Magical Music

Have a look at the Iford Arts website (www.ifordarts.co.uk) for an up-to-date view of all the great musicians in the 2010 Iford Festival. Recognise anyone? If so, tell all your friends, and come along! Tickets are moving very fast, especially for Rigoletto and Midsummer Jazz, so if you haven't already booked - now's the time...........

Jonelle

Moving the Cattle

Yesterday morning it was time to move the cows from the Wiltshire side of the river to fresh pasture on the Mill bank.

Our herd of pure-bred South Devons, based at Castle Farm in Farleigh Hungerford, made a pretty picture as they trotted over the bridge, past Britannia wearing her lichen coat...

... and somewhat suspicious of the man in the tweed cap with the camera, standing behind some trees:

Toads and rooks - must be breeding time!

The last week saw two fauna-related sights which are no doubt very common, but which are perhaps unusual to witness.

This evening we were witness to an extraordinary fly-by of an enormous group of rooks.  It wasn't just our average parliament of rooks arguing away however, this was much, much larger, and appeared to be a large grounp attempting to displace our resident population from the hanging beech wood behind the manor.  By the time I managed to get my camera out, the largest of the waves had settled back down behind the trees, but I did manage to catch the gist with my rather crummy autofocus - see what you think.



I would love it if any ornithologist could tell us whether or not rooks are known for displacing other colonies or whether this is my complete mis-interpretation of what was going on.

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Just before the weekend, a cacophany was raised outside the back door.  Whatever could it be?, thought those sat in the kitchen happily enjoying a cup of tea.  Well, opening the door revealed the vocal identity:  the merry toad.  Or more accurately, many particularly hopeful toads.

It was raining hard, and the wet weather had encouraged them out from their damp mossy homes.  But in their search for a pond, they had inadvertently ended up next to the bins, an insalubrious place for a romantic rendez-vous, you might think.

I have always wondered what the collective noun should be for a group of these maligned creatures.  But it is now quite clear: in this case it was most definitely an "orgy" of toads.

Path reconstruction and lawn preparation

With the main frosts gone, which lift one’s paths whether they be flagstones, gravel or tarmac, a review of paths has been necessary.

One path in particular, from Peto’s first Oriental garden to the Cloister, has got out of alignment with where it should be in terms of garden design.  Since Iford is all about design, we’re re-cutting the edge with a simple half-moon tool, and re-levelling it using Cerney “as-raised” gravel.  It is crucial for us to get a particular level of clay in the gravel to allow surface binding and drainage, and a Cotswoldy colour to the particles.  It goes down now, because whilst rollers won’t squash it down properly, the feet of 10000-or-so visitors in a year will do so nicely and we open to the public in a fortnight.

The other challenge is grass: the lawns are not looking terribly happy after a rather wet and very cold winter.  Anywhere where the drainage is poor the grass has taken on a jaundiced, chlorotic colour, with a very high moss level.  The historic lawns are difficult to drain properly because of the adjacent tree and shrub roots and so we have to make do with spiking, scarifying and new grass seed.  This year we’re using one of the golf green mixes which is hard wearing but which can be cut very short – not very bouncy, but good for the footfall and picnics in the summer for the Arts Events.

Planting the pear trees

Robert, Gardener in Charge at Iford, reports that his team had a successful time planting the new pear trees in the orchard car park.  These pears had been toughened up over a couple of winters, and needed lifting carefully to preserve the rootball as much as possible, before their transplanting into the holes in the orchard.

Baring the roots needed mechanical muscle as well:

Riverside planting involves potentially saturated ground: the crown of the root should be just above ground therefore:

To protect against deer (and dogs!) a mesh guard is needed as well as a high wall.  Flat cap essential safety wear for spade management:

Spring flowers are Summer's optimists

Spring arrived today, or at least it felt as though it did, so I popped out and took some photographs to record the occasion.

The Japanese Garden, serene in the evening light;

A congregation of snowdrops, each jostling unnecessarily for space under an acacia;

Fingerlike, an orange form of hemerocallis (day lily) pushes through the earth.

Amidst the bracken and ivy, clumps of crocus brighten the undergrowth.

Aconites, fresh-faced;

And here taken by Robert, gardener in charge, with a little mud on their fronts.

Post winter. How did we fare?

A post-winter situation report:

March is with us and as the weather is still chilly we have been taking the opportunity to check the garden over to look for damage following one of the hardest winters we've known for thirty years or so.  We were very fortunate not to have suffered from the harsh East winds that we had in the 1980s.

Structure

We have frost damage to many of Peto's rockery stones (pictured: japanese garden rock).  The damage will very likely be hidden by dwarf juniper, periwinkle, or whatever nature provides, but sooner or later the softer Bath stones need to be replaced with something more durable from the Mendip series of rocks which are, after all, just the other side of the river Frome.

Plants

The continued cold necessitates protecting the early buds of 'two star' shrubs (that is to say surviving down to -5C), especially cistus, choisya and rosemary in our case, using fleece and, where needed, netting as well.  Be very vigilant for the fleece covering pittosporums, which are particularly sensitive to sudden cold snaps.  We always remove fleece if it gets saturated because the frost will damage the tender shoots, particularly of the choisya ternata.

The cold has caught the leaves of the Mahonia (pictured), which has turned its explosive lateral sprays to gloriously autumnal colours.

However, [touch wood!] we have not had substantial damage to any Italian cypresses as yet.  Last year we had our second season of Seridium die-back.  It will be interesting to see which, if any, of our seven forms of sempervirens stricta survives this mediterranean plague.


Our ceanothus impressus has beaten the cold winter, but sadly all of our larger leaved forms appear to be dead, some of which were around 25 years old.

For anyone who has suffered plant damage, as we have, even though spring is running late, this is probably the last safe opportunity to plant many replacement shrubs and trees - preparing the hole whilst the weather is chilly is harder work, but it allows the freezing temperatures to break down the soil.  At Iford we will be replacing some of the Perry pears in the river car park with old varieties which have spent the last three years in a nursery bed, and pruning of the older trees is currently underway (pictured).

Welcome to Susan

We're very excited to welcome Susan who has joined us as our new housekeeper.  She brings an entourage of Alan and Louis[e!], a bosc monitor and a red tegu respectively (photos to follow), and partner Su.

Susan is a proud local lady, with strong Wiltshire roots, having been brought up in in Hilperton and Holt.  We're particularly looking forward to the advent of local Wiltshire-style cakes - recipies passed down through the family.  In preparation for the summer season, experimental biscuits have so far proved a hit with the usual suspects around the kitchen table.

Small world that it is, Susan reports that her Auntie Joan worked at Iford from 1925-1928, as part of Harold Peto's staff - it is quite extraordinary how circular life can be.  However Susan joins a much changed environment from Peto's day - and we all know that 'housekeeper' is a mere title:  the job is far more challenging and varied than any name could it justics (and she has to keep us under control for starters!).  The manor kitchen is the societal engine-room for the team, the family and visitors alike, and Susan has already made it her own.  The perfect start, I'd say.

We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship for many years to come and hope that Susan will settle into and enjoy the challenges facing not only the tearoom and the house, but also the integrated development of the estate business and everything that goes on to keep the valley in the condition we strive for.