What a year!

2020. The year when life was turned upside down. There seemed little point in writing any blog when so much that can be said is negative. We watched with increasing horror as the devastating news came in from Italy.

March brought the unhappy task of cancelling bookings and refunding many disappointed people. Then a feeling of unreality followed as the glorious weather in the first lockdown seemed to deny the unfolding, increasing tragedy which is still playing out now in January 2021.

Here we were fortunate to be able to concentrate on the garden, re-establishing our neglected vegetable cage. which had been invaded by the natural flora of this old Down; bramble, bracken, wild ferns, oak, ash, hazel and birch. It was a mammoth task, taking many weeks.

Every vegetable needs protection in a garden where deer attack is a constant problem and rabbits burrow through all defences. We were only too aware of how hard lockdown was and is for people without gardens and recently there has been an influx of city dwellers buying houses in the High Weald.

The greenhouse was bursting with baby plants. Germination is problematic in our heavy clay so we sow in guttering or pots and transplant later.

Like everyone missing our family, some of whom live abroad and were booked to fly in for most of June was the hardest thing of all, until very recently we lost a much-loved friend to Covid. It is a bitter loss and all that matters now is to know that those we love are well, wherever they are.

When the first lockdown was lifted we were happy to have a succession of really delightful guests at the cottage, including some who had deferred several times. We finally had some young honeymooners who had repeatedly rebooked all year. Inevitably restrictions meant conversation at a distance in the garden. Just as well that we still have our hearing….. Yet again the special atmosphere in the cottage worked its magic for people who left really lovely messages in our guest book. Many said they will return.

Life here was facilitated by the imaginative way in which local businesses came up trumps. The King’s Arms spread tables across the Millenium Green, setting up an outside bar and barbecue and later a marquee with heaters. The Cuckoo Line Stores vastly and imaginatively expanded its range of food, delivering across the whole area when supermarket slots were almost impossible to find even for those shielding. Many restaurants and pubs transformed themselves into takeaways. People are very enterprising when they are given a chance to be so.

More restrictions and a damp squib of a Christmas followed but spirits have been lifted by the fantastic news of the vaccines. We owe so much to the people who have worked tirelessly all year and the dedication which has brought us to this point. As I write the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible against the background of new mutations causing great worry.

So in January 2021 the cottage sits on its sunny slope, empty but filled with light and not forlorn, just waiting for life to resume, the bees are tucked up in their hive, the rabbits are eating the grass and Figgy wonders why life is so quiet…….where is everyone?

What an extraordinary year 2019 has turned out to be!

Summer was late to arrive in June but arrived with a trumpet fanfare as temperatures shot off the scale and we woke day after day to sunshine and cerulean skies. it was wonderful but our 100yard long mixed border struggled for water and it became a daily preoccupation to preserve all the recent plantings.

With faint hearts we had replaced roses and herbaceous plants destroyed by herds of wild deer which had wreaked havoc in the garden. As a last attempt we bought wonderful roses from Just Roses near Northiam, East Sussex. Their quality is unsurpassable and in June the border was crammed with exquisite baby roses surrounded by vast peonies, hardy geraniums, campanulas, verbascums, lupins and delphiniums.

A nervous hunt on Google produced a new type of deer repellent. We have two, nicknamed the “Squawk Boxes”. They have detectors which pick up sound, heat and movement and give a seven second burst from an internal radio while a flash light switches on. In the dark one would really think there were people walking through the garden with flashlights.

Amusingly, they work most effectively when tuned to a speech station. We are demoralising our deer with a blast of Radio 4’s incessant Brexit coverage by day and informing them of the world at large with The World Service at night. Mercifully it cannot be heard in the house or the cottage but guests walking along the long path have been highly amused.

We’ve had temperatures soaring to above 37 degrees when we took to the shade of our lovely trees as our guests lounged on the cottage stoop. When the weather settled guests took the garden table from the stoop and set up on the lawn by the cottage bay window. Many spent long days there, lounging, reading and eating every meal surrounded by trees and roses.

More recently we’ve had high winds, which rushing through our mighty oaks. beeches and cedars of Lebanon, resembled Tolkein’s “ Ents” communicating with each other in an arboreal language of their own.

Walking to the cottage the air was heavy with scent and only the sound of birdsong.

