Round the garden in 80 days #69

It’s been a while since I wrote a post! Life has been chugging along but there was nothing particularly salient in the garden to comment on. One apple tree lost its blossom on a gusty day but the others are looking resplendent or just bursting into flower.

Aside from the blossom, the honesty is out and, of course, the violets. They even started to poke through the newspaper I’d put down to suppress them

so after acquiring more papers from my neighbour a new layer has been added. It may not do the job either but at least the papers will add carbon to the soil.

I’m pleased with myself for remembering to do the watering. Not only the pots but the new raised bed. As I’ve discovered today, the crab apple tree prevents rain water from reaching the whole bed

or, I surmise, it stops the rain if the breeze is a south westerly.

Other news is that the Nine Star Broccoli has produced again this year. It is a perennial and so this is to be expected

but after the cabbage white onslaught last year I almost dug it out. How resilient is nature!

Whilst I potter about, deadheading dandelions and turning the compost, I have been diverted from work outside to preparing to weave. I borrowed a rigid heddle loom from the WSD Guild and am at the stage of learning how to use it.

I was lent a book to help me set the loom up but some of the instructions seemed impossible to follow through or I couldn’t see why they were necessary. I therefore adapted them and learned two things. One is that the loom is currently dressed the other way round, so I’m working at the wrong end. Dressing a loom is time-consuming but threading every warp separately was the right approach for me.

What have you learned recently?