My Favourite Window

August 17, 2022

How Many Years On?


I can't say I've been blogging for 12 years today. I didn't even drop these LMSG anniversary daffs into my feed last year.


But I'm pretty pleased with how I've managed to increase their number from that tiny patch of five bulbs featured in my first ever blog post - Entrance


Looking back twelve years I can also see how this woodland patch has developed quite nicely from a weedy but hopeful tangle of hellebores...


...into a richer tapestry which includes self sown violets.

   

Another group of narcissus that I rescued have created a pleasing vignette in sight of my favourite window!


August 17, 2020

Happy Birthday Blog - Ten Years On


Ten years today I started blogging - avidly for a time here on Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden. I'm pleased to see that I have actually posted a couple of times since this date last year when I had to fall back on the annual daffodil update. I was determined to be more interesting this year - and look what happened: NZ entered a new round of Covid-19 Levels to try and prevent the spread of a new outbreak. Such a good time to look back on my experience of our first Lockdown period which unfolded through those glorious autumn days. The day before the country moved to Alert Level 4 I picked up around $100 worth of ornamental plants for around $6 as a garden centre cleared out stock. 


During that first week of Lockdown at the end of March the sky was full of planes flying university students home from Dunedin. By this time normal domestic flights had been cancelled. Mercy flights these may have been but I've heard since that they didn't come cheap.


I was the lucky recipient of a cafe clear-out, the goodies lasted me around two weeks with the perishables being used first.

No distractions away from home meant I could get stuck into jobs around the garden, though I stopped using the chainsaw early on. There were so many accidents drawing on emergency personnel that I thought I'd avoid the risk of adding to their workload. 


The garden offered so much to eat - and supplemented my cafe delicacies.


But eventually I had to go to the supermarket. I remember the friendliness of everyone, the overall patience, the attention to detail by management - but ultimately feeling knackered by the time I had to pack my groceries from the trolley into the car. 


Throughout New Zealand people were free to exercise at any time during the day as long as it was close to home. Exercise for me was within my garden and I kept to my one person bubble. Still I felt more connected to the village than usual - everyone was more prepared to greet, and make time for a chat. It was easy to keep our social distance on the wide country roadsides. 


The front windows of the Skudder House joined in the national bear and easter egg hunt!


And I made the most of my Easter breakfast in the garden.


Mostly I didn't feel the need to leave my garden but I did hear about all the Easter decorations around the village - so made a point of going out for a look. 

That was Autumn and now it's Spring. I feel less content in myself this time round. Getting caught up in the recent Covid testing has made me aware that without any certainty or clarity about when to expect test results I was less able to be my best altruistic self .


Just for the record, here are the Blog-opening daffodils at about the same stage as this time last year but well ahead of this date ten years ago. Only two blooms but many more than the five bulbs I rescued back then. 



May 7, 2020

Stormy Light


Something to be getting on with... 




In these long easy days of Covid-19 solitude and isolation Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden is proving a true haven.


January 1, 2020

Are You Still Here?

I wrote the following as an exercise in January 2019, when I started on a new Computer Studies module...

I'm onto this I thought at the time. Well maybe I understand a bit more about computer 'stuff' but it's not helping me - nearly a year on - as I try to choose photos from my phone to use here. I still prefer to write blog posts on a Qwerty keyboard.

I opened my phone's gallery a couple of minutes ago to share a few pre-selected photos with myself and it emptied in front of my eyes. Okay. Choose a different path. Find my Google photos. There they are, but... they won't stop loading, scrolling, jiggling so that I can work with any one of them. Hey, I've only just seen that I can directly access my phone from here. That makes things easier.


I think I'm better off with nuts and bolts problems all the same. 


I've been planning this New Year post for a few days now. Since an Instagram friend commented that she had toyed with the idea of getting back to her blog lately I've remembered how Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden fed me so much in the years after my husband's death. The link with the wider world was escapism I'm sure, but it satisfied a need. It also helped me hone my writing. 



