LIABILITY BROWN - Dig It

LIABILITY BROWN

Hidcote - Spring Colours

20/4/2026

The sun showed its face again so we jumped in the car, put the top down and had a little jaunt out and about! Naturally, now that we are officially middle-aged, we went to a National Trust property to wander aimlessly and then perhaps to indulge in tea and cake!

Hidcote Manor Gardens is only about 16 miles away and we go fairly frequently. The garden is classed as Grade 1 listed.

Naturally I have no idea what the majority of these plants are called but I like the colours!
Oh - although it didn't seem busy whilst circumnavigating the estate, the queue for the cafe was off-putting so we didn't even indulge in any Lemon Drizzle!?*

BOOM!

15/4/2026

Just a few blossoming images to cheer everyone up!

Suddenly, over the weekend, the apple blossom and oak tree started to emerge from the ashes (as it were).

It has been a long time coming but at least we're getting there...

Oops... April Already!

5/4/2026

Photo actually taken at the end of March.... wine was needed that day!

Getting off to a blooming start for spring. The unseasonably very warm weather of the past few days has been thoroughly welcomed and enjoyed. Naturally everything will go into shock when the temperatures dip again.... as they are bound to - after all it is only April!

Also - bottom right hand corner picture... what is this? I asked a FB "identity plants" group and a few people said Lovage... but I can't imagine why I would have specifically grown a whole load of this herb (and I don't recall ever having bought the seeds) and I have actually grouped them in various flower-beds. It's a mystery!!!

Digital Temperature

24/3/2026

March Already???

11/3/2026

In my "To Do" folder there is a message entitled "seeds to sow in February".... hmm, well, that's gone well then!?!

Actually, a few packets of seeds have been sown and my new greenhouse heater is proving its worth already. I am attempting some proper succession planting this year and therefore I already have peas, Runner beans and French beans poking through. There are more sweet peas doing their thing as well as parsley, calendula, and various annual flowers - the names of which I can't remember off the top of my head!

Please note that I have managed to keep alive some geraniums, fuchsias and some ferns too. I am quite impressed really.

Spring Colours

7/3/2026

Feeling Blue?

14/1/2026

Wise Words - from another person!

"I know that many people are... feeling a kind of cumulative fatigue that creeps in at the edges. A sense of being worn down by the challenges we face ourselves, or the ones weighing on people we love. A feeling that we are living through permanent crises with no let-up. Over-saturated, overstimulated, and over-it, many are tuning out, disengaging, and curling inward in self-protection mode"

Check out the whole article via copying and pasting (below) as the 'link' I created came up with a Error 404 -whatever that means?*!

https://open.substack.com/pub/davidmichie/p/frayed-and-tired-of-it-rinpoches?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Christmas at Hogwarts

30/12/2025

One of the nine useable fireplaces in the house - it was decorated beautifully and included 320 baubles!

The house is often referred to as Hogwarts because the main staircase lends itself to that name. And I am always getting confused as to which floor I am on; I even opened a door during our Christmas visit thinking it was a cupboard... and it was another staircase (see below)!

Not Glamorous!

29/12/2025

Recommended recipes so far: Curried Parsnip Soup, Parsnip Chips and Crisps, Roasted Cauliflower & Parsnip Soup, Delia’s Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup, Parsnip Mash and "or you could just part boil them, then freeze individually for roasties".

Post Christmas I spent a few hours digging and clearing the veg patch. I needed some fresh air and exercise! However, I also dug up the remaining parsnips... quite a lot more than anticipated!

and Baubles to you too!

24/12/2025

Priorities

23/12/2025

These are Paul's priorities (obvs!)... wine and cornflakes!
He also has a penchant for cheese sandwiches too. Bless.

It's Grim Outside

17/12/2025

It's grim outside and also pretty grim inside Greenhouse No. 2 despite the bubble-wrap insulation, however, having said that, my chilli peppers are STILL going strong!

Ignore everything else - a few plants are surviving and most of the bare roots are doing their thing by being dried up and dormant in their cosy straw-lined cardboard boxes. I am fairly optimistic on that score.

