We all get truly fired up at this time of year when the first flushes of colour erupt and emerge through the soil. All is neat and tidy and in control before the madness of summers prevails with all its flourish and abundance.
I have lost count of the packets of seeds I have sown and the amount of trays which have germinated is growing by the day. Followed shortly by the monotonous and laborious task of pricking out and potting on.

I have been delighted that Sam has shown a modicum of interest in our horticultural pursuits this year, he was persuaded to buy a goodly amount of heritage seed potatoes from a local supplier and started out in his endeavour to plough and furrow in the field with great gusto. This enthusiasm did start to wane slightly when the task in hand proved to be a rather mammoth one however perseverance and sheer bloody mindedness won out and we now have a rather large bounty of potatoes to look forward to. This green fingered craze was further displayed by John who decided to grow carrots and celeriac to enter into the Nairn show. I have never truly understood this male fascination for growing the longest, biggest anything’s I can only assume it has similar connotations to other manly traits.

The first alert is the bright yellow flowers on the Witch Hazel, followed by Snowdrops then yellow Aconites. Regardless of the date we generally only consider Spring to have truly arrived when the Daffodils are in full bloom. This is of course a moveable feast dependant on the weather and variety. Probably more important is geographical location. We have noted in the past that Cornish daffodils are well over by the time ours start to open.

The first tree to bud in our grounds is the Horse Chestnut, it is also the first to start losing foliage, thus heralding the onset of Autumn. (Don’t ask what order everything else pops up in)

Wendy is busy planting new trees prior to the end of the dormant cycle, some of them even our children will not see to maturity. On the other hand some unselfish individual planted many of the beeches that have given us so much pleasure over the years, and are now providing cosy log fires for our guests.

Some of the thousand or so bulbs we planted at the end of last year are beginning to show, although it may be another year before we get to see the rest of the planting that the field mice have not dug up and eaten. Paperwhite Narcissi in pots are in full bloom under the shelter of the portico – lovely and fragrant to have in the House, but they die back very quickly in the heat.

As everyone (everyone??) knows the Vernal Equinox on March 20^th marks the official arrival of Spring, but here on the coast where the snow has almost completely missed us so far, and where we have had a toasty 6 to 8 degrees celcius all week, Spring’s advance party has already arrived.

Another friend in Austria who lives at some 5000ft tells me that there is no snow in the village and there has been none since the beginning of the year. He was completely incredulous that not only were they without snow, but that he had seen several bees flying around looking for water and food. Twenty years ago we were ski ing from the same village to the ski lift at the end of March on snow a metre deep.

With floods of Biblical proportions in the South, it seems ironic that the 2012  Climate Risk Assessment Report stated that in the next 60 years half of our population could be living in areas with water shortages.

Having spent most of my life in the Highlands of Scotland I am fairly sure that this little patch of our beautiful Country will  not fall into this category, so we are continuing our garden expansion by using more polytunnels and erecting more raised beds to minimise the effects of extremely wet weather. No doubt the Bog Garden will also become a more prominent feature in the coming years!

All of apples have now been picked and juiced. Normally this labour of love falls to Wendy and I, but this year Charlie and his crew plus Ian our Groundsman achieved in an afternoon what normally takes us two or three days. We had an enormous crop this year  (although plums and pears were not so good) so lots of lovely apple juice. How difficult is it to make cider??

Our new polytunnels have been emptied of tomatoes and squashes, so lots of chutney and purees being made this week along with elderberry cordial. The late raspberries have been transformed into jams and we are almost ready to snuggle up for the Winter.

Almost is the key word here, recent winds have caused some damage (although all in all its been a fabulous year around Nairn and is still bright and unseasonably warm) and we have had to bring some branches and the odd tree down, the result being that our stock of firewood is growing exponentially. As we burn around a ton of wood a week in the cold months this will soon vanish when the frosts appear.

We had thought that we were going to have a very early Autumn, it turned out to be what is termed a “false Autumn”  caused by an unseasonably dry start to the year.  Fortunately this latest warm spell  put a stop to the leaves falling in serious quantities until this last week, we are now deluged in clouds of yellow, red and orange leaves and our life saving leaf blower has been in action several hours a day with Ian at the helm. We normally try to keep them in vast mounds in order to utilise them in a couple of years as mulch. This is fine in theory, but it does mean that if a strong wind from the wrong direction springs up we are liable to have to do the work all over again. This also means a bi weekly visit to the roof this time of year to ensure that the gullies and drains do not block up and cause leaks in the house.

On the plus side it does mean that guests are able to drive away with a cloud of multi coloured leaves fluttering in their wake!

We are collecting elderberries this weekend and harvesting our apples and pears. The plums have just finished and the chantrelles are slowing down, as are the last of our tomato vines in the greenhouse. Did get a few nice potatoes today and some fresh parsley root. Chefs are making more jam next week with the last of the local berries and brewing some cordials to last through the winter.

