Springtime at home

Time for a break from my travels and write a bit about what's going on at home! We had a lovely few days of sunshine and even two days with temps around 25C, which was a real treat. Two days later on Sunday and it was wet, windy and 9C. I guess that's April for you.

Keith has planted out my Olive tree (at long last) and made a nice wooden surround for it, and I also found a pretty lime green Smoke Bush at the garden centre so he's planted that out too with the same kind of surround. In the distance he is attacking my new (teeny tiny) veg bed! We needed to add a bit of interest to this area since the fruit trees had to go, yet the Olive can be pruned to keep it from getting too large as we don't want the insurance company complaining about another tree too close to the house!

Not sure why the photo is at this angle. I was trying out my new phone camera (actually no different really from the previous one, both Motorolas). Think the phone or my finger slipped or something. Anyway you can see some of my herb bed, which has become rather overgrown and woody, well some of the plants anyway. Where the hedge is we used to see all the neighbour’s pool over it, which shows how much the Oleanders have grown in six years! There’s even a ‘rogue’ tree which appeared above the hedge a few years ago. I haven’t tried to ID it yet, something I keep forgetting about. I guess a seed was dropped in some sparrow poop!

This is my new veg bed. It's just 1 x 3 meters and should be fine as all I really want is enough space for one courgette, three cherry tomatoes and some salad, spring onions and herbs. If I find I need more space then he'll do me another bed the same size parallel. He's gone to a lot of trouble making these nice surrounds and treating the wood and varnishing it.

The big problem unfortunately is very heavy clay soil, which has sat under gravel and geotextile for goodness knows how many years and was probably all compacted by diggers when the house was being built about 37 years ago. What you see here is horrible clumps after K has tried to 'dig' over the patch! Since then it has been left to dry out and he has managed to reduce the size of the clumps and I have even put on my wellies and walked up and down, stomping away trying to break up the hard lumps. 

On top we have added what's left of our homemade compost, lots of spent compost from all the pots of dead plants that were killed this winter by the sudden freeze, and some gravel then on top has gone three sacks of bought potting compost. Another three sacks and it should be about right. I do need to be able to make a drill to sow seed! In a few years of this stuff mixing together then hopefully the structure wll be much improved, after all my herb bed was like this to start with and is miles better now.

Honestly, I go from the sublime to the ridiculous. My last potager was dry sandy free draining soil which needed lots of watering, and this is the total opposite!

My new Smoke Bush (Cotinus coggygria) called ‘Golden Lady’. I just love them in this colour and they turn lovely orange in the autumn too.

I went for a walk along the road which runs along the ridge here looking out over the valley. At the moment it is Lady Orchid (Orchis purpurea) season and there are loads of them in this area - just sadly none in my garden!

I thought that this first one might be a hybrid but I have been assured by several people who know their stuff that it is just another Lady Orchid, and that they can vary a lot, much like so many other orchids. It makes identifying them really hard!

Now this one I knew was a Lady Orchid, as they mostly look like this.

I've been told it's possible this one is a hybrid, i.e. a cross between two orchids, in this case Lady Orchid and unknown. I have found Lady x Military Orchids in this part of my local patch before so who knows? I certainly dont!

This is looking towards the Pyrenees on the right and the Corbieres on the left. Where that bare patch is on the hillside is because people/builders/farmers have been dumping spoil over the side of the hill, which peeves me no end. And because of this, with all the rain we had in January and February, it just ran off that bare patch and pooled in the field below, killing off the crop and leaving that bare white chalky patch. I'm quite surprised that some of the hillside didn't collapse into the field below.

Looking back in the other direction, towards the Montagne Noir. We used to walk down this track during Covid as we were restricted to 1km from home, and called that lone tree the 'Lollipop Tree'. The track comes to an end at a field at the bottom but you can walk along the edge of the field, then there is another only used by animals track to follow, which joins another proper walking route. At least it gave us a bit of choice when it came to where we could walk during those times and gave us a loop walk to do. Thank goodness that time is over!