I have also been fairly systematic regarding the bulb and new planting that has taken place over the past six weeks or so - marking out where they have been dug-in and even taking a photograph of the labels. Next year I should be able to rustle up the name of a plant as opposed to the usual "oh, it's a red - pink - yellow - or whatever flower"!

NGS - Charity Update

3/12/2025

As so many of you sponsored my Afternoon Tea Garden Party in July, I thought you might be interested in this:

Press Release: Wednesday 3 December 2025

2025 was another landmark year for the National Garden Scheme with a record £3,875,596 donated from funds gathered at garden openings throughout the year. The donations helped thousands of people living with cancer, Parkinson’s, poor mental health, or the pressures of unpaid caring, by supporting the nurses, health professionals and case workers who care for them.

Our donations also reached hundreds of gardens and health projects. In 2025, 114 new gardens received Community Garden Grants*, and five new nurse-led projects were funded through our NGS Elsie Wagg (Innovation) Scholarships – bringing vital support to many communities, often in areas of deprivation. We also continued to fund the training and welfare of gardeners, whose skills underpin horticulture throughout the country.

Commenting on this year’s donations, National Garden Scheme Chief Executive Dr Richard Claxton said: “It’s nearly 100 years since our charity was formed to support district nursing, and our commitment to nursing care remains central. Long-term partnerships with Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Parkinson’s UK, the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing, Hospice UK and Carers Trust are the bedrock of our donation programme. With the lion’s share of this year’s donation; £2,725,000 going to these much-loved nursing and healthcare charities.

Check out: NGS Record Donations 2025

ABBA VOYAGE

8/11/2025

“In a stunning, purpose-built arena, one of the most popular groups in history appear as digital avatars in a ‘ground-breaking’ (Metro) concert that really ‘needs to be seen to be believed’ (BBC).

Alison, Faith and I ventured to London at the weekend to go to a matinee performance of ABBA Voyage. Well, I say performance, but it is difficult to know whether this terminology is correct because the band is a “digital versions of themselves” but backed by a 10-piece live band.

“Blurring the lines between the physical and digital, see the magic of ABBA brought to life using the latest in motion capture technology”.

The virtual avatars ("ABBAtars"), depict the group as they appeared in 1979 and use the original vocals recorded by the group,

Paul was not keen to go when I mooted the idea a while ago but, even if he is not a fan of the music, then as a lighting and sound professional I think he would be blown away by the effects.

It is A-MAZING! I want to go again!!

Taking photos or video during the show is strictly forbidden and people are asked to leave if they are seen doing so. So, these are taken as everyone found their seats (allowed!)

Opposite: Even the corridor leading to the toilets is impressively lit!

Friends Visiting

27/10/2025

https://hartsilversmiths.co.uk/

SEE: Hart Silversmiths Trust

We also visited the family at Cross House - where many might say that it is very much as it has always been since the early 16th-century! And visited my sister and her family in their 'cottage' - probably a mere hundred years old or some such.

See below.

Oops... This has been sitting in drafts for weeks. And our good friend Roger was here at the beginning of September!

As Roger is a veteran of the Cotswolds we spent less time doing touristy things and more time catching up and meeting other friends, eating and drinking.

One place, however, that we stumbled across (well, actually recommended by our neighbour), is this marvellous workshop in Chipping Campden. The area is widely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement spearheaded by William Morris. So, in 1902 one key member of the movement, C R Ashbee, brought the Guild of Handicraft to the town and one of the Guildsmen was local man George Hart (b 1882). As the craftsmen went their separate ways in 1908, the Guild was continued by George and three other partners, as he established his silversmith business in an old silk mill in Sheep Street.... and it is still there producing high quality "a wide range of domestic silverware, we make and design anything from tiny thimbles to cutlery, bowls, tea and coffee services and silver-mounted crystal decanters".

The workshop is very much as it has always been!