Is Spring on the way?

How variable our climate is!

This winter has been pretty mild, not too many grey rainy days, two of snow and most have been chilly but bright. Last week we made the most of the lovely warm days with primroses appearing in the banks, daffodils and crocus in bloom, sunny skies and the renewed pleasure of walking the dog without a coat.

Not bad, you might think.

How was this depicted on the front page of our newspapers? Cue for warnings of drought in summer, dire consequences for gardens and huge photos of fires on Ashdown Forest. Such fires are dangerous and, infuriatingly, frequently caused by carelessness or worse. But photos of people enjoying the balmy weather? Of course not!

Inevitably, Nature took back control yesterday as we met old friends and their two lurchers for a dog walk on the Cuckmere meanders. The rain bucketed down as we slogged along with filthy but ecstatic dogs.

In the way of life down here though, our walk ended in the car park of a lovely old Sussex Downs pub where they sensibly provide a hose by the rear door. A wrestling match involving our dog, two huge towels and my husband transformed Figgy into a reasonably clean furry mountain, albeit smelling like a damp rug. Clearly he felt the struggle was worth it as he paraded, head high, with the humans into the pub for lunch and all the affectionate fussing that invariably greets him in such places.

Will tomorrow’s papers carry stories of a “washout spring”?

We will keep a sensible look out now for any cold snap. The “Beast from the East” caused many bee losses last year. Our girls are our foraging the spring flowers and I managed a somewhat blurry photo of one on a snowdrop. The Cerinthe in the cutting garden is a big draw, its common name is Honeywort.

Time to take a deep breath and turn on the hose

Isn’t he sweet, someone will say….

Fuzzy bee

Wonderful walk, stunning sunset

And so this glorious weather continues, at least until the end of the week, when colder temperatures are forecast. On the hill behind the cottage the hollies and the large cotoneaster trees are completely covered in berries. Meanwhile the golds and russets of the bracken glow in the sunlight beneath the trees.

Very often we have spectacular sunsets filling the view from the cottage, especially during autumn and winter. This evening the entire horizon lit up as the sun sank below the Downs in the far distance.

A fabulous day out

We are always on the lookout for exceptional days out to suggest to our guests. This week we experienced a morning we will never forget and intend to repeat at the East Sussex Falconry at Herstmonceux Castle, about half an hour from The Cottage in the Garden. www.eastsussexfalconry.co.uk

It really is impossible to put into words the magic and the thrill of those hours. Gerard, the Head Falconer and his assistant Adam introduced our small group of six to three birds.

We walked into the ancient woods which surround the castle with the first bird “Ash” a Harris’s Hawk, a character of such intelligence and charm that he quickly captivated everyone. He showed his party trick of running up a wooden handrail on a steep flight of steps in the wood and then staggered us with his flying skills through dense tree cover to land effortlessly on a gloved hand. He is affectionate, relating to humans in an extraordinary way and with an intense, trusting relationship with Gerard.

Secondly we flew “Halo”, a Barn Owl. Despite his apparent bulk he is so light that landing on my shoulder I really could feel no weight, just the softness of his magnificent plumage which resembles the finest gold embroidered lace. He glided silently through the darkness of the trees and when we emerged into the open he floated over the fields, ghostlike, landing silently on a gloved hand.

Finally we flew a Lamar Falcon “Neo”. With the backdrop of the 15th century castle we watched him soar out of sight then swoop down at jet speed to catch his prey at our feet. The centuries fell away as we experienced the ancient collaboration between falcon and man.

For anyone who loves wildlife this experience is not to be missed.

Gerard with Neo

Sumptuous Sussex

Autumn is here in our beautiful Sussex woods bringing a bright tapestry carpet of leaves. The dappled sunlight through the canopy catches the mass of red hawthorn berries and the toadstools beneath. The squirrels are busy burying nuts in the soft earth. Walking in the woods yesterday along narrow frondose paths, we emerged overlooking a sunlit valley where the buzzards were wheeling overhead, mewing to each other as they circled in the thermals. Our dog was fascinated by the multitude of scents as the tracks of deer and badgers criss-crossed our path.

Meanwhile in our garden the roses are in a final flush and the recent warm weather has encouraged herbaceous plants into a second flowering. I picked armfuls of flowers and ornamental grasses to decorate the cottage.