Peek-a-boo…
Hello everyone
I realise I’ve been a bit quiet on the newsletter front of late, so thought I’d drop you a little update. The reason for lack of communication being the delightful run of late summer / early autumn events alongside some behind-the-scenes activities, all of which meant lots of visitors and broad smiles all around…magical days, each and every one!
At the same time I’ve been madly rotating the summer veg over to autumn/winter growers in the kitchen garden and am very excited with how it’s coming together. Funny how year in, year out, I never get bored with this bi-annual process. It’s a task I tackle with enthusiasm; optimistic in the hope of pulling off something more than the previous year…a better crop, a newly devised pretty combination of veg growing side-by-side; a better yield for continuous bounty on our plates. It’s a process that all-in-all, takes about two months to complete: with structures to dismantle and rebuild, soil prep, compost to barrow, seed to save, seedlings to plant and seed to sow. Whilst there are still anxious moments (where are the two missing broad beans…hmmm???) these days I tackle the task with faith in the knowledge I’ve gleaned over the years and am pretty certain that what I’m doing will work! Here is a little account of exactly where the kitchen garden is at in a couple of insta reels I captured just last week. The first is 15 minutes, the second 12…so if you have a spare half hour…grab a cuppa and join me – there are some hints to prompt those of you who have chosen to grow through this extremely productive time of the kitchen gardening year!
On another note, this month of May marks 35 years since that fateful day when Larry put his hand up at a Sydney auction, securing Glenmore House in our names! I’m sure most of you know the story by now so I’ll not labour it here…but no…I knew nothing of his antics that day (nor did the bank manager ’til after Larry had done the deed…signing our lives away!). We haven’t planned a celebration of any kind…partly due to an ongoing debate between the two of us! You see, at the time the solicitors somehow lost the documentation…and it wasn’t ’til another year on that we settled. Larry always chooses to count the years since settlement, whereas I date our tenure to the moment we pulled up at the rickety gates early one fine, May autumn morning and my feet touched the ground. (How different our lives might have been had we chickened out during that intervening year!). But of course we didn’t…we fell hard for the possibility of what that forlorn collection of farm buildings might become and our lives changed from that very first visit. I found my 1988 diary the other day and the weekend entries from 19 May on are littered with ‘visit the cottage’ and ‘picnic at Glenmore’ alongside the names of various family members and friends. What a time…what an adventure we’d begun!
And maybe, just maybe…we might mark the occasion this time next year!
This week I’ll simply leave you with a hint of autumn colour and a promise of both winter and spring events in the planning! Watch this space!
With very best wishes as always,
Mickey
