Sunday 6 February 2011

More Family Tree and more Open University?

I have not carried out much further research on the Ream Family Tree, but I am continuing to write up the research and this takes a lot of time. I am currently writing up the Brown Family Tree and to date this is twenty-eight pages long with still much to do.

I have also decided to study another Open University short course and this starts in the middle of February. This time I am studying Neighbourhood Nature which is a short course worth ten points, but with some field work to be carried out which should be interesting and hopefully can be carried out in the garden. I do not need to do the studying having achieved an Honours degree and a Masters degree, but this keeps me busy and my mind active. I plan to study a photography course next and then one related to plants and people.

The February Garden


Although this is only a small part of the garden, this view is being used each month so that I can see the comparisons between months; other views will be added occasionally.

The garden in February is never very exciting, but there are signs of Spring. There are a lot of aconites out as well as the snowdrops and one or two yellow crocus; there are also several purple iris out by the small pond. The daffodils are coming through, but have some way to go; there are also quite a few alpine cyclamen in flower in the alpine borders. One fish has become a casualty of winter, hopefully the other one and the toads are still okay.



The larger pond is now very large and spreading over some of the garden, but there has not been as much flooding as there has been some years.





The largest cherry tree has been pruned, probably the wrong time of year, so there will not be many (any?) cherries this year. The squirrels or the birds usually eat most of them anyway so it will make very little difference. More trees need to be pruned and two more trees are due to arrive, for planmting in the Spring; one is a replacement plum tree, the other is a replacement cob nut tree.

Most of the hedges have all been cut, we usually leave this too late and the birds build nests so we have to leave it until late summer when the branches are heavy with leaves so this year it was not quite such a big job. There is still much to do in the garden as there are a large number of shrubs to be kept in trim. The borders seem to grow more weeds than plants and the vegetable garden needs much attention, but this is currently lower on the list than the flower borders. At least there are some flowers out such as these snowdrops.