Shropshire holiday

Kevin and I got back from a week in Shropshire yesterday. Perhaps not an exotic holiday, but a lovely and relaxing one which was just what we needed. We did some walks nearby (see below), and hired a car for a couple of days so we could visit a couple of gardens that were hard to get to by public transport. These were the Dower House Garden of The Morville Hours fame (and a very strong reason for choosing Shropshire for our holiday this year), and Wollerton Old Hall Garden, both of which I'll blog about separately.

We stayed in Ludlow, a pretty town with lots of historic buildings, some dating back to the 15th century, and the castle which dates to the Norman Conquest. A hilly town, because you build your castles on a hill, don't you know, but well worth it. The photo below is of the market square.  

We took the opportunity of a guided walking tour so we could learn more about the history of Ludlow. The guide was clearly keen on architecture and buildings, and that was the main focus, rather than social history, which we prefer. However, it was engaging and one particularly interesting fact is that some of the 'Georgian' buildings you can see on the square, actually date to the medieval period. The owners, in an 18th century version of 'keeping up with the Jones's', couldn't afford to pull down their house and rebuild completely in the Georgian style as was the fashion of the time, so they just had the front refurbished to look Georgian, whilst inside the rest of the house remained medieval!

And of course, it has a castle which dates back to the Norman conquest. The 'of course' is you can trust a Gwenhwyfar to find a castle to play in on holidays if she can!

The first picture is a view of the castle from the river side, and the second below, from inside the castle. Unfortunately the castle isn't being looked after by English Heritage who are pretty good at keeping castles and ruins in good repair, but is privately owned by some Duke or Earl dude with an eye on profit. It shows. Part of the castle has been closed off to the public and 21st century private accommodation added at a nice exclusive price, the cheapest being £480 for 3 nights. And what you can visit, isn't very well looked after. There were trees, one at least over 5 ft, (sycamore I think) growing out of the top of some walls, the roots of which will destabilise the mortar and could lead to walls falling down. The remaining old iron-wood doors, must be about 15th century, are almost coming off their hinges, and pigeons are nesting and shitting all over the place. You have to be careful where you step.

I think my pictures might make the castle look in better repair than it is!

One of the particular reasons for choosing Shropshire was to do some walking in the hills of South Shropshire. We walked from Church Stretton up to Caer Caradoc. This picture of Caer Caradoc (the hill to the right of the picture) was taken from the Long Mynd the following evening.

Not a long walk, about 6 miles for the round trip, but very, very, steep. Well worth the effort though. The views from Caer Caradoc were breathtaking. We could actually see as far away as Hay Bluff in the Black Mountains. It was a good place to view the Long Mynd (below, with Church Stretton in the valley) to the west, the Wrekin to the north, and Clee Hills to the south-east.

Here are some sheep pretending to be goats up on top of Caer Caradoc.

My photographs in no way do the view any justice. It was a hazy day, and frankly, I don't think it is easy to capture the breadth of the views on camera. Or maybe I'm just not a good enough photographer?! I did manage to capture this Kestrel hovering, which I'm pleased with.

And here I am having a rest in the heather, just before we began the steep walk down.

We slacked off a bit the next day, and took advantage of the hire car and drove rather than walked up Long Mynd. Again, more beautiful views of the Shropshire hills. I think my picture of the wild ponies on Long Mynd captures the sparse beauty of the hills, reminiscent of Dartmoor. And isn't the foal cute!

Other wildlife we saw on the holiday was a hare, too quick for me to photograph, and Red Kites. Yes, we have Red Kites flying over Oxford these days, but they are still amazing birds to see.

In Much Wenlock, I snapped this sign that we found amusing on the wall of the old telegraph office, reminding us that every age has its 'hoodies'.

And for funniest village name of the trip, in the manner of Douglas Adam's Meaning of Liff, Diddlebury. Kevin and I thought this sounded like the kind of word you might use to describe someone who is a bit absent minded and does silly things getting themselves further into a muddle. "What a diddlebury, I've just put the cat in the fridge and the milk outside the back door... Argh!!!"

The holiday hasn't ended, we now have another week off at home, pottering about and maybe going for cycle rides. And blogging about our garden visits in Shropshire.

French Bean 'Ice Crystal'

I love French beans, both climing and dwarf. One of the varieties I picked up when I attended Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots seed saving event last October, was 'Ice Crystal'. This was given to me by Dr Simon Platten who also attended the event. He is doing some interesting research on British home gardens and the levels of diversity in them.