Ruins & Disintegration

27/10/2025

Back in the summer we managed a few trips out and about and actually visited a few places 'on the doorstep'. Why is it that we spend time, effort and money going to faraway places yet often ignore those that are right under our noses?

Less than a two hour drive away through south Gloucestershire, the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley National Landscape (a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), is the disintegrated ruins of Tintern Abbey - an impressive national icon — standing next to the River Wye in Monmouthshire (Wales).

Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks. The timber buildings of the first abbey were followed by a simple stone church and cloisters.

The Cistercian Order was founded in 1098 at the abbey of Cîteau in Dijon, France. A breakaway faction of the Benedictines, the Cistercians sought to re-establish observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict - written in Latin c. 530. The Cistercians were considered the strictest of the monastic orders with an emphasis upon a life of simplicity, labour, and deep spiritual contemplation.

This influenced even the requirements for the construction of their abbeys, stipulating that "none of our houses is to be built in cities, in castles or villages; but in places remote from the conversation of men...”.

The motto of St Benedict was: ‘Laborare est orare’ – ‘To work is to pray’.

In 1269, thanks to the patronage of wealthy Marcher lords (appointed by the English crown to govern and defend the border regions between England and Wales, known as the Welsh Marches), the building of a new abbey church commenced and resulted in a “much grander structure with soaring gothic arches, windows with delicate tracery, and surrounded by substantial outbuildings including the cloisters where much of the life of the abbey community took place, chapter house, library, refectory, dormitories, and infirmary. It housed over a hundred choir monks, who were ordained priests, and lay brothers who did the ‘housework’”.

The great west front with its seven-lancet window and the soaring arches of the nave is still impressive despite falling into ruin in the first round of King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in 1536.

The Dissolution ended monastic life in England, Wales and Ireland. Tintern Abbey and all ots estates were surrendered on 3 September 1536. Valuables from the Abbey were sent to the royal Treasury, and lead from the roof was sold and the building was granted to the Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester (and lord of Chepstow).

Therefore, the decay of Tintern Abbey began, with the resulting present-day ruins demonstrating a mixture of building works covering a 400-year period between 1131 and 1536.

See these links:
Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth (English Romantic poet 1770 – 1850
Tintern Village - Abbey History

Autumn Sunshine

24/10/2025

Dodgy Gourds

13/10/2025

Chilli peppers - 13 October 2025

Carrots & Parsnips - 19 Oct 2025

I was going to attempt to write a few catch-up missives but that would be trawling back to (August) when it was way too hot and nobody had the wherewithal to do anything other than move from shaded spot to the fridge for another cool drink!

The garden plants seemed to struggle to even absorb the water given – but in retrospect even though we watered every evening we obviously mis-calculated the much larger quantity of moisture needed. The vegetables in both the patch and the greenhouses were stoic to a point and then just succumbed to exhaustion in the unusually high temperatures (for the UK). Still, you live and learn.

Therefore, it was all a bit disappointing – by mid-September I ended up clearing out the cucumbers, courgette, sweetcorn, runner beans, and even some tomato plants which had some kind of mildew as well as the odd blossom end rot. The latter is all linked to inconsistency with watering and calcium – and this may have stemmed from the short period when we were in Florence. The crops that seemed to cope were the French beans and beetroot – but those had been succession planting.

As I type this (mid-October) the chilli peppers and sweet peppers in the greenhouse are incredibly fruitful and, to accompany our Sunday lunch today, I dug up some impressive parsnips and carrots… so it hasn’t been a complete disaster, I suppose!

Sad gourds - 22 August 2025

Sad sweetcorn - 14 August 2025

A lot has happened since the beginning of September, including unplanned-for work in both the garden and the house, as well as visits to places and visitors from overseas too, but I can only cope with so much screen time over the weekend! It is bad enough in the week, and I get paid for that.

So, more to follow...

Exhaustion

7/10/2025

It has been a busy-busy few months.
I think. It has all been a bit of a blur.

