In an English urban garden....

I have a dream. That one day I will be able to grow enough food with enough skill to feed myself, my family and friends and have some to sell. There are chickens, an orchard, a collie dog and a little baby lamb in this dream too. Here are the first little steps! The friends that garden together...err...share tomatoes together?

Dean and Heidi have very kindly allowed us to use a little bit of their garden to pursue this dream. They did it last year in a raised bed round the other side of the house. Gardening that is. Dean dug the trench and cleared the ground and we shoveled the Tagro in one night after work. I have been assured that it is the best stuff to get your veggies growing. I wasn't too sure about the streaming red eyes from the fumes, and neither were the shoppers at the supermarket when I went in afterwards, but I have seen the results and eaten them. It's fine when it's down.

Here is our patch.


I was amazed, when I began preparing and planting, how much of a memory I had for gardening I used to do with my grandparents when I was young. The feeling of the dirt in my hands, separating the starts, measuring out the spacing. It was a wonderful connection that I wished were more detailed. I remember my grandma saying, 'But isn't that how you do it?' when she watched a TV about the new organic gardening 'fad'. They knew their onions...


Ta daa! Red onions.


This is some rocket, artichokes, echinacea, rainbow chard and bee mint. I also have cauliflower, broccoli, golden beets, rainbow carrots, turnips, lettuce, sugar snap peas and kohlrabi. To come tomatoes, courgettes and anything else that takes my fancy! This year I am going for pretty things, unusual-looking things and things that grow well in the area.


I also have a little 'erb pot which I am planning on adding too in a few days time.

Dean is on a mission to build the Little House in the Big Woods and has done a great job with the new fence to keep the dog out. There will be corn and giant sunflowers just behind.

I will keep you updated with the progress. So far only one grub has been found and the first rocket was very tasty. To anyone coming to visit in the summer...bring yer eating boots!

Tip toe through the Tulips

There is a huge region to the north called the Skagit Valley (pronounced Skajit) of here dedicated to the growing of daffodils and tulips. The dutch names on the buildings give a hint to the ancestry of the inhabitants...


There's an annual Tulip Festival with all sorts of tulip-related festivities. Kim and I took a trip up there two weeks too early, so while it was a great ride and a nice day out, we didn't get to see it in its full glory!


As is customary on any girly day out, we needed a good stop for lunch. We drove to La Conner and The Calico Cupboard Cafe took us both to some great meal time memories. It was old-Englishy enough to get me going and old-American enough to set Kim off. And the cinnamon rolls.... We then explored the glorious little craft shops, thrift stores and artsy places for a good 2 hours in the rain. We went into the Hutch Studio and were thoroughly inspired for the rest of the day! This is my new favorite place to hang out. Shame it's so far away.


Below is a cross section of a tree that grew in the area. The man to the left was about 6ft tall. Kim said the whole area was full of trees this big when she was a kid. Now their remains are monuments to fallen giants.

Driving through the hill-surrounded fertile valleys on some of the few windy roads in the region, I was amazed at how much like Somerset it felt. Where ever you go in the world, a farm will always have a machinery junk yard near by.
What a great day out. Topped off with a trip to the outlet center on the return drive, it couldn't have been better.

On the way from the office

There aren't many people in the world who get to drive the opposite way to the main commute each day and look at a mountain while they do it. This is what you see coming out of the office driveway on the way home...


There's a great little park just under the Narrows bridge that makes a nice stop-off when the mood strikes.

Sometimes I see eagles down there. I think there are a pair nesting in the trees.


Other times you see seals and whales swimming by.


It's a pretty nice place to work all in all.