Vale: Michael Clayton

On Monday 25th last week we held a party to celebrate the contributions of two members of the Iford team who are leaving us.

Michael Clayton joined us some thirty years ago following his training at Lackham College, and quickly developed into an accomplished gardener under the tutelage of Leon Butler (RHS 40yr. Award), Iford’s head gardener until 2005.

Michael and his sister Teresa have each been Bradford-on-Avon residents their whole lives, but they have always shared a long-held passion for the seaside, and especially for Weymouth. Although we are of course sad to see Michael leave, we are delighted that he and his sister will now be able to take up a new life in Weymouth where no doubt they have already made many friends.

It is impossible fully to value the loyalty and effort that the Michael Claytons of this world bring to rural estates. Such good people are rare, and Iford has been very lucky to have enjoyed Michael’s input for so long; all is not lost with Michael’s departure though - Iford seems to attract such skilled and committed people, and continues to enjoy the high calibre contributions of other team members.

Ultimately gardens are only as good as their gardeners and whatever Michael should choose to do in Weymouth, let us hope that the quality of gardens and parks in that town will improve with his arrival!

So, thank you Michael, for being a loyal friend to Iford; there will always be a cup of tea and a sticky bun waiting for you in the kitchen.

A link to an excellent walk on EveryTrail

I was delighted, whilst browsing Google Earth, to discover an excellent walk has been posted on EveryTrail by Mr. Peter Dixon, of Freshford. Thank you, Peter! It is indeed a lovely walk, one that I do often, and I think just the right length to justify a cream tea at the end of it when arriving back at Iford.

Now all we need is the warmth of summer and the anticipated opening of the tearoom in April.

Iford manor

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Dreams of Summer Opera

Although it may seem a long way off, it won't be long before we notice the days growing longer and the nights recede.  All too soon the summer will be upon us, with its warm evenings of gentle golden sunlight (we hope!).  And so as I was redesigning the Iford website, looking at romantic images of the garden on a summer's day, my thoughts turned to our Arts festival and to the Iford Arts website.  Why not pop along and have a look? Here's the brief list of what's on (below).  For details of bookings, take a look at this page.

For my part I can't wait to see Rigoletto.

Opera Season (all operas sung in English)

 

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini

19 June - 03 July

 

Serse (Xerxes)  by Handel

9 - 17 July

 

Rigoletto by Verdi

24 July - 07 August

 

Promenades

 

First Night Jazz  Friday, 11 June

 

Midsummer Jazz  Saturday, 12 June

 

Another World  Saturday, 14 August

 

Cloister Concert

 

CHROMA chamber ensemble  Friday, 25 June

From Bath to Buenos Aires - A Tango Serenade

The more it snows, tiddly pom...

Having dug, scraped and gritted our way out for the weekend, we are now blanketed once again with two and a half inches of fresh snow.  Fortunately it seems to be a warming trend and the ground temperature has definitely risen, giving hope for a thaw in the coming week.  Still, with farming activity having to continue, and the valley once again inaccessible to non-4x4s, the new snow brings the same old challenges afresh.

Fortunately bird food supplies at Iford are strong, but we were amused to note the high-brow nature of the blue tits as regards their alimentary proclivities.  Failing a ready supply of breadcrumbs, we put out the last of the Christmas stuffing and some 'high risk' pâté which we weren't quite prepared to eat any more.  Half an hour later I returned to the plate: the chestnut stuffing had been picked at here and there; the pâté had been completely cleaned out.

Arboreal de-decoration supervisor

A few days ago, when removing the decorations from our Christmas tree on twelfth night, our matriarchal cat Lily (who had 'supervised' with interest the tree's decoration two weeks previously) was once again on site to make sure that we performed the task to her satisfaction. Each bauble was inspected as it came off the tree, and was placed back in its box, and on occasion she would lean through the banisters, as if trying to join in more proactively.

It was only once the tree was fully denuded and we had retired for a cup of tea (quite late by this point), that she began looking at it wistfully, walking up and down the stairs taking in its grey-green nakedness.  A little calling ensued, and being a talkative sort she came to 'tell us all about it' (as cats do).  She has been extremely dismissive of me since, and I get the distinct impression that she feels strongly that no sooner had she organised for her beautiful tree to be erected by us, it had been dismantled again and now look how boring the stairwell looks...

And so in honour of Lily's prima-donna attitude to life, here's a photographic example of her showing off to the camera.

Warm, at 2 degrees.

Amazing just how warm it feels, yet it's only 2 degrees outside.  Fortunately for the birds and wildlife we are currently experiencing something of a mini-thaw, and the south facing slopes are beginning to show some earth again, revealing seeds, berries and bugs.


