Category: Tales from Pond Cottage
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Too cold for (igloo) snow
The pond taken by Dougal standing where he really shouldn’t ought to. The night we arrive we have to abandon the car by the gate and carry the cats through snow so deep it comes right over our wellies. It’s so cold the cottage feels like a scene from Dr Zhivago.
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A purple picture is worth a thousand words
Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but I am getting quite a taste for purple.
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Swans rule at Pond Cottage
They shall not pass… The picture is not very clear but you get the idea. These swans have no intention of letting anyone get past. When I stand up the adults stand up, when I move forward so do they, hissing and opening their wings to make sure I get the message. It takes a…
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Natural Progression at Pond Cottage
I have a new routine before I start the hard labour of gardening; a nice half hour or so of delaying tactics, wandering round, cup of tea in hand, counting ducklings (four, nearly full grown) and cygnets (still seven a month after hatching) and then, oh go on, just another few minutes to check the…
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Red squirrel comes to Pond Cottage
There was a moment of disbelief. We’ve got so used to chasing grey squirrels from the bird table (there is no such thing as a squirrel-proof feeder) that I thought the sun must be playing tricks with the colour. But this squirrel really was red and, we have since discovered, possibly the first sighting of…
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Empty pond syndrome
The birds have flown. Or rather, since this is the moulting season, perhaps they have just shuffled off somewhere downstream. Wherever they have gone and however they got there, the pond seems much too quiet and I am wandering around gloomily counting ducklings and cygnets that are nowhere to be seen. I don’t think it…
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Fran and Jared’s wonderful wellie boot wedding
July is supposedly the most popular month for getting married which is tricky in Scotland when you are planning a woodland wedding. But look at the potential for accessories. Forget the fascinator! Angela has just sent me these great shots of the Pond Cottage wedding of the year. Well, ok, the only PC wedding of…
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accidental gardening
It’s working. Two years ago with Susie’s help, I planted a B&Q buy-one-get-one-free special offer of miniature narcissus round the stone cairn built by Richard. Moss is doing a great job of covering the stone but the ground was a bit of a problem: too many weeds and it was difficult to mow the grass…
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Let it snow
I miss winter. This year the Scottish ski-ing industry is actually in business again but it still doesn’t feel like proper winter weather. There are geraniums in bloom alongside snowdrops in my back garden and frogs pop their heads out of our little pond every other day as temperatures slip up and down the…
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No cider house rules
This is what my farming aunt Betty would call a popular apple. That’s what she says when you cut into the windfalls she has brought in for breakfast to find there’s something slimey and squishy already in there.
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Summertime blues
Bees may be disappearing from hives across the world but they are crawling all over my herb patch. Good to know there’s something edible in the vegetable garden. The plot has never looked better since Ray made new paths and edged all the borders in wood during that spring heat wave. But it has never…
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Uncertain spring
So, there’s frilly lettuce, multi colour Swiss chard and some mini pumpkins in the basket. But no onions. Having finally got round to ordering my seeds for the growing season I find that Marshalls has sold out of my favourite Red Barron and Gold Fen onion sets. Serves me right for being so slow. But…