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March 2009
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Chives |
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We celebrated the Spring Equinox
by making our first visit to the Sanctuary since last Christmas. The weather
was beautifully warm and I started the annual digging and weeding while
Chris cut back the ivy hanging over the grass. It was so heavy and low, we
couldn’t walk underneath the branches any longer.
The demise of the mulberry tree was a sad event, but it has definitely
opened up the views across the valley. We took the trunk up to the rickyard
in the car boot and hopefully, when it has dried out, my father will be able
to create something beautiful and practical from the wood, as he has with
the bowls made from our cherry tree last year.
We covered the space where the tree was with two new old fashioned, deeply
scented roses – William Shakespeare and Rosa Mundi. Two more were planted in
front of the summer house and a climbing rose now sits beside the top seat.
All we have to do now is to create something for it to climb up. Hopefully,
there will be masses of rose petals this summer to make lots of infused
honeys and vinegars.
Chris also helped my father collect an enormous piece of Cotswold stone
which had been ploughed up in the Autumn. The farmer who has the use of the
fields is intending to plant lucerne there for the next five years and used
a large plough with deep ploughshares to turn over the soil. This has
brought lots of stones and sand dollars to the surface of the fields.
The only problem with holding workshops in the Sanctuary is the vagaries of
the weather. Last March we experienced bright sunshine mixed with snow
showers. This year the forecast was for the coldest day in a very cold week.
I half hoped the weather forecasters would get it wrong, but they didn’t. It
was bitterly cold with a biting wind which blew everywhere.
Last minute bookings lead me to expect twenty adults with the possibility of
three children. As it turned out, due to life events and other extenuating
circumstances we greeted thirteen adults and two children – the younger of
whom was six years old. There was no doubt it was spring with all the
daffodils and primroses nodding an enthusiastic golden welcome.
I’m always amazed how far people come to experience the Sanctuary and the
lengths they are prepared to go to in order to arrive. Four people - Maddie,
Martin, Julie and Mike - are regular attenders. Val, Jackie and Kerry had
been to workshops in Solihull and wanted to continue their herbal journey.
For Teresa, Kaz, Dee, Robert and the family of four who brought Val to the
Sanctuary, it was their first visit. They came from Bath, Hereford, Wales,
Cornwall and Birmingham. I’m still waiting for local residents to wake up to
the resource which is offered on their doorstep!
Did I mention it was cold? I’d warned everyone to bring lots of warm clothes
and most people coped while we were walking around the boundaries and herb
beds but it was more difficult sitting on the veranda eating our lunch with
the wind blowing after a light shower of hail!
We started off with a cup of hot nettle tea, then walked the beds to see how
the plants and trees were shooting. Everything was growing vigorously, from
the tiny purple shoots of the Echinacea, to the well-established comfrey
leaves and delicate bergamot. Chunky mint roots and brilliant red dyers
woodruff roots were also in evidence.
Anyone who comes to one of my workshops has to taste things they’ve never
tasted before. This month it was dandelion roots (still large and sweet
despite the season), sorrel leaves, violet leaves, St John’s wort shoots,
primrose flowers and angelica leaves, although the latter wasn’t compulsory
because of its very bitter flavour.
After lunch, those who wanted to make a vinegar gathered nettles or dug up
whatever bramble roots they could find. Julie, Dee and I put together a
special tonic for Karen, who was sitting up in hospital after her serious
car accident for the first time and couldn’t be with us.
I’d dug up an amazing selection of enormous dandelions with lots of leaves
whilst I was weeding the main herb bed. The unusual thing about them was
that the roots were whole and not hollow like the roots I dug up from the
field next to the bungalow in January.
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