Dirty Paws and Delicious Vegetables

This is the reason THEY love the Lynwood kitchen garden, lots of choice for supper and lots of goodies for friends to take home.

There is rather a lot of red cabbage still to come but SHE cannot resist the sight of them in nice straight rows in the garden beds.

THEY'RE not the only ones that dig in the kitchen garden

Gallery Maunsell Wicks

We had a very grown up visit to Dominic and Teddy of Maunsell Wickes fame.Their art gallery is in Paddington but we had a delicious breakfast with them at home while in Sydney the other day. Such a treat, the house as you can imagine is a cornucopia of riches in the contemporary Australian Art Dept. and the Full of Fun Dept. After time spent with Dominic and Teddy one leaves not only with all the latest art world news but a real pep in ones step no different from a visit to the gallery where a warm welcome awaits everyone.

This is Dominic playing Pauline de Rothschild from that famous photograph by Horst

This is Teddy being Teddy

wealth from waste

Spring has sprung at Lynwood Farm and everything in the garden is about to pop, thanks in large part to the compost HE makes from all the prunings and garden refuse.
It is a daily excursion to the shed and HIS trusty tractor to turn this treasure-ish stuff, which in no time at all is broken down into crumbling, sweet smelling compost for the whole garden.

HE is a master compost-maker -and I dont say that just because I help HIM drive the trusty tractor. 

Spring also brings the fun of visiting other gardens, another treat for THEM - its such a lovely way to pass an afternoon or a holiday.
Have you read the fabulous Janelle McCulloch blog about the garden tour (and lots of other interesting things) Janelle is planning to take to England next year ? It sounds riveting not only for fab gardens but the charming hotels and the insider shopping tips. Janelle is a fountain of information and enormously generous with said information, which is why her blog and ALL those books she has written are such faves, especially her kitchen gardening book (not to mention her guide to Paris).

Here we are leaving the shed (can you see the pile of cuttings behind, which will soon be put in to the chipper as the first step in being made in to wonderful mulch).

HE has three bays, where the green cuttings and grass clippings start in one, and gradually move to the final stage. It only takes about 6 weeks to transform the waste in to a delicious black mulch. Here you can see the heat generated from the decomposition process.

HE is very proud of his idea to put a metal bar at the base of the bay, so the tractor blade doesnt dig in to the soil.

I love the sweet smell from fresh compost ! it also makes a nice little snack for Bella and me.

And this is what the compost produces (can you see it on the vegetable beds ?)

The Drawing Room Shuffle

THEY love having friends for the weekend.

Instead of a rushed dinner or lunch, guests usually arrive Saturday afternoon around tea time (SHE'S not very good at cooking but can manage a lemon drizzle cake).Then theres a walk around the garden and or a rest with a pile of books - followed by a big hot bath (we have plenty of our own rain water); then drinks in the drawing room before dinner.

This past weekend THEY had a great friend of Aunt Nano's from NZ, John Leaning, enroute to his flat in London where he lived for years. Sarah Walter was also visiting, being on a working holiday from England. They are both in the decorating game, John on his own, and Sarah as an assistant to Emma Burns at Colefax and Fowler. 

After a lot of house chat John suggested a change-around in the drawing room: all hands on deck with sofas and tables whirling helter skelter all over the room to settle in new and much happier positions.

Of course they do rely to some extent on my eye - here's me deciding where the Pembroke table should go.

All the changes were complemented by the first of the tree peonies.

It feels altogether more comfortable. 

This is only the first of the peonies - there will be lots of colours to come.

All this moving the furniture is very tiring - here's me having a little rest on Nano's bed after the drawing room re-shuffle

Daffodils and Limes

Now is the time of the daffodils - hundreds and hundreds are in bloom at Lynwood, scores of different varieties including the old favourites King Alfred, all came from Jackson's and Hancock's

What better way to celebrate than by having dinner with close friends, and flooding the table with daffies & limes ! HE has yet to hang HER birthday present - can you see the Angela Brennan leaning against the wall ?

All the house guests chip in to help - here is Robyn Holt looking very pleased with the brussel sprouts and broccoli that came fresh from the garden !

here is the finished table

Tablecloth from fabric bought at Pigotts

I do what I can to help- my main role is as an early warning device for guests arrival.

and here they are, the gang from Kangaloon !
Dan, Michael and Brent

 I must say that Eddie Love is not as much fun as her parents Michael and Marco, but she is thirteen.

There were even enough daffs left over for the drawing room 

and the kitchen with just-picked limes and lemons, in white ceramic jugs & footed bowls (the Drill Hall has lots of similar ones)

not to forget the front door (in the autumn John plants up lots of pots of bulbs).

and there are still plenty left down below the orchard.

HE is very hopeful that the apricot blossom heralds a bumper crop this year.

whereas the snow pears on the rugby oval are purely decorative