The Dawnmist Garden - Always Cool for Cats
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I hope you enjoy reading about our garden. These pictures and memories are shared from the last couple of decades.
Our garden is an important place where we can relax with friends and cats, spending more time out there than in the house during the warmer months. The lower garden is partly roofed over to allow us to enjoy the sunshine, do pottery and other projects even when it is raining. In the winter as with any garden it is quite cold and bleak out there in full shade but in the summer months a joyful place to spend time and to ponder life, watch the toads and newts in the pond and grow potted plants.
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It all began way way back many years ago when Fluffball was still just a kitten (awwwwww, isn't
she cute!) and Heather had a little too much wine one evening, got tipsy, fell in the pond and
said "Let there be Mud" and suddenly there was mud, lots of it and all wet; well, ceramic artists
all begin their journey here in the primitive swamps of mother earth. Gradually over the years
Heather added to it bit by bit, and also took some away too but we think she is almost happy with the design now.
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As an inventor Natalie will often dabble with new projects in the garden in the warm months
while Heather creates her latest vase or statue on the wheel nearby. The design of electronic
circuits might be of priority or perhaps ceramic glaze recipes that grow natural crystals during the firing.
Sometimes Natalie will prefer to sunbath to get her dose of vitamin D in the longer grasses of the upper garden
or she might be reading a book.
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Each year Heather likes try something new and to develop themes she has liked from the year
before. The garden gradually evolves and matures. In 2008 she bought one of those
little bird cages which seem to be in fashion and it looks nice hanging there under the vines
with a candle inside it. Candles are another important part of garden ritual here. The Clematis
plant Heather chose has 4 petals to each flower head which she found more striking to the eye.
It is also highly perfumed and smells a bit like vanilla and while the bloom looks lovely, the
vines do grow very fast indeed and need constant pruning.
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The pumpkins were grown several years ago back in 2002 for halloween and were inspired by Heather's visit to
America in 2001 when she witnessed a Pumpkin festival in New Hampshire where thousands of pumpkins were
on display. One of them she grew to 18 inches across which was not bad for a first attempt; even
Maeve was impressed and tried to shred her way inside to make a nest but it was not big
enough for her cos she was a huge cat, a proper beast! (RIP Maeve).
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In the late spring when the apple tree is in full bloom the cats liked to sit on the seat there while
the petals fell. Heather grew this tree from an apple core that she planted a number of years back in around 1996.
We watched it grow into a mature tree and each year now we get lots of red apples although they are
not the best for eating but do make good wine. Kitties liked to hunt the apples when Heather rolled them down the lawn.
These days the cats are kept safer in the lower and middle garden.
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Heather has a habit of growing trees from seeds and will always plant Traditional English acorns which are
gathered when they fall from the neaby farm tree. At
times she has planted several of these and nurtured them in pots eventually growing into trees although
they take a while to get big. In 2008 when she decided to have a go at making wine for the first time
she chose "October Wine" which is an unusual recipe using oak tree leaves! A year later when sampled
the wine was amazingly nice and tasted like a rich sherry (Recipe can be found on our wine making pages).
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As an artist Heather will often look to nature for inspiration sometimes capturing ideas that can be woven
into her ceramic designs or drawings. These aphids laying eggs on a blade of grass had arranged themselves
into a cluster which caught her attention. Their positioning suggests the nurturing of a flock with parents
giving birth, children helping with the babies and another wandering off.
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The sounds of bird life is also varied with pheasants, robins, blue-tits, pigeons, green finches, sparrows,
magpies and also bats. A few Tawny Owls and occasional Buzzards also visit and in the winter flocks of geese
pass over. One day Heather hopes to blend these sounds into the music she composes.
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From time to time our kitties do bring mice back from the wild. One year they brought back a baby which we
kept as a pet because she was too young to let go again... she lived for more than 2 years and her story is
covered on our pet page which you can read. Most of the mice that survive are given bed and breakfast and
then let go again. Over the years we have had a number of fluffy visitors.
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There are plenty of cats living in the area and plenty of trees also that they like to climb and scent-mark. The following observations may be made...
Maeve used goes up and get stuck but eventually managed to get down. When we first got Macha she vanished overnight and we found her at 4am up the farmers tree and had to rescue her - we call it Macha's Tree. |
| In 2006 Pheasants sometimes used to visit the benches in the upper garden though these days the number of cats in area means they stick to the farm fields nearby. In 2016 a mother and baby hedgehog were seen in daytime running through the longer grass. During spring in 2017 a large male fox was seen in the upper garden too. |
| Many years ago when the upper garden was a lot more wild and there was an artistic hole in the brambles which led to who know's where! |
| During 2015 the pond was full of breeding newts and here is a tiny egg stuck to some pond weed with a embryo inside! |
| The lower garden pond and steps in 2015. The steps took a whole summer to make as what was there previously was not such a good design but the newer steps really added a new dimension to this area and are enjoyable to sit on as well. As they were constructed Heather built in little ceramic figures she had made or pieces of 17th, 18th and 19th century pottery and glass as well as coloured beads and crystals. Some items contain time capsules. |
| The lower garden in 2015. Each year I grow night scented stock in hanging baskets which smell nice in the evening. |
| Red clay tiles which I designed and made to pave an small area underneath the iron chimney |
| The upper garden in August 2015 with all the field daisies in flower |
| The red berries of the hawthorn tree in the autumn 2016 |
| As the years pass either frogs or toads visit the garden pond. They appear from nowhere so we never know what we will get from year to year until they are heard or seen. The newts usually hibernate under the rockery and way back in 1997 when Heather first began building the pond area she made sure there were lots of secret tunnels and chambers behind the ponds so toads and frogs can hibernate. |
| The cats have always enjoyed the garden over the years - more lovely pics of the cats on the cat page |
| A statue I bought for the garden in 2016. Originally I had wanted to make one myself but never got around to it then saw this one at a nearby garden centre which looks nice. |
| In 2003 Heather grew Rustica Nicotiana in the garden which is the first kind of tobacco plant ever brought back to England in the late 16th century. It worked really well. |
| In 2004 we were given some old fibreglass decorations which we sprayed silver and hung around the garden. The fence was blue and there was a locked gate leading into the upper garden. |
| Flowers Heather enjoyed in 2005 |
| 2010 the year when we had heavy snow and Sammy (another local cat) dropped in to examine the snow-cat that Heather made |
| 2011 the first year when we harvested much larger red apples on the tree that Heather had planted as an apple core back in the early 90's. These were made into wine. |
| 2013 Some of the field buttercups which grow on long stalks. Heather gathers the seeds from these each year and scatters them so that the upper and middle gardens get more and more of them as time goes by. These give more height and colour to the natural grasses and attract butterlies. Other plants in the upper garden are vetch, ribwort plantains, self-heal, bluebells, field daisey, tulips, primroses, cow-slips, celadines, grape hyacinth, hawthorn, ash tree's, plum and cherry tree. |
| 2017 A local squirrel takes a detour from its usually route through the farm tree's in search of some bird food in a nearby garden |
| Clematis |
