the path with outstretched paws
wondering what is tiger for?

Sparrow-hawk sees only predator with claws
flies off, concedes defeat
returns to a hungry nest.

Overfed cat plays with sparrow, walks away,
tiger stripes blurring in her mind
to shimmering flames of domestic fire.


Continuing to repost old poems, this one was published on the blog back in 2008.

windowsill garden

The mixed salad leaves are doing well on our windowsill garden!

Scenes from a suburban garden

I spent the weekend at my parents' home in suburban Manchester. It was lovely to see them again and the weather was beautiful on the Saturday morning, so we enjoyed some time in the garden

I loved this skeletonised sycamore seed

but aware my parents don't want sycamore trees in their lawn, I removed it from the grass after I'd photographed it!

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

In Malaya, Yun Ling's desire to build a memorial for her sister, killed at the hand of the Japanese during their occupation of Malaya, leads her to become an apprentice to Aritomo, once the gardener to the Japanese Emperor.

The main narrative starts with Yun Ling, now suffering from a degenerative disease that is destroying her memory, moving back to Yugiri, the garden she helped to create and looking back over her life. This is the start of a moving exploration of history, memory and forgiveness and the healing power of gardening.:

" 'The garden has to reach inside you. It should change your heart, sadden it, uplift it. It has to make you appreciate the impermanence of everything in life,' Isay 'That point in time just as the last leaf is about to drop, as the remaining petal is about to fall, that moment captures everything beautiful and sorrowful about life.' "

This is a beautiful book, but towards the end I felt it left too many avenues unexplored - the exact relationship between Yun Ling and Aritomo for example and his exact role during the Occupation. The vagueness around some issues fitted very well with Yun Ling's failing memory, but as a reader I often wanted to know more. I also felt that towards the end the large tatto that Aritomo gave Yun Ling took on more of a role than I felt it deserved.

Still a very worthwile read for anyone interested in Asian history or in the therapeutic value of gardening.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng published by Canongate.

Frogs meet #Frogface

Today for 30 Days Wild, I decided to spend some time with some frogs and at the same time to take part in the RSPB frogface campaign.

The RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) is asking people to share their best photos of their 'frog faces'. Here's mine

though I don't think the local frogs were impressed

The local frogs in question are in Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum's garden. It's a lovely garden

with two frog ponds. Recently there have been 12 frogs in the smaller pond at one time, though today we didn't see anywhere near that many. The ones we did see however were very cute, including some very small ones

 and one hiding amongst the speedwell

as well as those in the ponds

Also in the garden - a wonderful new planter

a beautiful rhododendron

turkey tail fungus on a dead tree-stump

pink flowered strawberry plants

a queen tree bumblebee in the shed (I had never seen one of these beautiful bees (they're new to Scotland, as they're expanding their range through the UK) before this month, now I'm seeing them everywhere!) We helped the bee out of the shed after I'd taken this photo

a huge leopard slug

a lawn full of daisies

and Purdy, the neighbours' sleepy cat, watching over everything!

Frogs and a Sleeping Cat

Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum has two ponds in her garden and at the moment the whole garden is full of frogs.

There are tiny frogs

and larger frogs

and hidden away in the undergrowth is an old sleepy cat, Purdey who lives in the house next door

In an Edinburgh Garden

Under sun speckled pond weed

water writhes with tadpoles.

Suddenly a frog emerges, 

head draped in weed 

watching.

for NaPoWriMo

in Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum's garden, yesterday

Windowsill Garden - organic rocket

I sowed some organic rocket seeds in a pot on our windowsill garden a couple of days ago and here they are today!

Not self sufficient but....

We're a long way from being self sufficient but I thought it might be interesting to list the foods we grow ourselves etc:

Grow on our windowsills

tomatoes, salad leaves, herbs (parsley, basil and coriander) - with varying degrees of success

From Crafty Green Boyfriend's parents garden

leeks, courgettes, cooking apples, eating apples

Foraged

brambles, raspberries and sometimes fungi. I definitely want to experiment with foraging for edible leaves from trees next year, basically when I'm cutting down tree branches that cause problems on the Water of Leith walkway, I want to keep the leaves that are edible!

So it's a small contribution to our overall diet, but it's something and not bad for living in the city centre! Theoretically we have a share in the garden at the back of the building, but one particular family have comandeered all the growing area.

What do you grow for yourselves and what kind of space do you have for growing?

Windowsill Garden - update

We've grown tomatoes for several years now and have nad good crops every year. This year, one of our tomato plants is producing full size tomatoes rather than the cherry tomatoes we nromally get.

And for the first time, we're growing parsley this year:

and Crafty Green Boyfriend's parents just gave us a lovely lemon basil plant, the leaves are quite different from normal basil, but the perfume is just the same!

Windowsill garden update

Our windowsill garden is doing well. the mixed salad leaves and coriander are doing better than ever on our living room windowsill. Our tomatoes are doing well as well, most of them are on the spare room windowsill, but one is on the living room windowsill. Creating nice shadows on the wall!

For Shadow Shot Sunday, early I know, but my parents are visiting this weekend and I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do!

Salad from the Windowsill

I recently harvested the first batch of salad leaves from our windowsill garden. They were delicious alongside hummus. I think the harvests will be small but frequent!We've got more seeds too, from packets I was sent as gifts.

Additions to the Herb Garden

As many of you will know, we've been growing tomatoes and herbs on our windowsills for a few years now. At the moment, our first tomatoes are ripe and our basil is thriving. We've already tried twice to grow coriander this year and failed but the latest batch is making a good start and our salad leaf plants seem to be also making a good start. Our dill sadly got ill and died and our rocket was scarily yellow and pathetic looking so we composted that.

Today we just received  a parcel from the Fresh Herb Company, a prize from a Twitter competition that contained this handsome window box, which certainly makes our windowsill look much tidier:

and this handsome mezzaluna herb chopper with bamboo chopping board.

Plus a wee book about making the most of herbs!

So many thanks to the Fresh Herb Company! Their website contains tips on caring for herbs, information on herbs and health, ideas for using herbs and a blog.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.