More people live in a 2 car household than have 2 novels in their house? 3% of Britons can’t read and 40% *choose* not to read books? This is sad news….

I ♥ my books.

As usual I Like… dishes up the goods with the worlds biggest pencil, a link to AceJet170’s Found Type Friday (apt as I’ve just been putting up some pics with lettering..) and from thence I got drawn into this superb collection of type specimens on Flickr and also to the blog of We Made This where they tell you about good design stuff (like the Ephemera Society fair which I’ve been meaning to go to for X many years…)

Managed to squeeze in a last minute visit to Brightling with S, P, little S and Billy – we wandered amongst the sheep and the gravestones in the fading sunlight before heading back to Stonegate…. all in all a fabulous 3 days!

So – last day at the magic garden… We were in the Fruit Garden today, hoeing the gravel beds between the gooseberries and strawberries.

Also planted up these pink tulips in the giant pots either side of the path. It was a little like excavating a dig in these pots as they were full of other plants / bulbs from other seasons… This is the thing I find hardest about figuring out stuff to plant on the balcony and would truly like help figuring it out. A plan for one pot + 4 seasons = ?? Are there any good books / articles about sequential planting?

After one *last* visit to the on-site shop I came away with a purple trug (it had to be done!) and the following seeds:

- Gaura (‘The Bride’ – I had one of these as a plant before but it died; second time lucky?)
- Scabiosa ‘Black Cat‘, Tall Doubles and ‘Fama‘
- Poppy ‘Meadow Pastel and Ruprifragum (orange)
- Summer and Winter Savoury (inspired by the herb beds at Bateman’s)
- Alpine Strawberry ‘Mignonette’
- Patty Pan Squash ‘Custard White’
- Greater Quaking Grass (just liked the name!)
- Zinnias ‘Envy‘ (a lovely chartreuse colour) and ‘Sprite‘
- Astrantia Major, deep red

also B gave me a Cup & Saucer plant and a Froggy Chrysanthemum… yay!

Locked out the b&b for a while so walk through St Bartholomew’s church yard to the field overlooking the valley and sit in the sunshine reading the paper. P, S and her son come along and we walk down to feed P’s horse some carrots… sit under oak trees and chat and then back to the pub to solve life’s mysteries (and for little S to act out life with lego). Everyone so friendly, I feel v lucky.

Today I have mostly been making these… Silver birch twigs twisted into rustic (very ‘rustic’ in my case) supports for tall flowers liable to get blown over.. This one is for the delphiniums. I also hoed some gravel paths and planted some seedlings. I love it; could easily do this every day. Had a Secret Garden moment when a robin came right up close and sat on a post nearby looking at me with a cocked head – the birds really aren’t shy (or maybe they are keen to just get at all the unearthed worms we’ve just made available!)

This is the kind of volunteer gardening I like: wandering about with some yellow scissors and a pink trug, deadheading flowers that are looking a bit peaky… Not a double dig to be dug…

B lovely, and offered free seeds and a lift to Bateman’s where Rudyard Kipling used to live… Spent the afternoon eating ginger parkin & reading Kim in the lovely gardens, looking for a felt mouse hidden somewhere in the masses of oak panelling (found him!) and walking back to the v friendy Rose & Crown.

Looking forward to a quiet evening and long sleep, I took my book down to the bar to get a drink and a bit of supper… A few ciders later I’d made friends with S & P and his dog Billy, and we were heading off to see a band in Tunbridge Wells! O.D a v young folky hippy band and they were playing to a keen audience upstairs at the Grey Lady; after stopping for a de riguer kebab and dropping off their drummer in Uckfield it was back to Burwash for a not so early night!

I’d forgotten how pretty the masses of blue on the road verges and in the woods of Sussex were… And the smell! A good start to my brief visit, even if I have wrenched my neck and so had to leave my trusty red bike at home.. It meant I got to walk the 4 miles into town and see these, spring lambs, a field of hops, kangaroo and zebra steaks for sale along with rhubarb and eggs (Sussex farms diversifying?!) hear a bi-plane and a cuckoo…

[Not quite sure what happened to that post, so here it is again...]
The Actionettes performed at Duckie, at the Vauxhall Tavern in London this eve. I managed to crick my neck about 10 mins before and saw stars it hurt that much, so I’m told my performance looked a little pained…. Seems the high strength Ibuprofen and gulped glasses of cava proved ineffective then – ah well…