ROSES IN WINTER (冬のバラ)

My wife arranged cut flowers of roses in our main garden.

The roses are;
 Rosa 'Apollo' (light yellow), Rosa 'Mary Rose' (pink), Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' (dark pink) and Rosa 'Pat Austin' (dark yellow).  Gertrude Jekyll has a wonderful scent even in Winter.

After a two-night trip to Kyoto, some petals of the roses had fallen.  We took a cup of tea in the afternoon yesterday, while watching a video recorded episode of Dawnton Abbey broadcasted lately.

It was a lovely relaxed time for us two.

English Garden blogs

PUTTING UP NEST BOXES (巣箱かけ)

Last spring, I made a nest box and put up it in the cherry tree. In February, some Japanese tits (Parus minor, シジュウカラ） came to look for the ideal home.  And In March, a female Japanese tit started to builds the nest all by herself using soft materials.

In April, a pair of tits flitted in and out of the nest box with caterpillars.  After a chick had been fed, the chick upended and excreted a faecal sac, which is its waste wrapped in a gelatinous coating, and the adult then removed this from the nest.

In May, they disappeared while we were absent for a while.  I couldn't watch the first flight of young tits.

Parents busily brought caterpillars for chicks. 

 A parent tit is carrying chick's excretion from the nest.  

Now in January, the cherry had shed its all leaves.  I opened the nest box, remove its contents and washed inside of the box.

Inside the box

Contents of the nest box (a chicks' bed)

Then, I put the nest box to the cherry again.
The blue rhomboid nest box had been made by my wife and it had been hung in the main garden.  I put it to the cherry, too, according to her request.

We want to watch the first flight of young tits this spring.

English Garden blogs

AT BREAK OF DAWN (夜明け)

Now is a time when sunrise is latest, therefore, we go out to take a walk every weekday morning in the darkness.  If the weather is fine, the sky becomes bright when we arrived at home.

The sky was so beautiful at break of dawn on 5th January.  The sea reflected the red colour of the sky.  It looked like burning.

From the window of the attic

 Before the sky burned, we walked up to the hill top (100 meter high) and walked down to our kitchen garden.

From the top of the hill

My favorite landscape

The tall pine tree

A fishing port

The entrance of the Petit English Garden

In the morning of 8th January, there was clouds in the sky, and it was a bit darker than fine days.  The moon was shining in the west sky.

Roll on spring!　

English Garden blogs

A SHADY SLOPE GARDEN (日陰の斜面の庭)

Marple has been making a slope garden beside the steps connecting the main garden and the potager.  The slope was weed‐infested for years.

She bought concrete curved blocks with stone wall appearance.  She intended to use them for retaining walls.

She placed the curved blocks temporarily to design arrangement of blocks.

After that, I helped her to make a concrete footing.

She painted the blocks dark brown because its original colour was too bright.

Small retaining walls were accomplished, and in some of which she planted plants preferring shade.

English Garden blogs

MAKING BRICK BBQ IN THE POTAGER (ポタジェにバーベキューコンロづくり)

I designed a brick barbecue last spring.  It can be used as a stove for baking pizza.

I bought firebricks at a DIY shop.

I leveled the ground and placed concrete blocks.

On the concrete blocks, firebricks were placed according to the plan, however, I couldn't continue to make it because of my tendinitis of the elbow.
Therefore, it looked as if it was just a fire pit.

Last weekend, I resumed making the BBQ.

Next time I will finish making the brick stove.

English Garden blogs

'READING' ENGLISH GARDENS (『英国庭園を読む』の紹介)

This new year holidays, I have read the book 'Reading English Gardens' (英国庭園を読む） written by Professor Satoshi Ando of the Faculty of Comparative Culture, Otsuma Women's University in Tokyo (大妻女子大学 安藤聡教授).

The subtitle of the book is 'Literature and Cultural history concerning gardens' (庭をめぐる文学と文化史).  In this book, the author describes the history of English gardens from the medieval period to the 20th century.  He introduces paragraphs of old books describing about gardens.  That may be the reason why the title of the book is 'Reading' English Gardens.

About 70 gardens in Britain appears in this book.

This book was so useful for me to understand how gardens in Britain had changed, and why Britain has been a country of gardening.

English Garden blogs

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Happy New Year to you all from the Petit English Garden of Marple and Poirot in Fukuoka, Japan.

When I was a child, I used to eat dry persimmons on the New Year's Day.  I miss the old days when I cerebrated the New Years with my grandfather, grandmother, father, mother and my two brothers.  Most of them had already gone.  Now I cerebrate the New Year with my wife and sons.

Persimmons that I dried since November are now good to eat.  

English Garden blogs