As a child I used to love mucking around in the garden. I had my own vegetable patch and loved to help my mother pottering around in her green house. But once I entered my teenage years, any affinity to gardening went out of the window. But last week something peculiar happened. I went to Taverham Nursery and had an absolute ball. In fact I went mad and bought so many plants my partner doesn’t quite know what to do with them.
Our new house has got a beautiful garden. It was the pride and joy of the lady we bought it from. It’s not manicured, but it has so much variety, including its own greenhouse and vegetable patch. Normally I restrict my gardening duties to the occasional mow of the lawn, but for some reason I think I am about to rediscover my green fingers. Perhaps it’s the final sign of middle age, but even when I was deputed to clean out the drain on the patio last Sunday I didn’t find myself trying to find an excuse not to do it.
Anyway, back to Taverham Nursery. I really was like a child in a sweetshop and almost had to be physically restrained from buying even more. We are now the proud owners of rhubarb plants, a gooseberry bush and blackberry bush, as well as lots of lavendery planty things. Luckily I was pulled away from the flowers section otherwise we’d have had to plant the lawns.
Also last weekend I took my Jack Russell, Dude, to the Worstead festival. It was the first time I had been in nine years. To be honest I was a little nervous as he is not used to crowds, and I was afraid he might disgrace himself at the least opportune moment. But I shouldn’t have worried. Dude is the sort of dog that thinks everyone is his new friend. He hasn’t got an ounce of aggression in him, which is unusual for a Jack Russell. And he loves children. Unfortunately, sometimes children recoil in horror as he bounds up to them wanting to lick them. But he was on his best behaviour although it was a little embarrassing to be asked to leave the food tent by a very polite gentleman who told us that dogs weren’t allowed. My friend Sarah Pettegree, who runs Bray’s Cottage Pork Pies (highly recommended) tells me that this rule was then subsequently relaxed. Good.
The next day we attended the Lammas annual church barbeque. It was a delightful lunchtime event in the garden of one of our neighbours, right next to the burbling River Bure. Bearing in mind that Lammas has a population of not much more than 120, there were over 100 attendees who enjoyed the lunchtime sun, food and company. It was a good way to meet the village all in one go. It was the sort of event that makes you think ‘yup, we’ve done the right thing moving here’.
