The earlier blogposts were written about my garden and allotment (lottie) in Oxford. However we moved to Sheffield in March 2013. From 2013-2016 I blogged about developing my garden and growing vegetables, fruit and hardy perennials within a smaller urban space. We moved to rented accommodation in 2017 and I focused on blogging about growing ornamentals and food in containers, as well as gardens/places I visited. Since Spring 2018 we have moved into our hopefully long-term home and garden, and I'll be blogging about designing and maintaining a garden around a chronic illness (I have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, known as ME.)
I sometimes blog about Gardening with ME and Spoonie Veg, chatting about the challenges and successes of gardening when you have a chronic illness. I started the memes using the hashtags: #GardeningWithME and #SpoonieVeg.
I am a member of: Friends of the Botanic Gardens Sheffield, South Pennine Hardy Plant Society (and national HPS), Permaculture Association (and I have a Certificate in Permaculture Design), and the Heritage Seed Libary.
My other interests include pre-1660 British History; post 1660 being boring since they stopped chopping heads off by then. My degree focused on Early Modern England and since then I have also gone backward in time first looking at the Plantagenets and more recently Anglo-Saxon and Norman history. I've also dipped into Welsh and Scottish history. If I had my way, Harold would have beaten William, and the Llewellyn's wouldn't have had to deal with Edward I et al.
When I'm not gardening, you'll find me colouring, knitting, being an arm-chair activist/anti-capitalist/anarchist (arm-chair coz chronic illness) or reading about British history, murder mysteries, science fiction (including feminist, space opera, solarpunk and dystopian genres), fantasy and literature.
Why Gwenfar's Garden?
Gwenfar is my nickname, my middle name being Gwenhwyfar. I was very into the Arthurian Legend when I was younger and it in fact prompted my first holiday to the UK in 1989. I fell utterly in love with this country and its history, and I subsequently moved here permanently, from Melbourne, in 1998.
I would like Gwenhwyfar to be my first name, but given most people (particularly in the UK...) can barely spell Julieanne, my actual name, well imagine the problems with Gwenhwyfar! The blog used to be Gwenfar's Lottie, but we moved and I no longer have a lottie so it felt appropriate to change the name of the blog.
My wonderful partner is Kevin, prior to 2014 there were references to our adorable Merlyn.
Merlyn sadly died in June 2014, but I'm keeping him here as he was a big and wonderful part of our lives for 14 years and I feel it is fitting that his memory lives on.
After fostering for Cats Protection for a year, well fell in love with a new kitty, and adopted our Freya, who you can follow on Mastodon @FreyaKitteh@sunbeam.city
