The first of our black and white pictures

I can’t believe that I shared our four black and white pictures last June, I’ve no idea where the time has gone - but back then I planned to share more about why we chose the pictures we did, so finally here’s the first in that series.

It seems right to start with the rock formation in Cornwall, a picture I snapped on our holiday back in 2014, which despite being almost eleven years ago remains vivid in my memories, or most of it does, I think!

We had an AirBnB in Newquay which turned out to be in an ideal spot, and in the week we were there we certainly packed things in visiting some great gardens including Bosvigo gardens and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and some pretty towns such as St Mawes and Tintagel. We visited National Trust properties - Lanyhydrock is a stand out memory, and the castle at Tintagel managed by English Heritage.

As well as the sunsets from our apartment we enjoyed natural spots such as Carnewas and of course Rough Tor and Brown Willy Tor where this photo was taken. And while I’ve shared a lot of those places here, there’s some that I never got around to - let’s be honest after eleven years, I’m unlikely to now aren’t I? Though never say never as if we revisit these places it’d be interesting to do a compare and contrast - but please, don’t hold your breath.

Brown Willy has always raised a smile here, for its schoolboy humorous name and also because it was a regular place to visit during MOH’s childhood family holidays. It’s a hill in Cornwall and is the highest point in Bodmin Moor. It was great to revisit one of MOH’s childhood memories with him, though if I’m honest I was much more interested in the rock formations and the rugged natural beauty!

The surroundings were great in colour, but actually I think they’re much more powerful and dramatic in black and white.

And it definitely looks even better framed, and on the wall in our new house as part of our series of four black and white pictures.

My garden in March

Last month there were hints of colour starting to appear in my garden, this month there’s been a lot more. It’s all been about the daffodils and the pops of colour they’ve brought to the border, the wallflowers and the start of the tulips.

Back at the start of the month, this is how it started.

But by the end of the first week, our first daffodils flowered. And the others weren’t too far behind them either.

Not all of the garden is back alive yet though, the fuchsia bushes - but I’m hopeful they won’t be too far behind.

The viburnum though is already flowering, and it’s great to see.

It was great to spot that my new-last-year wallflowers started to show signs of flowering, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them.

But we’ve also had some early blossom from the peach/nectarine tree - it’s not that surprising really as it’s much warmer by the old brick wall. It seems happy here - it’s still in a pot - so it looks as if it’s decided on its long term garden position, which is where I hoped it would be happy!

It was a month of surprises though as some daffodils sprung up amongst the wallflowers, and I’m not really sure where they came from. I’ve not had daffodils in that pot before, and it’s unlikely that they were in the pot with the wallflowers when I bought them, so it’s a garden mystery.

The tulips started to show themselves too, peeking out from their protective leaves. I really need to find a better place for them as if it stays windy they won’t last for long, but wherever they end up I want to be able to see them from the house - it’d be a shame to miss them wouldn’t it?

I had another surprise bulb appearance too. This time a bluebell in my rhubarb pot, this could have been in there a while as we had bluebells in our previous garden, although not knowingly in this pot - but the leaves don’t look like those bluebells, so maybe this one was a present from the birds. I’m happy it’s here though.

The wallflowers have been slow to show their flowers but they are finally starting - they’re a variety called ‘Chelsea Jackets’ and are a mixture of pastel colours.

And what a way to end the month, with the first proper tulip flowers growing taller, but not flowering just yet saving themselves for next month I’m sure.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!

This March...

March has definitely brought with it hints, and sometimes real glimpses, of spring, including for me some random bulb discoveries around my garden. I found three pale daffodils growing up through the wallflowers, and have enjoyed watching them and the other daffodils flower. Then last week, during my first gardening stint of the year, I noticed a bluebell growing in my pot of rhubarb. It’s entirely possible that this one has long been there, and just hasn’t flowered before - though it looks a little different to the bluebells we had in our London garden.

Either way though, the random bulbs have made me smile. In fact I’ve decided I need more spring bulbs, so will attempt to remember this in the autumn when the daffodil bulbs go on sale - and I may also remember to plant them in time too, if I’m lucky.

The garden’s waking up and much more traffic

In a matter of days the small crab apple tree has gone from twigs to almost having leaves, and I know how it feels as my own wardrobe has changed, well mostly. I’ve definitely worn my jeans less especially towards the end of the month, and I’ve reminded myself I have a whole wardrobe of clothes at my fingertips to wear, rather than just look at.