Actually, for a while I was very out-of-sorts.As i recently mentioned I had an appointment with my diabetic nurse, and it transpires that I had been having a lot of hypos – dangerously low blood sugar levels (BGLs). This explained the total exhaustion that I felt throughout the summer and – to a certain degree, even now. It was getting fairly ridiculous when I was forcing myself to remain active but really wated to go to bed at 7.30pm!

I am still going to bed early but I’m also giving myself permission to do so… !

Anyway, the Nurse has prescribed a monitor (called FreeStyle LibreLink 2). It is absolutely amazing. The monitor (a white disc) is attached to the body (currently on my upper arm) and it sends all the BGL data to my mobile phone! It is SO clever. Apparently, some of the readings might be ‘out’ if compared with the normal finger-prick tests because it is something to do with testing capillary blood and some other type (Royal blue blood maybe?*!). Either which way, I’m permanently astounded at how helpful this kit is. I do wish that it had been prescribed before now but, of course, there is a certain amount of criteria and boxes to be ticked by the NHS. However, my marvellous Nurse over-rode some of this and I am now on a repeat prescription to receive the monitor – each one lasts fifteen days. I do think that it can only be beneficial to how things are controlled and already my insulin (mmol units) injection has been reduced and the BGLs have levelled out.

Fingers crossed that this continues and my energy returns; it gets boring otherwise.

"Blog - mid September"

17/9/2025

Well, the past few weeks [months] I seem to have given up the ghost or lost the plot. Or certainly couldn’t be bothered with many things. On the one hand it seems to have been ‘busy-busy’ but that might be a) all in my head or b) stuff that is just mundane and not of much interest to anyone, least of all myself...

Ha! Ha!

Either which way, I feel like it has been full-on.

Sweltering Garden Party!

13/7/2025

June & July 2025 - Synopsis

9/7/2025

It has been a bit mad lately.

Naturally, and typically, this has all coincided with an increase in my work hours.

I have been asked to cover some job elements of a colleague who has just departed on maternity leave. The thing is, she controlled a lot of invoicing and timesheets / pay and suchlike. As many of you know, I am not a figures person and it is not an area which is a forte! I have written copious notes and laboriously follow the bullet points as I navigate the SAGE accounts system. Just a tad stressful!

Incidentally I have been in the job just over six months and they increased my pay last week too. I certainly wasn't expecting that. NIce.

Therefore as there has been and is so much to think about, do and recover from, I am doing a succinct break down for June and July....

Florence: See previous Blogs but basically ….Fabulous. Expensive. Hot. 20th wedding anniversary.

June & July Birthdays: Five family birthdays and associated get-togethers – meals, coffees, brunches.

Local Volunteer: St Peter’s Church Fete – plant stall volunteer. A hot and blustery day. (see previous Blog)

www.obga.ox.ac.uk/guide-garden

Day in Oxford: Hottest day of the year [so far] ; visited Oxford’s Botanic Garden “The oldest botanic garden in the UK, and home to over 5,000 different plant species”. The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621; the Walled Garden dates from this time and the first greenhouse is over 300 years old (approx. 1733). Sir Henry Danvers, the first Earl of Danby, established it as a Physic Garden - collections of medicinal plants.

Tim Minchin at Oxford’s New Theatre: Songs the World Will Never Hear. Hottest Day of the Year - 32 degrees outside, 102 degrees in the Circle seats!! But an amazing show!

As per previous blog.

Friend’s Festival Party: invited to a big birthday celebration but thwarted at the attempt to get there! For some unknown reason all electricity to our cottage suddenly stopped. This did not affect any other houses in the locality. Subsequently we spent over twelve hours with three teams from the National Grid who were brilliant but ended up having to dig a big hole in the road to solve the problem. The hole is still there and temporary traffic lights still in place! Our name is mud!!

New Car! When we came back from Australia we bought new [second hand - obvs] cars. The small Yaris - with as much oomph as a toaster - was already on a downward struggle and we thought we would be able to replace it within a year or so. Hmm.... so over six years later it was still limping along but heading for that scrap-yard in the sky! Therefore, Paul has splashed out (-ish) on an old, but well-looked-after Audi TT and is enjoying it very much indeed!

