STORM DAMAGE IN THE GARDEN

There's been such strong winds overnight that there's been some damage to other people's property, luckily, though it affects my garden. This first photo, looking down the garden, shows next door's fence panels flopped over. They are a good few years old and the posts were put in concrete rather than Metposts so have rotted through. The lilac tree is just coming into bud, I noticed earlier from upstairs.

This is looking back towards the house and you can see that three panels and several posts will need  replacing.  The shrub in the front with nice, new foliage is my hydrangea. The bushy plant sort of behind it is a delphinium clump already a couple of feet high but bent over at the moment. I'm glad the panels fell that way.

I carried on down the garden checking to see which would go next time there's a strong wind then came to the bottom on my way to the compost heap and found this greenery blocking the way. It's the last (almost) branch left on the willow tree in the house next door-but-one in the other direction.. Thank goodness he decided to have it very well pruned when I had my sycamore cut down in the autumn or there'd have been a lot of damage to two sheds.

Luckily it seems to have missed both of them and not damaged the Christmas tree either, from first glance. Just have to wait now for the neighbours to 'do something'. The tree branch's owner is about 84 so might take some time to organise help to shift it.

It could have been a lot worse, and must be, in other places.



CUDDINGTON, BUCKS

On the way back from shopping in Thame I sidetracked off the mainroad, the A418, to the little village of Cuddington - it was a lovely day with a bright blue sky, sunshine and no wind to spoil the temperature. Since I began blogging I almost always remember to take my camera with me and so it was today.

Cuddington has been used in several episodes of Midsomer Murders, usually showing this building but without the adornment of a green car and builders skip! It's usually portrayed as a village hall or where villagers are gathering.

I thought this sunflower looked a little bit like a Victorian lady in a bonnet with the frill framing her face, rather frilly sleeves, a pointing finger and a full skirt in green... It's looking over a wall near the school and I think might be in the school garden; just beside it are purply-red edged Morning Glories and a dense hedge of what looked like French Beans. The school was built in 1862-3, according to Pevsner, but the sun was shining on the back of it so didn't take a photo of the front in shadow.

I walked on down the quiet street and noticed this name at the beginning of a lane. When I was a child we had a cat named Tibby, which seemed to be quite a common name. Apparently it dates from the late 18th to mid 19th Century and not in fashion any longer.

I turned down this narrow dusty lane, not having been along it for about 15 years and vaguely remembering water at the bottom.

I spotted this real water butt - did you ever wonder why plastic water butts are round? It's a daft idea, especially for a small garden - why not use a water tank which normally goes into your roof space? It's a rectangle, fits into any corner without wasting space and the lid, reversed and with a few large holes punched into the centre boss, allows rainwater to drain into it. It'll need to have a tap put in and then stand it on 4 bricks in each corner which makes it just the right height. I bought mine about 20 years ago at a car boot - naturally - and it's still doing duty and looking not too bad for its age.

I had remembered the water at the bottom of the lane; past Tibby's Cottage, round a bend in an almost enclosed lane then found, several feet below me in a narrow water course, a shallow stream flowing out of a pipe in the side of the wall on which a bridge stood - this also held back a large pond in a garden. It was dark and shady after the bright sunlight of the village street.

Walking back to my car I spoke to an older man demolishing a tree in the hot sunshine - a hefty job for such weather. Passing the church I remembered I'd written an article about 19th Century cholera in Gibraltar, a tiny hamlet across the fields, where many people had died from drinking infected water from the well. There's a plaque on St.Nicholas' wall commemorating them.

Back at the car it struck me how the horse chestnut trees are turning rusty now but I haven't seen many conkers about this year. Must look harder!! The village store is on the right with a group of walkers just about to go in.

I'll have to go walking here again, there's lots more to see.