... courtesy of the RHS

At the end of a lovely visit by my mom, I endured a stressful two-hour journey to Heathrow airport for her departure. The drive should be a straight forward, but any travel in that neck of the woods is uncertain and with deadlines looming and commuters free to roam the motorways (freeways), it guaranteed to be an adventure. So, after 2-1/2 hours and an emotional farewell, I sought solace a little further south at the Royal Horticulture Society's Wisley Gardens.

RHS Wisley is by far my most outstanding discovery this side of the Scottish border. It's acres of green of all varieties, and few people. I can wander there often without seeing a soul, take in the fantastic gardens and learn a bit about my garden.

A couple of hours there, alone, was just what I needed before heading back to Cambridge.

Home, at last!

 

This weekend, Alastair and I (well, mostly Alastair) worked to insulate the attic, put flooring down and organize the boxes that were thrown up there in a desperate act to make some sense of the house just after the move. Whilst up there, we went through the unmarked boxes in our unending search for... the cocktail shaker and we found it in the very last box.

Yes, it's been missing for almost ten months. Some of you are shaking your heads in dismay and pity. No martinis, no martini dances, and no Friday night delights. It's true, and sad, really. Here we are in our first home and yet, it hasn't been home.

It really explains the state of things here. Most of you know it's been slow going, molasses slow. Well, now you know that it's really because we've had no miracle martinis to soothe the aches and pains and marital strife related to house projects. Yes, now you're nodding.

At last, we can get on with it. 

Five Go Ape in Thetford

Cambridge is a flat place. A very flat place. Some of my climbing buddies suggested an alternative to the usual climbing gym and said we needed to Go Ape. So last Sunday Edye and I climbed in the car and drove out to Thetford where someone has turned some forests into a giant climbing gym for adults.

First they give us harnesses to put on - as a climber it is very weird wearing a harness that I know I will be trusting with my life and that has been worn by 100s or even 1000s of clueless users. Is it still safe? Should we worry about the rip covered in duct tape?

Then we have a 30 minute safety briefing (where they reassure us that the duct tape covers a cosmetic blemish) and then we are clipping in and trusting our lives to the equipment as we do a variety of high wire tricks 50 feet above the ground.

The first real activity is easy enough. Just climb up a rope ladder, clip yourself securely to the platform, walk round to the other side, reclip the safety lines onto the end of a rope and jump off the platform. This takes a while. Time to rethink the plan. Here I am on a platform some distance up off the ground. Look over the edge of the platform. Yup, still a long way above the ground - in fact, I seem to be higher off the ground than the last time I looked. Well, I've seen other people do it, so it must be ok. Let's just double-check the safety lines. Do they hold my body weight? They seem to. Are the gates of the carabiners on opposite sides? Yes. Ok, all I have to do is step off into the void. Let's have another look at the duct tape. Still looks nice and strong. Ok, here I go. Well, I will in a moment. Ok, one, two, three, .... Does this carabiner look ok to you? Ok, here I go. After a few more minutes of hesitating, I finally jump, swing across to a giant rope-net, bounce, swing back and climb up to the next platform.



Ok, onto the second activity: a rope wire to walk on, two wires as handrails and a safety line to clip to. This is much easier (doesn't require as much trust in the equipment) but after a few steps you look down and get a whole different perspective on the forest. It's really quite nice looking down - if a little unsettling.

I'll spare you a blow by blow account of all the different activities. Lots of fun, a number of hesitations, the odd bruise and 3 hours later we are sliding down the long rope slide back to the start hoping for a smooth landing instead of the shameful drag through the wood chips demonstrated by the people before us.

Raising the bed

We bought our house for three reasons: location, kitchen and garden. The house is located in the heart of a village we've become rather fond of, the kitchen does not require one chef to inhale so the other one can slice a carrot, and the garden, sigh, well, the garden is the largest and best situated we could find without selling off an in-law. Mind you, we didn't describe our garden as beautiful, just large and well-sited. Unfortunately or fortunately, our garden is made up of one third lawn (pathetic at its best), one third bark, and one third gravel and paving stones. Easy to take care of but not quite our idea of a garden, in fact, it's morally objectional, but just enough structure, bones, if I may, to construct something right up our alley.



But, in order to bring life to this part of our home, it was time for a bit of wood butchery: 2" thick walls, 12" high and 23 metres long, about 100 bolts, 6 metres of waste disposal piping and a bunch of stakes. Then, 4 cubic metres of soil and one metre of mulch. Drastic soil conditions require wood butchery, well, Alastair requires the wood butchery, too. And, at last, after so many other things to do... we have vegetable and cutting flower raised beds, and they're beautiful!

After a lot of planning, designing, discussing, building, shoveling, moving dirt, and raking gravel, we have working beds. It's a bit late getting things into the soil so everything was bursting out of the pots, but we're growing zuchini, runner beans, artichokes, gourds, onions, pumpkins, tomato, jalapeno peppers, butternut squash, and bunch of things Alastair's forgotten the names of. This complements a host of herbs that we planted in spring, including cilantro, chives, sage, nasturtium, marjoram, several mints, French tarragon and few other tasty morsels.

A Face in the Crowd... photos