Newsletter

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

‘Puffed up with pride’ – that’s probably the best way to describe us at the moment.

The garden has continued to grow, both horticulturally and literally. Horticulturally speaking, we’ve had super displays of irises, roses and geraniums and the big ‘Kiftsgate’ rose in the potager has started flowering. It’s climbing up into a tree near the beehives, and promises to reach twenty or thirty feet in the next few years. The potager itself is enjoying a bit of a ‘fallow year’ because the wet start to the year meant we didn’t plant as much as usual. Even so, we’ve had super crops of gooseberries, redcurrants and raspberries. The latter have been especially welcome for one of our seasonal specialities, Gressingham Duck stuffed with Raspberries, Wild Rice and Almonds. If we get another winter like the last, we may be able to grow the rice ourselves, too!

The second type of garden growth is the result of Geoffrey deciding to enlarge the existing borders even further and to start a new one at the edge of the North Lawn, concentrating mainly on hydrangeas. He is hoping it will spread right across the bottom of the terrace – an idea he picked up from the grounds of Holyrood House.

What? Oh, didn’t we mention that we had been to a Garden Party at the Palace of Holyrood? We had a splendid time strolling around in our finery, listening to the bands, admiring the gardens and enjoying tea and cakes. Oh, and standing for quite a long time with daft grins on our faces watching the Queen, Prince Philip and Princess Anne progress through the crowds.

Never ones to be outdone, a few days later we held our own garden celebration. This time it was to celebrate our Civil Union. Friends and family congregated in a marquee on the lawn and something a little more substantial than tea and cakes was provided by our good friend, Asja. We had a band too, a quintet arranged by Biff, Antony’s one-time kitchen assistant. Altogether quite a few of the extended Kilmichael ‘family’ were present, as well as more conventional relatives and friends from when we were both students in the Jurassic period.

As a gift for our celebrations our friend Josephine kindly offered to gild the camels’ heads on the gates to the house. It’s said that the Fullartons incorporated camels into their family crest to indicate that they had been involved in the Crusades. Josephine is a distinguiushed and gifted artist, by the way, and her work can be seen at broekhuizen.me.com.

Our livestock continues to grow too, thanks (?) to Antony’s obsession with poultry. We now have a quartet of beautiful Saxony ducks and have succeeded in hatching some Crollenwitzer turkeys, as well as several additional breeds of chicken. Giuseppe, our Dalmatian, also shows a keen interest in the new birds and has to be taken on long walks to take his mind off them...

And August? Certainly the garden will grow, as will the number of chickens. We’ll have lots of new recipes, as well as the old favourites, and look forward to welcoming friends, both new and old, to share summer at Kilmichael with us.

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