Finding these plaques on shops in Louth and then looking down and discovering the meridian running through the town was quite a surprise. As Chris said, "It has to go somewhere", but I just didn't expect to see it running anywhere through Lincolnshire. To be honest, it's not really something I give much thought to anyway - it is just there.
Another unexpected plaque on the opposite wall.
The line even goes through the pavement. More about Louth and the church in my next post.
On Monday, Chris and I visited Louth, a small market town about twenty five miles away from Lincoln, towards the east coast. We had both driven through the town before, but had never visited. It was a lovely place, with masses of Georgian architecture which seemed to have escaped being 'improved'. As a result, there is a lot to see.
A mosaic in the doorway of an empty shop which had large rounded windows. The detail on the mosaic captured my interest straight away.
A fabulous example of an original shop front, with glass panels placed at angles. Louth has retained a lot of independent shops and even the chains such as Argos are not overly obtrusive. There is an air of faded gentility about the town and the people there are obviously proud of the way the town looks as it has been able to resist the homogenised High Street found in many other places in England. I think that Tesco want to build a supermarket there, but so far, the local people are fighting it as they feel it will ruin the look of the town. Judging from what we saw, I think they are right to fight against it, and to protect the very special place they have.
I know I have already featured my small selection of tulips on here before, but couldn't resist adding a few more photos as I am so pleased with the amazing splash of colour these flowers are providing at the moment.
This one is the double 'Carnaval de Nice' which I featured way back in October and which is a gorgeous combination of white and red with a little green on the outer petals. It is certainly one which is impossible to ignore. 
Even the shut flowers look exotic. 
And finally, back to the combination of 'Jimmy' and 'Ronaldo', but taking a look at the insides of the flowers, which are just as lovely as the outside. 
I have only got four pots of these tulips, but am so impressed, I think I shall have to buy more for next year. They are so beautiful and have given me so much pleasure (and lots of photo opportunities!) I don't think I would go to the extremes of seventeenth century Holland, where one bulb of a particularly prized specimen would be worth a house, but I do think I have underrated these bulbs in the past and I shall do my best to always grow some tulips in the future.
The Open Door by Alec Buckels 
Puck's Magic by C T Nightingale 
After Granny made her debut on my blog, I asked Mum for a photo of her when she was little. This was not an easy task as there don't seem to have been many taken. Mum did find this one, with Granny at the bottom left frowning, her sister Margaret (known as Margie, with a hard 'g' sound) and Hilda Mary at the top wearing a very posh hat. The back shows it is from Hilda Mary and I'll try to decipher it:
My tulips really came into their own and I was very excited by the daily improvement in growth and colour. Then suddenly, this week, with the onset of beautiful sunny, warm weather, they opened out in all their glory. 
They were a free gift when I ordered some plants last autumn, and I planted them in a tub, not really thinking they would amount to much. How wrong could I be? The purple and orange have given a vibrant colour contrast amongst all the blues and yellows in the garden at the moment and have delighted me.
Velvety textured tulips giving a shot of bright colour to the garden - I think the varieties are Ronaldo and Jimmy. (Apologies to those poor souls in Canada who are still shivering under snow. Hopefully, these photos will keep you going until your own Spring finally comes.)
All of a sudden, my tulips have grown and are almost in flower! Things are certainly changing quickly now and are 'going up a gear'. In fact, blink and you miss something! 
Here is a lovely delicate erythronium (dog's tooth violet) called 'Pagoda' which is remarkably tenacious especially as every year I forget it is there, so it is constantly living with the threat of me inadvertantly digging it up or squashing it. However, it regularly manages to surprise and delight me by returning with its deeply veined leaves and delicate pale yellow flowers. A real little beauty!
This is Magnolia 'Susan' which is in flower a month before it flowered in 2010. I love this for the brilliant pink elongated petals and for the gorgeous fragrance which is just at nose height as I planted it in a tub. It is also remarkably hardy and survived this last winter very well, as you can see. I did wrap the tub in bubble wrap for insulation, but even so, I wasn't sure it could cope with the intense cold and consistent freezing temperatures we had last November and December. I am so pleased it did.
And finally, another Magnolia, this time 'Stellata' which has lovely white star shaped flowers. I bought this last year from a well known cut price supermarket and it has put on lots of growth and given me about ten flowers, so I think it was a bargain. Again, it is in a bubble wrap insulated pot and survived the winter well. Both the magnolias prefer acid soil, which the garden doesn't have, so they are in pots. 