Imminent: Afternoon Tea - Garden Party: in aid of various cancer charities as sponsored by the National Garden Scheme. 12th July 2025

JustGiving link

Up-coming:

The Sparks: brothers Ron and Russell Mael are playing at The Halls at University of Wolverhampton on 19th July 2025 on their MAD! Tour.

Paul has been a fan for... decades!

Prepping the Garden - always

5/7/2025

Church Fete and So On

28/6/2025

I haven't had time or much inclination to update anyone or anything recently. It seems to be busy in a self-imposed way... I realise that as soon as I have a number of commitments then I manage to convince myself that loads of other things also have to be done and dusted and the 'to do list' gets longer and is often filled with ridiculous tasks that really aren't that important. It is very odd and I irritate myself enormously!

Anyway, the past month involved our visit to Florence (as you know), so that was an anniversary, and then lots of birthdays and all that those can entail, as well as commitments that I made months ago like helping on the plant stall at Winchcombe's St Peter's Church Fete. It was a very hot day with a very blustery breeze whipping through and knocking things over, scattering papers and handouts and encouraging kids to run amok - as they always do when it's windy!

Still, there's always homemade cake to be washed down with gallons of tea as provided by the local Townswomen's Guild.

Nice.

Gardening as Therapy - & Afternoon Tea

21/6/2025

From (link): Gardening as therapy | Maggie's

Gardening As Therapy
As well as being enjoyable, gardening can be good for you. Studies have shown that gardening improves general health and can help reduce both stress and anxiety. It can refocus attention when we feel overwhelmed, boost mood and improve balance.

In terms of exercise, as long as you avoid heavy digging, landscaping etc. and being out in very hot temperatures, gardening can be great low impact exercise for during and after cancer treatment. It can be something to do for anyone convalescing from surgery, between or after treatments as garden tasks come in all shapes and sizes.
It can be a way of being sociable whilst also having a task to focus on and, as it is enjoyable, it's an activity that is likely to be continued.

Maggie’s centres are generally set in beautiful gardens. We recognise that the space around us (whether inside or out) creates an environment which helps our visitors to find the emotional space they need

If you don’t have your own garden you could try gardening on a small scale using containers and window boxes. There are also a growing number of community groups gardening in social spaces or there may be a gardening for health group near you.

Gardening can be a great way to relax whilst also getting some exercise. A few precautions are advised, particularly if you are at the mid point between cycles of chemotherapy. Your immune system will be low and you can be susceptible to infections.

Click the link below for:

Rosie's JustGiving page for Afternoon Tea in the Garden

I'm hoping the sun will shine on the small Afternoon Tea in the Garden I am hosting for friends, neighbours and family, and to raise funds for various cancer nursing and respite charities as supported by the National Garden Scheme - including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, the Queen's Institute of Community Nursing and Parkinson's UK.

If you would like to attend in person please let me know so I can find more crockery!

Any donation would be gratefully received - thank you in advance.

Take care to protect yourself from scratches or thorns.
Protect your skin / cover up to avoid sunburn (certain treatments can make your skin more sensitive to sunlight).
Wear gloves and wash your hand thoroughly after gardening.
Don’t overdo it - take regular breaks and avoid heavy lifting. If you are feeling tired then just sitting in the garden will also be beneficial.

House plants
Houseplants are also good for your health. They ‘breathe’ in the opposite way to us taking in the carbon dioxide that we breathe out and turning it into oxygen - they are natural air cleaners. Having living plants around the home or workplace has been shown to improve air quality, mood, concentration, the ability to tolerate pain and to reduce stress and fatigue (tiredness).

Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing)
Shinrin-yoku is traditionally practiced in Japan. In recent years there has been increased interest in its benefits in the UK. It literally translates as 'forest bathing'. It involves simply being in forested areas, noticing what you can see, hear, smell and touch. Studies have shown that even a few minutes of forest bathing can reduce levels of stress and improve concentration.