Stretching Mind and Body

Hooray. By almost ignoring social media for four months I have just finished researching, revising and editing my new 85,000 word historical novel. Three more chapters to post, one by one, to my online critique group. After I receive constructive feedback, I'll put the novel aside for a month before I read through it and make minor corrections etc.

 

This morning, I also worked in the garden, I planted a rosemary bush that languished in a plant pot all winter. At one end of an eight foot by five foot vegetable patch, I planted yellow gladioli in groups of five, removed tete-a-tete daffodils from pots and interspersed them with the gladioli. They will flower against the backdrop of the holly bush and make a splash of colour. I also raked the bed and worked potato fertiliser into it before planting chitted second early potatoes. Phew! I shall put my feet up and read for pleasure,

 

All the best,

Rosemary Morris

Multi Published Historical Novelist

 

Stretching the Mind and Body

Hooray. By almost ignoring social media for four months I have just finished researching, revising and editing my new 85,000 word historical novel. Three more chapters to post, one by one, to my online critique group. After I receive constructive feedback, I'll put the novel aside for a month before I read through it and make minor corrections etc.

 

This morning, I also worked in the garden, I planted a rosemary bush that languished in a plant pot all winter. At one end of an eight foot by five foot vegetable patch, I planted yellow gladioli in groups of five, removed tete-a-tete daffodils from pots and interspersed them with the gladioli. They will flower against the backdrop of the holly bush and make a splash of colour. I also raked the bed and worked potato fertiliser into it before planting chitted second early potatoes. Phew! I shall put my feet up and read for pleasure,

 

All the best,

Rosemary Morris

Multi Published Historical Novelist

 

Spring Really Is In The Air

The birds that visit my organic garden know spring is in the air. The male blackbird and a pair of jays bathed in the water around the rim of my small pond, and then shook the water off their feathers.


While I get on in the garden I pause to admire butterflies and a narrow border filled with daffodils, white single and double tulips and narcissi, which have a wonderful fragrance.


The bluebells are almost in flower, but beautiful as they will be they grow like weeds and are overtaking the rose bed. I dug up loads last year but they are persistent so and sos.


Tomorrow I shall pot up runner beans and French beans, sow cucumbers, squash and pumpkins as well as moving plants from the greenhouse to the garden.

Spring is Here

The first two daffodils of many daffodils in my garden flowered to day. Spring is really here.

I had intended to plant rhubarb today. Instead I cut weed suppressant to fit it the top left hand corner of my garden. I then stood and one of my compost bins and the tumbler to it. The weed suppressant hardly shows now that they are in place. The advantage is that it will prevent roots growing up through the compost, save a lot of time weeding and make it easier to collect the compost when I tip it out. I have a third bin in another part of the garden. My first attempt to make compost resulted in a smelly, soggy mess. Yuck. Now I layer the different components and the compost is odourless and dry. The first layer is shredded paper most of which comes from junk mail.

Spring Day

Son number 3 and his wife and family came to lunch today. I made a peas, potato, cauliflower and curd cheese curry, a lady's finger curry and urad  (black beans the size of moong beans but oval in shape) cooked with yoghurt and spices served with jaggery ( palm tree sugar) chappatis, flat breads,  brown rice, grated cucumber in spiced yoghurt and mango pulp,

After lunch we sat in the garden on the first real day of spring. Faint perfume came from a long narrow bed of daffodils, narcissi, yellow and white tulips. The first delicate blossoms on the bullace tree - wild plum tree - was silhouetted against a clear blue sky. Bliss!

Beautiful Spring Day

The lawn has been cut, the flower beds are ablaze with daffodils and a raised bed has been prepared for runner beans. Good quality soil at the bottom, a layer of shredded junk mail to retain water topped by well rotted manure beneath homemade compost.

There are artichokes and strawberries in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out and the compost is waiting for me to sow seeds. The mini peach and nectarine tress are about to flower.

I really think my organic garden is a little piece of heaven. Deep, appreciative sigh.

Springtime

My back garden I shouting that spring is in the air and elsewhere. The delicate white blossoms of the bullace (wild plum tree) are flowering, masses of daffodils and crocus are in bloom and so is the forsythia. The rhubarb is pushing it's way up out of the ground, and the bluebells and forget-me-nots are about to flower.

I have a wonderful book that traces the history of gardens in the u.k. There is a section about monastery gardens in which it describes each monk being allocated a small plot in which they were allowed to grow whatever they pleased. I have another book which traces the history of plants native to the u.k. and the introduction of foreign species. One day I would like to marry the two in fiction.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday, the sun's shining after days of snow, bitterly cold winds and rain. Berengia, crocuses and daffodils are blooming in my garden. I've been given three beautiful bouquets which I've arranged in vases, and am looking forward to spending time with most of my family throughout the day. Thank you God for all the good things in my live.