MY GARDENING skills are mostly confined to cutting the grass and thereafter admiring the labour and skills of my betters. Now is the time of year when I look forward to putting away the lawn mower, and putting my feet up until springtime. Sadly it never works out that way. The autumn equinox passed on the 22nd of this month, marking the start of autumn proper when the trees begin to shed their leaves. And it's back to the tedious task of sweeping them up.
CAPABILITY BROWN was the eighteenth century's greatest English landscape architect. The gardens at Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland, were first laid out by locally born Brown in 1750, and remained one of the grandest extravaganzas of that county until the start of the twentieth century.
AGRICULTURAL ROUPS (auctions) being held outdoors, in all weathers, attract a hardier breed of participant than the usual emporiums of unfulfilled temptation and impulse buying.
FARM SHOPS are hardly a new phenomenon and in our experience have ranged from a tray of vegetables at the roadside, with an honesty box, to some pretty fantoosh establishments.