March has also been a momentous month in that MOH and I made it along to our first village Parish Council meeting, which actually takes place in the next village as we don’t have a village hall, or a pub for that matter. I’m not sure why it’s taken us quite so long to make it along, and we were warmly welcomed to the just over an hour meeting.

A lot of the meeting was taken up by discussing the recently started roadworks on the nearby A46 which are scheduled to last for eighteen months, and have brought increased traffic at more often than not above the 30mph speed limit. The councillors were sympathetic and clearly frustrated as villagers (ours and other small villages) by the increased ‘rat-running’ and have organised additional speed limit reminder signs, as they promised. Of course, they’ve not really made a difference and my view is because the signs are designed to be read by pedestrians, but are really aimed at motorists driving past above the speed limit, so they’re as good as useless as there’s too much information for drivers (or any speed) to read. But at least it’s the first step that needs to be taken in the slow turning wheels of district and county council processes.

Wine, lights and art

Around the house we’ve sorted out some more effective wine storage with a new 42 space wine rack which matches a smaller one we have, and means we have plenty of space and can get rid of various cardboard boxes MOH has been storing under the stairs. It may or may not be our longer term storage solution, but it’s certainly tidied an area that needed it.

I’m also waiting on a new light for the landing, or gallery as we call it - our kitchen has a part-double height space and so the light upstairs lights both spaces each evening, especially good for when you want some light but don’t want to put the big light on. The silver light that we previously had in our conservatory decided it would work no more, and for no obvious reason. We’d had it a while and had had good use out of it, and while it’s sad to see it go (or it will be when we take it to the tip) it’s also been fun trying to source a replacement that was similar but not quite the same. One arrived last week, but the metal base was chipped and so that’s gone back and I’m waiting for its replacement - hopefully that one will have a smoother journey.

With the weather being much nicer we’ve also ventured out more, heading out to Nottingham by bus for lunch and some small errands. We planned to do some light research for a replacement kitchen sofa - the grey one photographed above is actually a garden sofa, which may finally make its debut in the actual garden. But we didn’t get as far as the sofa shop we planned to, we got as close as next door and had an on the whim visit to the art gallery next door after we saw a painting in the window from an artist we’re keen on.

We didn’t make it to the sofa shop as we ended up buying some artwork for the landing on the stairs. It’s a big space that needs something with impact, and ours is on order. It wasn’t our intention to buy this now, but when you see it and know its right, there’s no point in waiting is there?

There were some very lovely pieces in there with lots of zeroes on the end of the price tag, it isn’t one of those (sadly!) but we were given the full VIP treatment with a tea/coffee while we made our mind up and a glass of bubbly once the deal was sealed. So that should be with us next month - and at some point we’ll restart the informal sofa research too, but not just yet.

A bull and the Burrand stone

We’ve explored different river paths of the Trent in Newark starting from of all places Waitrose car park, but finding paths that cross the river making it easier to reach some of the retail parks on foot, which could be handy at times. The path went further than this, but given the sign and the fact we still had some shopping to do, here seemed as good as place to stop as any.

We joined a guided walking tour of the East Stoke Battle Fields organised and led by the parish church in Newark. It was great to hear more of the history of the area around our village, which is where the last battle of the War of the Roses took place, and to see the memorial stone which is on private property. I’ll share more about our walk later in the week, but in the meantime here’s a peek at the Burrand stone.

And of course we also had our first visit of the year to the Belton Estate, where we finally managed to revisit the conservatory, as well as seeing more of the house than ever before along with the new crafting a new narrative exhibition, but that’s not all. While in Nottingham, and before buying artwork and recovering with a pizza in Rudy’s, we popped along to the Transition & Decay exhibition in another new-to-us venue, the Nottingham Society of Artists Gallery.

TAKE HEED BY GILLI THEOKRITOFF

I’d picked up the flyer at the Newark Quilt Show earlier in the year, and we planned our trip to Nottingham to coincide with the exhibition. The piece I’ve shared above is one of the most thought provoking pieces we saw, and was MOH’s favourite - I even caught him taking some pictures of his own. It turns out this piece is by one of the tutors from the Floral Fancy workshop I attended in January, it’s a relatively small world it would seem. I’ve plenty more pictures to share from the exhibition so look out for those.

And before I go there’s a wedding in the offing for 2026 with my youngest niece and her fiancé sending out their ‘save the date’ details. You can’t beat a wedding, can you?

If you want to read my previous monthly updates in my ‘This is’ series you’re very welcome.