The Wisterias were amazing this year - just so sad not to be able to show to visiting couples. Larger and longer blooms this year and covered with bees.
All the flowers as they come out seems more prolific and more beautiful than ever - almost as if they know that we need some wonderful in our lives during Lockdown Covid 19
We are still hopeful that our weddings later in the year will continue so preparations in the garden are continuing.
The Greenhouse is full of seeds popping up and plugs are being grown on. Dahlias, lilies and salvias are starting into growth and plants being moved all over the garden to make it even more beautiful than ever - this has it’s downside as they all need constant watering in this fantastic sunshine.
Sadly future couples are not able to visit so we are planning a video to give them a virtual tour. Meanwhile the blossom is amazing and lifts the heart in these troubled times
The dining room is now a work place for making Bags for Scrubs rather than the place that Couples meet the Registrars before their Celebration.
Following an appeal to the village clubs, pillowcases have been pouring in for me to make into Bags and with 17 made by a village lady we have now just topped the 50 mark! These are being taken today to the Blandford distribution centre.
Several other ladies in the village are stitching away and pillowcases continue to arrive so we are now aiming for 100.
No posts for the last month - Covid 19 has taken over our thoughts. 7 brides with possibly no weddings this year. All their hopes and dreams thrown up in the air.
So far our first two weddings have postponed to 2021 and the rest are crossing their fingers. The village has been amazing. We asked them via Facebook if they would be happy for us to hold 11 weddings next year and they overwhelmingly said yes! We are so grateful. Next year will be flat out!
Meanwhile, our lovely gardeners are still allowed to work, one at time and a lawn apart from both of us. Great work has been going on, with much re-doing of the borders to make everything as beautiful as we can for our later weddings.
It is sometimes hard to realise that so much is wrong in the world at the moment with the trees breaking into blossom, the primroses flowering better than ever before and our new greenhouse filling up with seedling vegetables and flowers.
Our thoughts go out to all those who are not as lucky as us and are confined to a flat with no outside space and even more to those families where a member has fallen victim to the virus. Some of our brides are working on the front line and we are thinking of them constantly.
The last storm also twisted our telephone lines - thank you BT for connecting us again today - extremely efficient engineers who were very helpful in keeping the drive free when we needed and managed to complete the task without damaging the daffodils which are now in full bloom.
The last, unnamed storm, seems to have caused as much damage as Dennis. One silver birch down, loads of branches including one hung up in the fir by the stables. Our wonderful tree surgeon has once again been to visit and cleared the debris - see photograph below of him after bringing down the branch from the fir.
Ian Davis - Tree Surgeon /24 hour call out/07977127483 - 07531341239
Good news as well, the daffodils are weathering the weather and making two yellow borders down the drive. Sadly , though as they are up so early this year, they are covering the snowdrops.
We are thinking of all the poor people who have been flooded out again in Wales, Scotland, and other parts of England and give thanks that we have only suffered a little damage. Hopefully Storm Dennis has passed us now. The valley is flooded and we have had some branches down as well as the damage shown below. A panel from the small greenhouse flew about 100 yards out over the gate of the Walled Garden and into the bushes!
Happy, Happy Valentines to all our readers!! Have a wonderful evening and I hope you are not too blown away tomorrow by Storm Dennis.
…. should be Shepherd’s warning but after the most amazing red sky the sun came out and it was a wonderful sunny if frosty day.
Jean and Fiona, two of our wonderful part time gardeners, did sterling work, in freezing cold weather, putting up a temporary greenhouse to house our tender plants made homeless by the storm. Michael came in to do the final tightening of the nuts.
The winds have blown the rain and clouds away bringing the most beautiful sunny days but also the frost. It left the garden looking beautiful, shining and crisp.
The frost has not stopped the grounds starting to burst into flower. As you walk through the gardens the scent from the box, mahonia and Wyche Hazel stops you in your tracks.
We spent a couple of days tying down everything outside in preparation for the latest storm but all to no avail! Our greenhouse has warped, snapped and lost most of it’s glass! We managed to rescue the plants and find temporary warm spaces for them ready for the frost this weekend so hopefully our geraniums etc will all be ok for this summer’s weddings.
Our first snowdrops are out down the drive. Such mild, if wet and windy, weather unlike the frosts of December. Frosty pictures taken by Fiona, one of our wonderful gardeners who swung into action with her camera when she arrived for work and saw how beautiful everything looked.
Almost a year since I added something to the blog - many apologies - bad year personally but a wonderful year of weddings as our Blog Weddings 2019 show.
Christmas was wonderful - mad as you would expect but perfect. The hall really responded to the new colour which was completed just before and will be great for photographs this year. Dennis Crane, our wonderful builder managed to paint it all without scaffolding which was amazing. (See photographs below for his details) To further improve the hall, we managed to buy a magnificent lantern in a sale in Bridport - Busby and Co - https://www.busby.co.uk. This was installed by our equally wonderful electrician Matthew Pearce - sparkymatt@hotmail.co.uk - who had to climb through tiny tunnels under the eaves to re-wire.
I love decorating the house for Christmas and this year even the doll’s house had it’s Christmas tree and stockings, carrot and mince pies put out for Father Christmas! The Christmas tree was enormous and had to have 4 ft cut off to fit inside. It came from our favourite Nursery Garden in Child Okeford, Oasis Plant Centre, with a crop of long fir cones which I have never seen before - 01258-861-325
Hate the decorations all coming down but excited about getting the gardens ready for our first wedding in May!
Beautiful and but extremely cold - especially with no heating as the oil had run out!
Twelfth Night and the decorations come down, always a sad day especially after the magical week of Christmas and New Year.
Can we wish all our couples past and future a very Happy 2019.
We celebrated by first going to a lovely service in St Catherine’s Chapel at Abbotsbury which sits silhouetted on the hill above the village. The church has no lighting so torches were vital but it adds to the wonderful atmosphere and the walk back down the hill to the village is magical.
Belated Happy Christmas to you all.
Christmas once again brought the garden indoors with Allium heads sprayed red up the stairs and Honesty seeds in the drawing room.
We had cut some of the magnificent crop of holly berries in November and their red and green hue was echoed in the dining room decorations.
Our beautiful Christmas tree came from our favourite local Nursery Garden, conveniently situated over the river in Child Okeford. Oasis Plant Centre comes to our rescue many times a year, always having the perfect plant for a bare patch in the borders - 01258-861-325 - and there is the additional joy of finding Peake Perennials on the same site - Tel: 07708 872918 - who have some very specialist plants.
We returned from Cornwall to find the storm over the weekend had flooded the cellar, the boiler was out and one of our new olive trees had blown over.
However, the wonderful Autumn colours that had come to life since we left compensated for everything.
First serious frost but all safely gathered in. So beautiful as the sun rose.
And then when the sun came up and melted some of the frost on the lawns.