One of the Star of Bethlehem family, Ornithogalum divergens, flowering in the grass verge.

The initial white blossom period is over (for now, until the Robinia starts flowering) and Lilac is flowering everywhere, both in gardens and also in the wild. The scent whilst I was standing here was really lovely, due I expect to the heat. The bare fields will mostly be sunflowers later on. 💛

Another tree in bloom right now is the Judas Tree (Cercis siliquastrum) which is mostly growing in gardens but also here and there in the wild - also along the banks of the motorway on our way to the coast, which is a nice sight. This one was just growing in a hedgerow.

Looking back towards home with my house on the left and the top of the old part of the village in the distance.

I have my usual orchid lawn at this time of the year - the Early Spider and Sombre Bee Orchids are going over, whereas the Yellow Bee Orchids (Ophrys lutea) below are just popping up. There will be more Early Spiders later as I have a whole patch of them that come up later in the back garden.

Finally, my new Wisteria floribunda, which I bought to replace the previous climber that never came to anything. I was going to replace it two years ago but when we went to bury Hallie here we discovered that the Bignone (Campsis radicans) that we thought was dead had started sprouting. So I potted it up but it still never came to anything, and died again - properly this time - yet it's a vigorous climber for everyone else! So let's hope in a few years I will have a lovely display of Wisteria over this arch as it's been bare for too long!

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into springtime in our neck of the woods. At least there are a few butterflies around now on the warm days and plenty of bees, and even bees already going into my bee hotel! I haven't seen a Swallow yet though....

Italy Trip Sept 2025 - Part 7 Pompeii, Campania (1)

Pompeii is vast! It had a population of about 11,500 people and it would be very hard to see all of it in one day, so we chose to explore just the western end as this was the side where our campsite was and the entrance that our ticket said to use. Some of these photos are Keith's as he took many more photos than I did.

This is the forum - the market place, with various temples facing onto it.

Temple of Apollo

One of the main streets.

The Macellum, an indoor market building selling provisions. This is the remains of the central structure, which was a kind of rotunda.

The restored portico of the entrance to the Macellum, with shop fronts behind.

As we walked away from the forum area we passed many buildings which looked similar to this. The sign on the wall says Casa del Forno, and you can just see what I think are millstones through the gate. We couldn't go in though. Quite a lot of the buildings are blocked off for various reasons, i.e. preservation work being done or walls that are dangerous and need restoring. I get the impression the whole site is in continual need of restoration and preservation work - the elements are not kind on ruins once they have been uncovered.

Not the same building but still of an oven, with millstones in front. This was most likely a bakery, of which there were many.

The entrance to a house with a 'Beware of the dog' sign - in mosaic! It says 'Cave Canem'.

The House of the Faun

This was the largest residence found at Pompeii and takes up a whole city block. It has two gardens and two atriums. As you can see, it was very popular!

A faun is a mythological creature that is half goat, half human. This is a replica with the original being in the Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Opus sectile or inlay flooring.

The Alexander Mosaic below, not easy to see with the shadows and from this angle. Believe it or not this is a replica! The original is at the National Archaeological Museum at Naples and you can see what it looks like much better here. It's just incredible that someone took the time and trouble to make an actual replica mosaic - it must have taken months if not longer to do! But at least it means that the original is preserved and doesn't have people walking all over it. The original is an absolute masterpiece.

The two gardens with the Alexander mosaic under the roof between the two.

Typical view of a side street.

Stepping stones to cross the road, as raw sewage ran down the street! If you look close up you can just make out wheel ruts from carts passing through on either side of the right hand stone.

It was hard work walking on these old Roman roads and the pavements were quite high in places so hard work on the old knees too! As there is only one place where you can buy food within Pompeii we took a packed lunch with us, and sat on one of these pavements to eat our sandwiches! 

I'll do the rest of the photos in the next post. 

Italy Trip Sept 2025 - Part 6 Herculaneum, Campania

Herculaneum was Pompeii's smaller and more affluent neighbour and it was estimated to have a population of about 4-5,000 people.