Escapism and writing! In 2018 escapism was Morocco  - a week in Essaouira with my friend Claire Steele, on one of her Magical Journeys writing retreats. Out of that came a short story, Live Music Tonight, which was published in 2019 in this volume of work from twelve Magical Journeys' writers. If you are interested in supporting this venture - Me even - the book is available from Amazon via the Mardibooks website.

One of the main reasons I eased up on blogging and Internet use in general, was to free up time to work on my land, develop the garden I'd always dreamed about, and maybe make some progress with the Skudder House. I was also feeling stymied by changes to blog rules which meant I could no longer comment and engage on favourite sites. Everything is solvable but I didn't feel that was the best use of my time and energy. 


What I didn't realise until last year was that I have almost certainly been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It explains a lot. Probably from before Elwin died but heavily masked by bereavement and Earthquake PTSD it has meant I can't work full time. Remarkably, I can still work as a gardener but only if I break my day into roughly one hour and twenty minute slots with substantial rests or sleep in between. 


More than 3 1/2 hours and I risk crashing. A 'crash' can extend into the following day. Brain work - like writing this - is equally tiring. 
It is ironic that early on after Elwin's death I set things in place to allow for different income streams (I still sell vintage wares on Etsy) so that I could fit work on my property around those. 
This has proved useful but also time consuming and emotionally exhausting!


But Life isn't bad. In fact every single day I am grateful for so many joys, opportunities, people, and health improvements.



No promises then of more frequent blog posts but maybe, I'm prepared now to give blogging on my phone a go. 


J D Hobby 2020 Copyright

August 17, 2019

Anniversary Surprise!


It's been awhile since I posted - exactly a year in fact - and quite awhile since I set up Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden.

Nine years! I'm not sure if nine years really counts when I haven't blogged here reliably for such a long time.

Still, today is the anniversary of my first blog post and that post featured these daffodils. Judging by the buds they were about 7-10 days behind this stage on 17 August in 2010.

These daffs are quite a useful indication of some kind of progress in the garden. I did dig them up and they have increased in number. 

Should I keep going with this blog I sometimes ask myself as I post almost daily on Instagram @hobbyography. I'm surprised at how many people still mention Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden with interest and appreciation in face to face conversation. And I guess that's enough to keep me interested. Now all I need is more time to compose posts! 

Narcissus var. Daffodil

August 17, 2018

Now, Where Was I?

I can hardly claim to have been blogging for eight years when I haven't posted anything for ten months...


It's springtime again - though this year everyone is noticing how much earlier so many things are flowering. Eight years ago today I used a photo of these daffodils just pushing through the frosty earth. This year they were so far ahead that they opened their blooms on 12 August.

Back in 2010 when I first began blogging I had grand ideas about charting the restoration of the Skudder House and the making of a garden around it. What with one thing and another I haven't got very far with either of those projects, but I have recorded seasonal shift in a changing world.


October 27, 2017

Spring Into Summer



What a season of floral extravagance this spring has been. Everything that could bloom has - and to its peak. The mild wet winter meant many trees and shrubs blossomed around three weeks earlier than normal here in North Canterbury. 


The spiraea hedge at the Ashley Church had been trimmed late so there hasn't been a profusion of its snowy white flowers but this is an exception.


Where does Spring end and Summer begin? With the first roses maybe. This was the first 'Delicata' bloom encouraged by gentle warm days but unfurling into a rainy period.


And just this week this clematis opened its first flower. In typical secret garden fashion 'Niobe' is rambling through a patch of overgrown raspberry canes, its crinkled petals echoing the creased berry leaves.



I'm enjoying the double pink may trees which frame the view towards the river bank from my kitchen window. They've come into flower a little later than the white hedgerow species which, within itself, has staggered flowering on different trees. This is a floribunda year - gorgeous to look at and good for the soul. 

Wisteria 'Caroline'
Spiraea trilobata [uncertain]
Rosa rugosa 'Delicata'
Clematis 'Niobe'
Double pink may, Double pink hawthorn - Crataegus laevigata 'Rosea Flore Pleno'


All photos taken on my Samsung Galaxy 5