MICKEY’S BLOG
In the days before Instagram, Mickey kept a regular blog of snippets from Glenmore House.
You may enjoy looking back through them!
What happens with all those prunings? COMPOST!!
So - if you thought that now the pruning is over I'd be able to put my feet up, you would be mistaken!!A marginally less taxing weekend's gardening was had - completing tasks that were not of quite such gargantuan proportions as the previous weeks. It ended...
Rogue tomatoes….
I've learned over the years that it doesn't pay to be toooo neat & tidy in the garden - it's often the self-sown that are the most hardy, the first to produce and the most prolific. This is especially true of tomatoes. With the concept of all loving...
Summer pruning: it’s over!!
I know I've been a bit quiet - and no, I haven't been pruning EVERY single day since the last post - more like 2 days on, 1 day off, but there really is that much to do! I've had to take the odd deep breath & cut through plants at their prettiest,...
Summer pruning….
Not exactly a job one WANTS to do at this time of the year - hours on end with a pair of secateurs in the beating sun, but there is little choice - it MUST be done. It isn't that the garden really looks so bad, but the plants have 'peaked', and if there's any...
Seaside vegetation/inspiration continued….
I was musing at the similar colours but utterly different vegetation to be found on a rocky outcrop at the end of a very different kind of beach on the Atlantic coast of the Cape of Good Hope a couple of weeks ago.... Such a dramatic landmass; and thrilling to...
Inspiration from the sea….
I love a beach walk & pottering about rocky outcrops, where a kaleidoscope of weed gets left behind on the sand. The sludgy greens with traces of pink, myriad textures & forms - the rocks were thick with beads this year that looked like they were tumbling...
Summer holidays…..
Happy New Year to you all!! I hope you've enjoyed a delightful festive season & have begun 2012 on a very positive note. As much as I love my garden (as you know!), THIS is where I want to be, if even for just a few cherished days, during the languid...
Christmas rhubarb…
There's been wonderful rhubarb to harvest these last weeks, so I collected a whole wheelbarrow load the other day. I baked several batches with orange juice & spices & now have jars stored to keep us going while the plants go into a little decline...
Waiting patiently….
For a few weeks now I've been waiting patiently for the longest day (well - dreading it really - summer hasn't even STARTED!), when traditionally, onions are pulled from the ground. And this year, the haul is better than ever. I took this pic last week,...
Vogue Living article….
"Are there flowers we can pick for the table?" asked Conor from VL on the day's photo shoot back in October! After a quick think, I asked if he'd spotted my first ever PURPLE globe artichokes in the Kitchen Garden? "Oh yes, I DID notice them" he...
Pusscat in the garden
The pusscat's very best days are my gardening ones....Our lovely black labrador would also sit and watch me, but he was always really saying "can't you just STOP what you're doing & play with me instead? Surely I'm much more fun than those stupid plants...
David Harber Sculpture, Sundial & Water Feature Exhibition
I was delighted to attend a private view of David Harber's wonderful sculptures, sundials & water features in a perfect garden setting in Bowral yesterday evening. I have long 'filed away for the future', (read wishful thinking!), photographs of David's work -...
Summer seed collecting….
Finally there has been a long enough break between showers for late spring seed heads to dry on their stems for harvesting. Above are the seed cases of Papaver somniferum (peony poppy), whose frothy pink blooms were spectacular in the Borders during October....
Heavenly hydrangeas….
I love setting the table for a dinner or lunch party, and there have been plenty of opportunities recently!I had such a lovely time with the hydrangeas last week - thanks to the wonderful wet weather, there are more than ever to play...
A very good gardening day (part two!!!)
Or all about parsnips!! Someone once told me that in order for parsnip seed to 'take', it must be extremely fresh - WELL, you can't get fresher than this!! I have purposely allowed a couple of this year's parsnips to go to flower (they have beautiful umbellifer...
A very good gardening day (part one!)….
I'm going to share with you a little sequence of events that made for a VERY SATISFYING GARDENING DAY! These days are all too rare, but I feel deep down are the way they ought to be. You see above, it was time for the various silverbeets & chards to be...
Collecting in the rain….(again!)
When needs must.....! Once the decision is taken to don the wellies, take the umbrella & get on with it, no matter the muddy mess, the sense of joy at collecting one's OWN produce is thrilling! And even if I can't produce every ingredient for tomorrow's...
Cooking the Glenmore Christmas Lunch 2012!!
Still basking in the afterglow of last Friday's Cooking the Glenmore Christmas Lunch Day, it occurs to me you might like to plan ahead for 2012!! The date for a re-run will be Friday 7th December 2012. I imagine it will roll around before we know it, but...
Cooking the Glenmore Christmas Lunch…..
What a delightful day was had by all....we harvested the first new potatoes - King Edwards; pottered about the Kitchen Garden collecting herbs and generally cooked up a storm! In the end, the table was laden with Burmese honeysuckle, chilled soup, poached salmon,...
Raspberry heaven!
It began with just one or two, which I would present to Larry with great excitement....and then it was a ramekin dish full, and then a small bowl....over a period of a fortnight or so.....then I needed a colander, every three days, every two days, and now I can...