Ann Kretzschmar

My last post was 6 months ago. It's been a very strange year and, now in September, it doesn't seem to be getting any less strange as time goes on. After the initial shock of lockdown had warn off, life went on in a very new way - working from

It has been a long time since my last post. Almost 4 months in fact and what a lot has happened since then, most of it unthinkable. Next week I should have been heading for the US to visit to my son, instead of which we are in global lock-down

Instead of my usual Christmas letter, I have decided to do a blog post this year, more pictures, less paper, so here goes: It's been a busy year one way and another. After Christmas spent with Caitlin and Dave mostly doing lots of horsey stuff, I spent New Year at

Several of the Lake District fells have some sort of war memorial and services are held on Remembrance Sunday. I've been to the one on Castle Crag in Borrowdale on 2 or 3 occasions in the past and as the weather forecast was promising I decided to have a night

It may be a dreary, dark wet day; the clocks may go back tonight meaning winter really is approaching fast but the dogwoods, heucheras and cotinus are looking glorious in their autumn colours. The heucheras are loving the cooler weather and the darker days are brining out their amazing autumn

After a bad start to a very nice day which had to be wasted taking the car in to get new brakes fitted, I headed for a late lunch in one of my favourite garden centres which has an excellent tea-room with a wonderful array of cakes on offer! Oh

Saturday 28th September was the annual Show in Eskdale. It's a typical Lakeland show with produce, baking, crafts, trade stands, terrier racing, hound trailing, Cumberland Wrestling, Morris Men, a Brass band and sheep, lots of sheep. Sheep are the main feature - the local Herdwick sheep. The weather forecast wasn't

As is obvious front previous posts, the front garden wasn't very interesting. Its most exciting feature was the stream running across the front in a 6ft culvert so my driveway is a bridge (more on the stream later!). When she first saw it, my daughter described it as 'the house

When I moved in 8 years ago, the garden was pretty boring - a muddy lawn and a tangled hawthorn hedge at the back and a lot of prickly and green shrubs at the front. The best features were the half of the hedge that is beech and the pyracanthas

When I moved in in early 2012, the garden was very small (it still is!) consisting of a small lawn which was a pain to cut due to its slope and having walls all around it and two big hedges. The front garden seemed to consist mostly of prickly shrubs

Heucheras are usually grown for their foliage however they have lovely delicate flowers which have an attraction all their own. Flower colours range from red through delicate pink to cream and white and although most are small, there is quite a variation. There are a few variations shown in the