It was so cold down at Mudchute yesterday that I managed to aggravate the cold that I already had so I decided that I needed stay at home this afternoon and to pay some attention to putting my own house in order. John was dispatched on his own to make inroads into the manure mountain and transfer some of it to the new beds on Number 40. No evidence available, though he tells me that they look a little like Five Graves to Cairo. Meanwhile I have had to take comfort from what I can see out without going too far from the back door. Our garden is very small, suitable for the sub-Pooteresque families who would have occupied these terraces in the late 1800’s. Even so, I had completely forgotten that these tête-à-tête were there as the space is normally so strictly supervised that only plants of architectural merit are given entry visas.
There is, though, a fall back for cold days like today when, even though the sun is shining, you need to take a day off to recuperate. The rus in urban indoor garden. We have had a small orchard variously in our halls or over the backs of chairs for some years.
And this one has now been given a temporary home in the kitchen to stop the wintry drafts coming through the floorboards. The clash of orange and dark pink is really uplifting when you creep down half asleep in the cold half light of morning.
Here is my favourite, though. We were given a modest amount of compensation when we had to leave Manor Gardens, and I decided that I needed something which would remind me of the time we had spent there. When we visited Stonebridge Barn in the summer, we found the perfect winter garden rug. Strangely not everyone who sees it gets the picture . But for me the rows of guls, haphazard, wobbly and each one different, remind me of the imperfect order of a garden plot. The colours are a little garish; in fact I wondered whether the aniline reds were a little too strong for our muted rooms. I love it. And I know that it won’t be long before Mudchute looks a bit like this – once those sunflowers and dahlias are out.