Cottage Life

So, I found out that the way you get a name for your house is just to decide on one, buy a sign and stick it on your front door. Or more usually, stick it on the front wall of your house next to the door.

Most of the houses around here have names, which is a Big Thing in rural England. What I like is that the Royal Mail will take the name of your house as the official address, so that when you give your address, you can call it "Hawthorne Cottage, Huxley Lane, Cheshire, England, CH9 9QE" and letters will come to you as that.

So, I've decided to get right into it and name the cottage. I'm leaning towards "Rosehip Cottage" since rosehips have become something of a defining lifestyle choice for me. But I think it might just be a leeetle too twee.

Suggestions are welcome, therefore, since those who know me will remember that I am the world's very WORST name-thinker-upper. I have had the same teddy bear for 22 years and in all that time, other people have named him all sorts of things, (including, oddly, "Manta-Bear"...don't ask) but between the two of us, he has remained "Mr. Bear". All my dollies were "Dolly". I got really creative one time and had a dolly named "Polly".

I went today for a very long stomp up past Bolesworth Castle and along some footpaths that had been flooded out in the "winter". I saw that the time for collecting nettles is upon us, with the sprouts everywhere and looking very healthy and green. I'm looking at recipes online for nettle wine, nettle beer, tincture of nettle (good for all sorts of things that ail you) and nettle shampoo that is guaranteed to keep your hair from falling out or thinning and is very good for it.

Nettles are also very good to eat and extremely healthy. But of course, the best reason to eat nettles is revenge. The same reason I used to enjoy eating shark a lot in Nova Scotia, ("Oh yeah? Think you're so tough? Well, who's got the thumbs now Mr. Toothy, eh? EH?!")

Some more excellent news is that, while the relations have moved from the house next door ("Medway House") to a place that was once the Tattenhall train station ("Station House" Get it?) and I feel a little lonely without the kids screeching and giggling next door, the new house has an enormous garden, including a formal herb garden. Uncle Mike and I inspected it as we were all helping the tribe move yesterday, and we decided to appropriate the garden for ourselves. With five very rambunctious kids to chase after and two full time jobs, there won't be a lot of time for yard work, so I get my wish of having a bit of Cheshire to dig in without having to wait 30 years on the list for a Council allotment, and the cousins get a gardener they don't have to pay.

There is tons of work to keep the diggers happy; it has been sorely neglected for many years. Mike and I happily pottered about inspecting hedges and shrubberies, lawns and garden sheds. The house is semi-furnished and comes with a full complement of gardening tools. There was a pond in the front lawn that has been filled in with rubbish of various kinds. We decided that it will make an excellent raised bed for veg, and the front gets sun all day (as much as there is in Cheshire), so there can be cold frames as well. Possibly one day even a hothouse for tomahhtoes.

Oooo! Digging! Rapture!

Went for a short stomp on Friday morning and took the camera, as well as the collecting bag for bits of oak tree.


my sitting room in the morning light.



St. Alban's churchyard daffs


I like it when the willows get that yellowy-green haze...sprouting.


Daffs grow in great carpets and clusters everywhere, wild, lining all the lanes, in the fields and woods...(note the young nettles)


I'm not sure what this little yellow flower is, but it grows very abundantly by the sides of all the streams. For some reason I think it is a mallow, but I'll have to look it up.


crab apples flowering in the hedgerows. Next year's jam crop.


a pal of mine with Beeston crag in the background.


This lane, between two fields, is my favourite. It is lined and arched over with oaks, chestnuts, roses and crab apples. It has been lovely in every season I've been here, and is the best place for rosehips. Its hawthorned hedges have started sprouting.

as you can see.


towards the village end of the lane, on one side is a rather posh house with very beautifully kept grounds.


apple blossoms.


the flowering plum across from the Village Indian and green grocer's at the end of Church Bank.


an host of golden daffies


the flowers came from Auntie Gill and Uncle Mike for my birthday.


Anyone looking at this would think I live in a decorating magazine.


I had a bucket of boiled crab apples and rosehips in the freezer all winter, waiting on the day when I was down to the very last scrapings of the last jar. Today's the day. The rig was something Uncle Mike came up with in the fall for the first batch of rosehip syrup. It works a treat.