How could I resist putting these lovely Spring blossoms onto my Blog? I saw these at Tupholme Abbey (it means Ram's Island, apparently, and was originally surrounded by marshy, swampy ground) and thought they would make a lovely image. 
The pussy willow also made a nice image, with the contrast between fully open flowers, slightly open and gone over flowers. It just shouts "Spring!" at you, doesn't it?
We last visited Tupholme Abbey (http://www.lincsheritage.org/) in September 2009 and I added it as a blog post on 8th September 2009. Last Saturday we decided, on a bit of a whim, to head off to Horncastle for the afternoon and on the way back, we stopped off at the Abbey again. Originally it was a huge place, with an Abbey Church, Cloisters, and all the other accoutrements required for a monastic complex. However, it fell foul of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries (he has a lot to answer for) and the buildings were sold off and made into a Tudor mansion, subsequently demolished. The only part of the Abbey that remains is the refectory wall. At one end are the remains of a Victorian house and at the other, a Georgian house. Around the area, there are many pieces of beautifully worked stones, just randomly left on the ground. Even though there is not that much left, there is a strong feeling of peace and tranquility and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. 
This willow sculpture of an eel catcher with a string of fish in his hand was a new addition to the pond areas.
Looking through the Victorian house down the range of the remaining building.
Looking out through the Georgian window frame onto the quiet Lincolnshire fields.
I made these spiral iced biscuits for a vegan friend whose birthday is today. The biscuit recipe is a simple one using Vitalite (or other vegan-friendly spread/marg), light brown sugar, golden syrup, plain flour and ground ginger. The end result is a crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle biscuit with a ginger flavour and is yummy! I decided to add the spirals of icing just to give a bit of surface decoration. (Of course, I made a few extra so Chris and I can enjoy them over a cup of tea!)
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) photo from Wikipedia 
Alice and the Duchess by Tenniel from alice in wonderland.net 
I have just finished this book which is about as contemporary as I'm ever likely to get, being published in July 2010. A colleague at work recommended it and I know I wouldn't have even picked it up if I had been on my own. It is a very unusual book, written from the point of view of a five year old boy, whose whole life has been confined to a twelve foot square room, with his mother. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the story and the way it was written, but it kept me gripped and I wanted to know what happened. The book deals with some horrible issues, but ones that actually do happen in real life, as news stories remind us. Ultimately, despite the subject matter, it is a positive story, showing the way humans can adapt and survive. (Photo from amazon)
What a surprise! After being immersed in Georgian and Victorian literature, I've suddenly decided to read mid-twentieth century literature. The reason? Well, I have never read any of Agatha Christie's books and was suddenly very curious. I saw them on the library shelf and thought I would give them a try. I really enjoyed them both, even though I knew the stories and who the murderer was. What I particularly liked was the sparse descriptions - for some reason I had imagined that there would be florid passages of adjectives. The story moves along at a great rate, the writing is easy to read but keeps you gripped, and the little clues throughout the dialogue are so subtle that I missed most of them, but luckily, Hercule Poirot was on hand to set me right! All in all, very well written, great stories and interesting characters with fiendishly intricate plots.
To celebrate the first day of Spring (at last!), I though I would put together a small montage of flowers currently enjoying the weather in my garden, both in pots and in the borders. It makes me feel full of hope for the coming seasons. When the clocks go forward next weekend, it will be even more noticeable and there will be even more time to enjoy being outside. (Clockwise from the top we have violas, narcissus 'Tete a Tete', more violas and some delicately coloured Pushkinias.)
The star of the show at the moment just has to be this beautiful hellebore (and I can't remember the variety, but will try to find out). As it has flowers that hang down, I had to gently persuade it to look up to have its photo taken and I'm pleased I did. So, here's to Spring!
Chris asked me to put this photo on my blog - it does show an extremely chilled out Gonga, fast asleep under his red blanket! If only we could all be as relaxed a little more often - perhaps life would be happier. There is a lot to be said for making time to relax in and I never feel guilty for this, whether I'm relaxing by gardening, reading, or just sitting. I know some people find this hard to do (Mum and Chris immediately spring to mind) but luckily for me, it seems to come naturally!