Overnight though, it is still very cold indeed, and so yesterday we constructed a natural shelter (pictured), to give some protection to our chilly birds at night.  Using half-pruners we lopped off the arms of our former Christmas tree (a fir this year, so a bit less scratchy than a spruce).  Placing an underlayer of branches on the floor of a sheltered spot under a wall, we formed an evergreen cavity with the remaining branches on top.

A plate of food outside encouraged its discovery and I'm pleased to note that, judging by the footprints, someone used the new shelter last night.  Hopefully we've provided a useful service; one can at least try!

A solution: Frozen Fatballs

Our avian friends are having a really desperate time of it with the weather so cold and I'm sure that a lot of people are putting out fat balls, nuts and other high-fat foods to keep the smaller birds alive.  I love the way that robins in particular will come and ask you for more when they have finished.  This bold little fellow (pictured sitting on a tree peony), alerted us to a problem with "his" (they are very territorial!) fatball: it was frozen solid.

It seems that the food we put out, if at all moist, simply goes completely solid after an hour or so, fat balls in particular; the solution we have found is to pass them through a cheese grater, and put out the resulting pile of fat-soaked nuts.  Taking them in once in a while allows them to thaw quickly, and the grains seem easier for the birds to eat.

I'm sure that the great- and blue-tits were grateful too, but our plucky young robin thanked us personally, sitting on his peony branch bobbing his head, and flying over to say hello when any of the family comes past the box tree in which he lives.

Thawing at -3

I'm sure I was taught in school that pure water freezes at zero degrees and that falling snow is close to pure.  This, as far as I know, is conventional wisdom.  With the air temperature currently at around -3, it just shows how strong even the weak winter sun must be that our formerly encrusted statues are shedding their ermine-white shawls.

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Tilting at snowmen

It's a common enough question: do I bash the snow off my plants or not? Generally speaking, yes, if it can be done without damaging the plants, because the weight of snow can disfigure and even break off delicate branches.

Rather like the railways, however, with the air so exceptionally and consistently cold, we are experiencing the wrong kind of snow.  The sub-zero (sub-minus-ten last night) temperatures have caused the snow to freeze solid, leaving the leaves and branches encrusted with ice. Whilst there may be a risk that that branches will snap with the weight of the snow, the process of its removal may bring greater risk.  Accordingly one must assess the need and risk for each individual plant.

There are of course plants that are unlikely to take the weight of snow at all, and at Iford these are dealt with delicately and soon after snowfall ends whilst the snow is still 'warm'.  The horizontal junipers on the terrace (see photo), and trees which overhang high terraced walls often grow in an uneven fashion, and the snow-load can put undue strain on the roots. 

A mediaeval pikestaff might do the trick, or in our case a piece of 2x1 baton, using a gentle poking action from a distance to avoid getting the snow in one's boots.

New Year snow

Like a lot of other people we are snowbound with more frozen days to come. A few hardy (or foolhardy) souls have attempted to drive into the valley with predictable results: going downhill is easy with gravity but getting back up a one-in-six gradient is altogether a different matter.

Not much visible wildlife other than a few hungry robins (fatballs are popular) but a lot of tracks in the snow - one of them a boar badger with feet like a yeti. At least you can see which setts are occupied.

Before the freeze we had a visitation of well over fifty fieldfares in the orchard. They had a banquet on rotting apples. This lead to a lot of shouting at each other and a drunken brawl between two males, feathers flying. Most years the same thing occurs with the ducks in the carpark by the river. Since then the only bird life of note has been one of the ravens flying low and trying to avoid being mobbed by the rooks, and the resident buzzard crossly leaving its branch on the drive whenever someone walks up there.

Welcome

A very Happy New Year to all who find this post so early in the life of this blog, which comes to you from the team at Iford Manor.  We're still experiencing the heady trepidation that accompanies a new venture such as blogging, so please bear with us if we press the wrong buttons.

Over time we hope to bring you gardening tips, what's-on info, up to date photos as the year moves on, but above all an insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes, to ensure that the valley, the garden and the atmosphere of our peaceful rural idyll remains as it should.

This is also a forum for comment, and we sincerely hope that those who feel so inclined will chip in with their experiences, comments and, dare I say it, suggestions.  As the blog develops, we'll hear more from the gardeners and the estate/farming team, so that over time, hopefully, it will become clear just how much Iford means to those that live and work in the beautiful valley.

If you found us directly, why not take a trip over to our website? It's www.ifordmanor.co.uk