I picked up several other Dwarf varieties and sowed some bog standard ones (ie. that you can easily get from garden centres or online), but so far these ones have been the most successful.

Even though the plants are not in the best position, they are in partial shade, they look incredibly healthy, as you can see. They are also quite prolific. Given I only planted five plants, in a week I've had two meals off of them (one for two people, another for three) and plenty more are growing.

They are unusal looking, in they are quite a pale green.

They might look a little anemic, but they were crunchy and juicy, a delight to taste. They went very nicely with my freshly dug Pentland Javelin potatoes and some honey mustard dressing, though just lightly steamed on their own would have been just as good.

I haven't always have the best success with French beans in the last couple of years, being so wet; French beans (dwarf or climbing) do like regular warm sun to get going in my experience. Other standard varieties you can get at garden centres or online, like Maxi and Tendergreen, planted close by, haven't done near as well, I guess they need more sun. I like that the Ice Crystal have done well under partial shade, as it suggests they might be a good variety for indifferent English summers.

I'm so pleased with them that I've decided to not pick any more, but just let them go to seed so I can save them and grow lots more next year.

Butterfly cakes

My first attempt at Butterfly cakes:

They tasted great too!

In the wars, and parsnips

No, not the Split Enz song.*

The lack of blogging is due to not just being too busy with two jobs, but also because the last couple of weeks have seen me in the wars. I, a) put out my lower back again, b) have my left elbow clicking out of place and therefore put all the muscles into spasm and causing constant pain and c) then got my left fingers  burnt. All of which has meant I've had to limit computer time to just work instead of blogging. Thankfully, the lower back is ok now and the burns are healing. My arm is still giving me hell, so I'll make this a short blog.

The point of this blog was not necessarily to complain, although I did manage to sneak that in. Did you notice? I wanted to share some good news. Gardening news that is. Kevin and I pootled down to the Lottie on Sunday to do some watering. Well, Kevin did the watering, and I directed - cannot lift anything coz of my arm you see. And I got a nice surprise. Parsnips.

You see, I was pretty much giving up on having much of a parsnip crop this year. I have sown quite a few rows at home and on the Lottie, but apart from the 10 that I specifically germinated and planted individually as a trial, nothing was germinating. About a 6 weeks ago I gave it one last shot, sowing some Turga, Tender & True and Kral Russian (from the Heritage Seed Library). I didn't really expect them to germinate, particularly with such warm weather. You usually sow parsnips between about February and May, so mid June in the heat seemed like hope over what's on the seed packet.

But to my great delight, there the little buggers were - growing! Real little parsnip leaves and everything. I forgot to take my camera, so you'll  have to take my word for it. But boiling weather and no rain and I got parsnips to germinate and grow. Well I'll be...

So not plant pics, but here's me looking cheery at Bee Day last Saturday at Barracks Lane Community Garden.

*As a teenager, and in fact still as an adult, I loved/love Split Enz. On their Corroboree album is a song 'In the wars' and immediately I hear Tim Finn singing it in my head singing every time I hear the words 'in the wars'... So couldn't resist putting it in the title.

David Cameron & West Papua

It's not often that West Papua gets on the news. Rich in resources and a highly biodiverse environment, but controlled with brutal violence by Indonesia (largely because of those resources), the West Papuan people undergo daily human rights abuses, and have no say in the governance of their country. Most countries and the UN quietly ignore what's going on in West Papua, and have done for over 40 years. So it comes as a surprise to find that David Cameron is a hero to West Papuan people.

This ITV news piece explains why Cameron is considered a hero in West Papua. They believe him being PM of the UK will help them gain their freedom from Indonesia. On the one hand, getting West Papua into the news is good, because it raises the profile of their occupation and abuse. But Cameron a hero? The man is very good at speaking without saying anything, let alone commit to anything, unless it's free trade or no taxes for the rich. (I guess he is a hero to the rich.) I hope he doesn't disappoint the West Papuan people and their faith in him. So let's step up the pressure on Cameron and the UK government.

The Free West Papua Campaign is asking people to write to their MP and ask her/him to write to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and remind him of the hope West Papuans have of Cameron's government. Ask what action the UK Government plans to take towards achieving self-determination for West Papua. I suggest you also write to David Cameron with the same question too.

Just before the May elections, Cameron described what what happening in West Papua as a terrible situation. Fine - let's see you do something about it then Cameron.