We may not have missed the tax rises and the benefit cuts – but we seem to have missed an awful lot of unpleasantness that those less fortunate have not.

The trees were probably planted when the current house was built around 1820, and it is immensely sad to watch them slowly disintegrate or be blown over as has happened in the last three consecutive years, however all is not lost. The very first one we lost due to gales was some 5 years ago, and a magnificent specimen it was too with no internal rot (something that most of the latest victims have) so we brought in a mobile saw mill and had it cut into planks.

Now that the wood is seasoned we are beginning to use it around the grounds and in the house. Ian, our indefatigable groundsman, has been restoring old garden furniture which we almost invariably obtain from Auldearn Antiques using this lovely home grown wood, and very handsome it is too. So if you do happen to visit us, and find yourself sat on an old wood and wrought iron bench or chair contemplating the lake, then consider all the history keeping your bum off the grass.

I may yet regret these words, but the weather here in February and early March has been outstanding. Almost every day the same, cold frosty mornings with clear blue sky’s giving way to a fairly warm day with no wind to speak of followed by another cold frosty night.

The snow plough we purchased the year before last after two of the worst winter’s in recent years languishes in the shed still waiting to see snow.  Machinery has of course replaced most of the manual labour in the fields. The garden here would have had at least six permanent garden staff a hundred years ago. Now we have a part time lady and a groundsman who does a million other things (including a lot of tea drinking).

Twenty years ago we would have spent days and days raking leaves in the Autumn, now with a large leaf blower be can do the job more effectively in a matter of hours.

What cannot be replaced (fortunately) is the sheer wonderment caused by plants bursting from the earth each Spring. No matter how many times I see this annual miracle (this will be number 69 – though I confess I cannot remember the first half dozen years) it still makes me realize how privileged we are to be able to get dirt under our fingernails, and home grown produce on our table.

Now brace yourselves for snow!

We certainly live in area of outstanding natural contradictions (beauty too of
course) Last week we had howling gales and snow, this week we have T shirt
weather (if you come from round these parts) and snow drops, winter aconites,
cyclamen and crocus miraculously sprouting all around us.

I would have had more time to admire them if Wendy had not decided that the
greenhouse needed a makeover. The entire frontage came out – all eight metres-
and was replaced by new timbers. This is work enough but of course we then
had the inevitable change of paint colours, why it is inevitable is a matter of
mystery to the average male, but inevitable it invariably is.

No complaints though some thirty litres of timber preservative, floor paint and
wall coatings the greenhouse is now a thing of beauty – or it will be when we
have scraped the paint dribbles from the glass.

If you happen to be wandering round our walled garden this Spring or Summer
do pause to admire our handywork, but be warned that anyone disagreeing with
the choice of colours will be badly beaten with a four inch paint brush!

Ian and I did breathe a momentary sigh of relief as the paint pots were stowed
away, but only until we realised that this now clears the way for the frenzied
planting of the first batch of seedlings, which in turn leads on to pricking out and
then to planting out and rather a lot of weeding.

Wonder if the potting shed needs the roof replacing?

November (or Movember if you are growing a moustache for charity) is the month when we start our maintenance on the outside of the house. The roof, windows, drain pipes, parapets and drains all inspected and repaired where necessary. It is always necessary!

We are surrounded by beautiful mature deciduous trees which shed a gazillion leaves over a four to five week period, November winds pick them up and deposit them in drifts everywhere, but mainly in the roof gullies and the drainage system, thus rendering them useless unless they are cleaned out every other day. Gullies are the worst as reaching into an eighteen inch deep round hole only slightly bigger than ones arm which is full of icy water, mud and leaves is bad enough – the discovery of a very large toad (we have lots breeding in the lake) who is quietly hibernating and starts squirming madly in ones hand just adds to the general disenchantment.

Our Groundsman, General Handyman and all round good egg Ian blows the leaves into vast piles on the lawns (gone are the awful days of raking endlessly). We then spend several days pushing them onto a tarpaulin and dragging them into piles in a corner somewhere . They are then ignored for a few years – this is apparently known as mulching, but Ian and I have another name for it.

Leaf mulch is much prized by our gardeners, and I really do love our trees, but just occasionally I do wish for just the odd Spruce!!

It is always heartbreaking to cut down an old tree (or any tree) and this one was too far gone to use for anything but firewood. A slightly smaller one came down in the gales two years ago, it was perfectly healthy so we brought in a mobile sawmill and had it cut into planks which we hope to use in the grounds. An old gent from the village rescued some of the larger lumps and turned them into salad bowls. Most of the rest was chipped and put on the beds to stop weeds – a fairly successful recycling exercise (apart from the fact that it all cost a fortune!)

We now have some large spaces where we will plant more trees. We will not see them grow to maturity, but there again those who planted our existing trees did so as an act of faith that future generations would enjoy and cherish them.

We too have faith!!