I have finally managed to get out in the garden and do some sorting out! Hooray! I've pruned roses, clematis and miscanthus grasses, I've potted on a couple of hydrangeas and moved a rose bush that was in the wrong place. I have tidied and sorted the pots at the front door and cut down stems from perennials in the back garden. I have divided astrantia major and spread it around the borders. There are a few bare patches in the borders, but things will soon start to grow. These scillas were planted last autumn in a container and are providing a lovely splash of lapis lazuli blue at the moment, and I noticed lots of muscari (grape hyacinth) bulbs coming up which will continue the blue theme.
Here is the result of my colour blending sample based on the colours of the Parrot tulip I featured in a previous blog post. I didn't make it with an end result in mind, it was just a blending experiment to see what colours I could create and how they would work together. I added silk threads onto the top layer and delineated the different blends using black wool. I am really encouraged by the piece and the next stage will be to create an abstract piece, using these shades (assuming I can create them again, of course!)
Having a walk around the garden, I couldn't help noticing the furry magnolia buds which were framed beautifully against the brilliant blue sky. It was a cold morning, but with the sun out, you could almost be fooled into thinking it was Spring...almost.
The magnolia buds are a positive sign because although they are tightly wrapped against the cold at the moment, they hold the promise of unfurling into the beautiful scented flowers in a month or so. I love to see the garden gradually starting to wake up.
Children's book: The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston
I first read this when I was about eight or nine and I loved it. I still read it every year, around Christmas. It is the story of Tolly, who comes to stay with his Great Granny at Green Knowe, and discovers that the house has other occupants from previous generations. There is a curse on a large yew tree in the garden and he has a very exciting time sorting everything out!
Persuasion by Jane Austen
This is my favourite of Jane Austen's novels. It has a wonderfully autumnal feel and tells the story of Anne Elliott, an unmarried middle daughter who previously fell in love with Frederick Wentworth, only to be persuaded that he had no prospects, so she declined his proposal. Several years later, he returns, a Captain in the Navy with lots of money, and Anne (who has remained in love with him) realises that her chance of happiness may have gone forever. The story is beautifully written, with wonderful characters, and I really empathised with Anne throughout.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
This book kept me absolutely engrossed and I often re-read it, despite knowing what happens. It is a convoluted story told by different characters and contains blackmail, mistaken identities, love, murder, and one of the most evil (but charming) villains ever to appear in print, Count Fosco. The heroine, Marian, is an amazing woman who is described as ugly which immediately grabbed my interest, as an ugly heroine is extremely unusual. She is wonderfully clever and a match for Fosco. The ending is satisfactory, with everything explained, but it is not altogether happy.
The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift
Beautiful prose, written over fourteen years and based around the forming of a garden is how this book can be described, but it is so much more. The author writes about geography, geology, astronomy, astrology, county lore, gardening, country people, the seasons, her own family history and at the heart of the book is her creation of a garden. It is a book that you need to read slowly, without distractions, to savour each bit of it. I have read it twice now and will continue to read it for the rest of my life, I think.
Guilty Pleasure: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
This is a children's book really, but it is one I still enjoy reading. It has a 13 year old heroine called Maria, who goes to stay with her cousin, Sir Benjamin Merryweather. Gradually she realises that she has got to sort out some very ancient history and if she doesn't, she will have to leave the valley and never return. It has magical and supernatural elements and Maria is a strong-willed and determined young lady. Does she sort everything out? You'll have to read the book!
What do my choices say about me? I think they show that I am a romantic person who likes a satisfactory ending - not always happy, because life isn't like that, but with all the ends tied up. I also love stories I can escape into and leave the world behind. There is also a bit of a supernatural element to some of the books I have chosen, which really surprised me, as I have a really vivid imagination and don't like horror films or ghost stories usually. I found this a really interesting thing to do - what are your five favourites?
I did say that flapjack might be the next baking project so here it is! It always amazes me that it is such a simple recipe with only four ingredients and tastes so yumptious (another of my very descriptive but not necessarily technically correct words, combining scrumptious and yummy). You need 4 level tablespoons of Golden Syrup melted with 4 oz margarine in a saucepan. To this you add 3 oz granulated sugar and 8 oz porridge oats, put into a greased square tin and cook for around 30 minutes on Gas 3.
I have managed to over cook these sometimes and they go too hard and crunchy. I have also found (through experience) that you must cut them up while still warm otherwise they harden too quickly and it is then difficult to cut them into shapes.