When Vesuvius erupted in AD79, Herculaneum was hit by a number of pyroclastic surges containing mud, gas and hot ash which covered the town up to a height of a three storey building. People would have been killed instantly by the intense heat. By contrast, Pompeii which is about 5km further away from the volcano was hit by a reduced pyroclastic temperature, which preserved bodies and wooden objects in different ways.

These photos were taken from current town levels looking down into the ancient town. It shows you how deep the area was covered by the debris coming from Vesuvius.

The entrance to a house. There is obviously a fair amount of restoration work done to these buildings in order to preserve them for future generations, and to show visitors how the houses would have looked. Much has been damaged over the centuries by earlier restorations using the wrong kinds of material, plus climactic factors and tourists (graffiti and taking of souvenirs). The money made from visitors goes towards conservation of the sites (Herculaneum, Pompeii and a few other smaller sites).

A painted wall, showing an arch with birds on top. It's not in a very good state compared to the frescoes we later saw at Pompeii!

Inlay flooring.

More remains of wall decorations.

The House of the Wooden Partition

Some of the houses at the two archaeological sites have names due to special things found within them.

You will see the wooden partitions further down. This house is a large one and has a pool in the atrium with an open bit of roof above. The pool is called an Impluvium and is for collecting rainwater. There are other rooms off this atrium and there was a second floor above.

The open roof called a Compluvium with original carved decorations.

The pyroclastic flows at Herculaneum have, amazingly, preserved wooden objects which were carbonised by the heat.

Below, the wooden partitions (now preserved and covered with glass or plastic to protect them). Also found around the town were such things as ceiling beams, beds, tables and a cradle. A carbonised wooden bed was found in this house.

Outside there was a restaurant, a Roman take-away as it were. Most ordinary Romans did not have kitchens in their small houses, going out to get food prepared by other people. Only the rich had their own kitchens. The prepared food was stored in these large terracotta pots.

Changing room in the Womens' Baths

This is an amazingly preserved building and this room is where the ladies would have changed before going into the rooms with baths. They left their clothes in partitions on the shelf you can see. The mosaic floor is just amazing. 

Look at that octopus!

The House of Neptune and Amphitrite

This was not a paricularly large house, but it contains some special things. When you enter into an open atrium there is a marble pool, or impluvium. Straight in front of you is an amazing wall mosaic in another open courtyard. 

This courtyard was a small Triclinium or open air dining room. This amazing mosaic features the sea god Neptune and his wife, Amphitrite. Do click on the photos to view them larger as they come up much sharper and you will see much more detail.

Nymphaeum - a Roman water feature. The tank that contained the water would have been above the niche.

Close up you can see the remains of shell decorations around the arch.

The Boat Sheds

Originally there were no bodies found at Herculaneum so it was assumed that people had managed to escape. Then when excavations started around this lower area near the sea, remains were found. (The sea now is much further away). Some 300 bodies were found inside the boat sheds. It was thought they had come here to try to escape by boat but the intense heat from a pyroclastic flow had got to them first.  

The skeletons in the photo are not real, models have been made to evoke the awfulness of the situation for the townfolk.

You can see how far down the boat sheds were - they are the arches at the bottom of the image.

Try as we might, we could not find our way down there. There was a main ramp going down from this level, but it was roped off. People were walking around down there but we had no map of the site and after walking around for a few hours we decided to not bother trying again. 

It was also horribly humid both here and at Pompeii.  We are so used to dry heat that one forgets just how tiring humidity is.

Another view of the culprit, Vesuvius!

Our journey from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli to Sperlonga, then Herculaneum and Pompeii.

P.S. We just watched a really interesting documentary about Vesuvius last night which gave further insight into the volcanic blast and the preservation of bodies. Apparently this was first shown in 2010 but programmes about Pompeii seem to be quite popular in the last few years - in fact this is why we were interested enough to go and visit ourselves! The programme is available on Youtube here. It's called 'Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town' presented by Mary Beard.