MG Car Rally

Last Sunday we enjoyed the arrival of an MG car rally from Wimpole Hall to Stevington; a 50 mile snowdrop run organised by Cambridge and District MGOC. There were 100 old and new cars, but not all were MGs!

One was a cream 1955 MGTF. One was a 1964 Austin Healey. Another was a 1942 Austin K2 RAF Ambulance complete with four made up beds.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there was lots of chatter in the car park and gardens, not to mention the tea rooms about all sorts and ages of cars.

Did I mention tea rooms! I had made double tier chocolate cakes, sumptuous ginger cakes, goey lemon and violet drizzle cakes and a few violet macaroons in case anyone couldnot eat flour. My last piece of cake disappeared about 4 o'clock. All in all a wonderful day.

Rotating Garden Summer House

Chris Nicholson brought his rotating sphere over to my garden for the NGS open day as well as our recent MG Snowdrop Rally. We thought it would go rather nicely in front of the white stemmed birches. Even in winter it was a triumph, so how much better in summer? The modern use of aluminium and steel was quite at home amongst the gleaming bark of the ghostly birches, while the softly coloured pine structure looked perfect besides the burnished grasses further to the left.

What are the advantages? Well it rotates to give you the best view on a certain day or season; it can turn to avoid any wind; and it can turn you into full sun or shade depending on your whim. Best of all it takes up very little ground space.

People thought it was a sculpture at first and then realised it had a function; and what a function....to sit and muse, to have a dinner party or even to lounge in. For more information contact Chris tel. 07766 518940 E-mail: chris@stylish-gardens.com Website:www.stylish-gardens.com

Micro gardening

Hannah Miles of Masterchef fame (see hannahscountrykitchen.blogspot.com) wanted to borrow our gong and in return she gave me six gorgeous fresh eggs; they are unusual because they have a blue tinge. I thought it was time to replant my batch from last year as the shells were beginning to disintegrate. Its surprising how long they had lasted.

But in the meantime Hannah's lovely hens had grown and are now producing really big eggs which is much better for my micro gardening task! It so happens that I was given a super cup cake stand for Christmas and instead of cakes it now has lots of planted eggs on it!

Houseleeks and echeverias adorn the stand; funny really because in the USA echeverias are known as the hen and chicken plant cos of all the little babies around the mother plant.

Honey Bees in Winter Sunshine

Now I know this photo wasn't taken today, but the honey bees were very boistrious outside the two hives; the warm afternoon air was such a joy for them and me! They were enjoying a little visit to a group of clay pots with single snowdrops, now in flower at last and I also noticed them visiting the white hellebores in our winter walk. What a treat so see them around again.