Fantastic Florence

It's always a treat when we're visited by the vibrant and incredibly organised Florence Fox, who is responsible for the charming video on the home page of our website.  Last week she came with her camera to capture the atmosphere in the garden on the cusp of the early summer season.   The pictures show lots of green and lots of alliums, and a garden that is about to spring into action.  We are very pleased that the rose garden is now in good shape, with new beds and new roses - look out for photos over the coming weeks as the blooms burst open - although already we've had to shoehorn some surplus ammi majus seedlings in between the rose bushes, as we are running out of space!  Trays of seedlings spill out of the polytunnel and gravel holding bay, edging their way towards the remaining scraps of ground.  The tops of chrysanthemums which we pinched out and potted up seem to be growing well, nearly doubling the quantity of new plants, but its difficult to say where they're going to be planted!

However busy we are with picking and planting and weeding and mulching (a huge new trailer load of manure is piled blackly behind the bothy, waiting for the soil to be moist enough to justify mulching), we always make sure we have some home baking on hand to keep the morale up.  Florence has captured here one of our favourites: flapjack made with lots of seeds, nuts and dates, and black treacle instead of sugar.  It never last more than a day or two.