It was SSNTV member Matthew’s milestone (we’ll leave it at that shall we?) birthday the night before, so top marks to most who made it out next day, among them workday leader David…..
It was a gloriously bright and sunny early Spring day which made the profusion of daffodils in the gardens and arboretum look at their best. We worked under the supervision of both Head Gardener Caroline and her deputy James. This was a rare treat as we don’t often see them together!
It’s always a good idea to keep the Head Gardener happy so we were pleased that we were able to complete all of the tasks that Caroline could remember from her list for the day! (Even if we did have help from a few of the property’s garden volunteers)
We had a bit of a bonfire fest too, as we eventually had three on the go. One group burned some cuttings where we had a megafire in the past, towards the Blue Bridge. Another group made a fire near the Chinese Bridge in the Arboretum, to burn the hawthorn trees we cut down, aimed at opening up views across the river back to the Mansion. A third burn developed further into the Arboretum where we all worked after lunch to burn cuttings, fallen stems and the brambles we dug out. As an end of the day task, ‘brambling’ (which sounds better than the activity) was quite hard going, especially as it involved venturing close to the very smoky fire.
Unfortunately at times, the wind wasn’t in the most favourable direction for the garden either! We did smoke it out a bit – oops sorry visitors! It was busy with people who were both curious and at the same time needed to dodge the billowing clouds. Indeed, those in the Mansion wondered if they needed the fire brigade, until they found out the smoke was coming from way over in the Arboretum!
We always get supplied with fabulous cake at Shugborough (thanks James) but incredibly we struggled to eat it all, having attempted to polish off the left-overs from group member Matthew’s birthday cake at elevenses and lunchtime.
Oh yes and BTW….what is K9 doing on James’s garden mowing / blowing machine???????
