Veg Plotting

I was surprised to find a snail had hitched a lift with me to Westonbirt on Friday and whilst John Bunyan's musing upon a snail is quite different, these few lines fitted this photo perfectly for Muse Day . Where's the strangest place you've found a snail?

Last weekend I had the good fortune to see Westonbirt 's Enchanted Christmas thanks to a press pass 45 minutes ahead of the public's entry. After what seemed like weeks of rain and miserable grey weather, it felt good to be out in the crisp, fresh air. It was a perfect evening, albeit rather chilly - a great excuse for a sneaky hot chocolate afterwards! It was the first time I'd visited the famous and award winning Christmas show, despite the Arboretum being a few miles away. The crowds I'd heard about had put me off, but seeing the show's trail is in the Old Arboretum and entry is staggered into various slots over the evening, there is actually plenty of room for everyone to have a good time. We're starved of light at this time of the year, so a festive offering which shows off some of the Arboretum's most stately trees makes sense and is the perfect antidote to the winter blues. Some of the lights stay the same, but many change through a rainbow ...

O the pleasure with trees! The orchard—the forest—the oak, cedar, pine, pekan-tree, The honey-locust, black-walnut, cottonwood, and magnolia. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) from Poem of Joys  - in: Leaves of Grass The magnolias are magnificent this year, helped by the unseasonably warm weather of the past few weeks, plus the lack of frost. Views like this one of my neighbour's tree reaching peak magnolia, and those at Westonbirt Arboretum last week (like the one below) make my heart sing. The pleasure with trees indeed.

The weather's turned colder this week and most of the autumn leaves are down, ready to add their mulch to the garden over the winter months. I took a few snaps recently to show you as my final celebration of this season's gifts. This post serves as a final record of the Berberis thunbergii 'Gold Ring' at the bottom of the garden. It comes into its own at this time of the year with the most incredible fireglow to warm this gardener's heart. However, who in their right mind adds a thorny shrub to one of their main garden beds? Well, I added three of them and it's high time I corrected that mistake. I'll ponder a replacement shrub over the winter; something with similar fireworks is my intention. Ideas anyone? Elsewhere the wispy silver birches I can see from my bedroom window are being their usual seasonal barometer. I spend more time than I should simply watching them and I love seeing how they change with each season and the sky behind them. ...

Westonbirt is noted for its Autumn colours , but I love it year-round. Spring is another good time for a visit as it has many examples of Magnolias, Rhododendrons and Camellias in flower as well as all the fresh young leaves on the trees. We've had family staying over Easter and whilst spring is behind itself at the moment, we still thought it would be a good place to take my brother-in-law and family to a couple of days ago. We were too early for most of the flowers, but there was enough to herald what's to come over the next few weeks, plus plenty of fresh discoveries we hadn't anticipated. Being the Easter holidays, there were trails for my niece and nephew to follow with the promise of eggy treats when completed. We all had a fun time looking for the pictures and specially decorated trees and helping to solve the puzzles. It may have been a shorter walk for us than usual, but everything was examined in much finer detail: the colour of tree buds, what mi...

Rotary Glade, Westonbirt Arboretum Why blow'st thou not, thou wintry wind, Now every leaf is brown and sere, And idly droops, to thee resigned, The fading chaplet of the year? Yet wears the pure aerial sky Her summer veil, half drawn on high, Of silvery haze, and dark and still The shadows sleep on every slanting hill. How quiet shows the woodland scene! Each flower and tree, its duty done, Reposing in decay serene, like weary men when age is won, Such calm old age as conscience pure And self-commanding hearts ensure, Waiting their summons to the sky, Content to live, but not afraid to die. Sure if our eyes were purged to trace God's unseen armies hovering round, We should behold by angels' grace The four strong winds of Heaven fast bound, Their downward sweep a moment stayed On ocean cove and forest glade, Till the last flower of autumn shed Her funeral odours on her dying bed. So in Thine awful armoury, Lord, The lightnings of the judgment-day Pause yet awhile, in mer...

We're enjoying an Indian summer during the last days of October here in England, but the heavy weather forecast for Sunday means that we should get out tomorrow to places like Westonbirt Arboretum (pictured above) and enjoy the last of autumn's fiery leaves before they're all blown away. Once the storm's over, you might like to seek out one of the events the You Ask, We Answer team have found to help while away the darker days of November. All month: A couple of writing events - you can either release your inner novelist by signing up for National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), or if that sounds a bit like too much hard work, you could elect to post something on your blog every day this month instead. It's called National Blog Posting Month , aka NaBloPoMo and you can write about anything and make it as long or short as you like! 2nd-8th November : British Sausage Week . A celebration of all things banger and rather apt in view of the other events sc...

Many thanks to those of you who were so complimentary about the autumnal scene outside my back window yesterday. However, it's a mere trifle compared to the trip NAH and I made to Westonbirt Arboretum a couple of days ago. Our timing was perfect: blue skies and plenty of sunshine allowed the trees to show off at their best. I took loads of photos, but I feel nothing comes close to the atmosphere of the above shot. No doubt the best of the rest will find their way over to Sign of the Times over the next few days. In the meantime, you can have a quick tour via the Westonbirt website if you look here . After a picnic in the warm sunshine, we started our walk in Silk Wood as we rarely go there. We were too late for the spindles' display (various deciduous Euonymu s species, just their bright orange seeds were left), but timed it just right for the Acers . Silk Wood houses the national collection of maples, so I wandered around happily exclaiming over the richness of their l...

Another key message from yesterday's seminar was how community involvement in decision making is crucial in the delivery of good quality public planting, so it was especially good timing to find an e-mail from The Woodland Trust this morning about England's public forests. This must be the ultimate 'public' planting - the forests managed by the Forestry Commission on our behalf, including the wonderful Westonbirt , the national arboretum not far from here. If you've ever been for a walk, a mountain bike ride, attended a open-air concert or other event in one of our public forests in England - like the pictured scene from last year's Festival of the Tree , then you also have an interest in the following: The Forestry Commission in England wants your view on the long-term role of the forests and woods it owns. If you believe as we do that forests and woods in public ownership are an important national asset then now is the time to have your say in their ...

Spot the real conkers I love Westonbirt Arboretum : there's space to breathe and lots of tip top trees of course, including over 100 Champion ones (i.e. tallest, oldest, most massive). One of my favourite times to visit is at the end of August for The Festival of the Tree . NAH and I first discovered it by accident a few years back when we visited the sadly now defunct Festival of the Garden . After looking around the show gardens, we realised there was something else going on worth exploring and we've been back every year since. This was the first year we've not been on the Bank Holiday Monday, so for once we were able to see the chainsaw sculptors (aka Sculptree ) in action. Using large chunks of wood from Westonbirt trees felled because of disease or age, the finished sculptures are surprisingly complex and intricate. These are auctioned off on the Monday in aid of Tree Aid and each sculpture raised over £1,000 yesterday. Smaller, more affordable scupltures...