Finished!

I put the final touches to our Christmas decor yesterday by putting the outdoor ones up. These are probably the cheapest decorations you can get, but I really like the way they brighten up the apple tree and they don't seem to mind what weather gets thrown at them.

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Your essential reads

Hopes for the New Year

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I've walked many miles over the holiday season and seldom does the view match my mood as perfectly as this graffiti did in the footpath tunnel under the local railway this year. It's not the most salubrious of places or views, but it's a sentiment I wish for us all in 2026. Happy New Year everyone, and here's to a peaceful 2026 for you and yours. I also hope we get to do more of what I saw on the opposite wall! 😊
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Weekend Wandering: the festive doors of Lacock

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Lacock village is always a good bet for a good door display and Christmas is no exception. Here's a small selection of various wreaths I found on a wet and windy day recently which really helped to dispel the gloom and provide plenty of festive cheer. I hope you like them too. Have a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful New Year. See you all again in 2026!
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Unusual Front Gardens #40: A very hungry caterpillar

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Here's something to cheer up those January blues with a look back at the hot days of last July and a discovery I made on my Cheerful Chippenham  judging round. It made me chuckle a lot at the time and I've only just realised how ironic it is now as most of Chippenham's box hedges have been decimated by the dreaded box caterpillar. Cheerful Chippenham is a great project to be involved with. Around 30 volunteers are each given a specific part of Chippenham as their patch and have around a month to have a look at everyone's front gardens alongside some judging criteria to ensure we're all consistent. Those who have done something positive with their plot are deemed worthy of a Good Front Garden award. It's surprising how many aren't, including me! Long Covid meant I lost the plot big time last year. Roll on summer 2026!
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Weekend Wandering: Public Art Discoveries

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  It's been great to find lots more public art around Chippenham this year; enough to make this collage for your delectation. From left to right and top to bottom we have: Mustard Bustards  by @lucas_antics  next to Cousin Norman's and Artel31 on Union Road; Morris Dancer by the ever reliable Chippenham Knatty Knitters  on Chippenham High Street for this year's folk festival; In Unity Beauty Unfolds by Sophie Mess at Rivo Lounge Kingfisher by Nathan Pritchard in the Kingfisher pub car park on Hungerdown Lane; Chippenham collage by 2024's Fringe February contributors; Canal scene by Ed Poster at the bus station Winnie's Barbershop by @hardlytryinganyway  on Sheldon Road; Mystery horse next to St Andrew's church; Rainbow High Street project led by Public Art Chippenham for Chippenham Pride 2025 Sadly the Morris dancer was the last topper for the post box as it's now gone solar as have at least 2 others in Chippenham. Fingers crossed the other locations get th...
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Weekend Wandering: Candlesnuff

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My latest find just yards from our house is this intriguing candlesnuff fungus (aka Xylaria hypoxylon ) growing on a pile of logs by Hardenhuish Brook. It looks like little reindeer antlers adding a festive decoration on my walk into town, though the Woodland Trust tells me * it can be found year-round. I'm delighted to see it for the first time. Apparently the greyish white part contains the spores, so I hope the recent high winds have spread them out a bit as we have tons of fallen deciduous wood in need of a little decoration. Although it's the first time I've seen it, this fungus can crop up pretty much anywhere, from woodland through to urban parks. Have you spotted it in your neighbourhood? * = scroll down to item 7 on their list
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Close encounters with AI

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  To be honest I feel quite ambivalent about AI and largely avoid its use, where I can. I try to ignore the AI information presented within search engines and I don't usually use it to create anything etc etc. I'm worried about copyright issues for instance, and how it's already replacing garden writers who have extensive knowledge gained over many years of experience. Articles can be generated quickly, often with dubious content which is often published without fact checking first. I'm reminded of a central tenet from my time in IT; Garbage In, Garbage Out (aka GIGO), right? However NAH recently benefitted from AI technology when a surgeon assisted by a robot using CT scan data peered deep into his lung and determined the small lump there is benign, thus avoiding him losing around a third of his lung. The latter operation was the preferred approach until the robot technique was developed and often the removed material revealed a benign lump rather than a tumour. We...
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For Valentine's Day

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  Here's my copper foil glass heart lovingly made for today in a workshop at The Pound arts centre recently. It's perfectly paired with a stand lovingly crafted by NAH in his garage workshop here at home. We're also a good match in many other ways and celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary next month 😍 Happy Valentine's my love x
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That's shallot!

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This year's constant rain has given me plenty of thinking time about the garden, but today's sunshine (at last!) tempted me out for a good, long walk with a little detour for seed buying along the way. I've been pondering my patio pots and what I could try for the first time as a bit of an experiment. My local shop provided the ideal solution: aha, why not try some shallots!? I've grown these before on the allotment, though pesky onion white rot there meant I had to give up and give the soil a chance to heal. I've chosen shallots over onion sets this time as I think they give more bang for my buck, plus they feature in one of my favourite new lunch recipes, a creamy mushroom pasta. At 3 packets for a fiver I think they're worth a try. They're shallow rooted so ideal for pot growing albeit they'll need quite a bit of width to bulk up rather than depth. I'm eyeing up my Plantbox troughs as part of my experiment as well as more conventional pots. I ha...
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Adventures with Stick Me

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I have a new alter ego in the shape of Stick Me . She was created for British Heart Foundation 's Strong Woman Challenge in April to bring in a bit of fun and help document progress. Seeing my first alter ego was VP , I wonder if any future ones will also have to rhyme? 😉 My drawing skills aren't that great, especially when it comes to people so it was fun to acknowledge that and still have something useful for my intended purpose. The drawing above is Stick Me 's latest incarnation for my review of progress for October's Strong Woman challenge compared to April's achievements. As you can see, I'm very happy! I wasn't in a happy place at the start of April due to the effects of Long Covid plus shoulder problems due to hypermobility; the Challenge showed the start of a return to health again and October's challenge shows real progress. Over £300,000 was raised from October's Challenge and I'm happy to continue with the monthly donation I've b...
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Down by the river

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We've had just a few sunny days this month, so it was great to go for a decent walk recently with W in pretty warm sunshine for November. Our usual meet up spot is on the Town Bridge; it's always an interesting view whilst waiting, further enhanced since late September by the latest mural courtesy of Public Art Chippenham.* This one's by Sophie Mess ( @sophiemess_ on Insta) who's noted for her vibrant botanical art and she doesn't disappoint in this instance. I'm glad to admit I made a small crowdfunder contribution to this one, especially now the mural's been revealed as the subject matter resonates with me and quite a lot of this blog's content. I'm pleased she's included the word Unity in her piece, which is a link to Chippenham's town motto, Unity and Loyalty. It's good to be reminded of it during these strange and relatively turbulent times.  Next up is a competition for the next project: ideas for the decoration of the Open Reach ...
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