Carbon offsetting with a hornbeam hedge

Ten hornbeams planted in the hedge in front of the house. Well watered and mulched. I’m trying to offset the carbon footprint I just stamped on this planet flying to Australia and back. They look a bit bleak in winter, but come proper warm weather they should break into leaf.

Can I leave it there?

No. You have had more than a month of silence.

My mother died unexpectedly at the end of January. So I had to drop everything…. I was redesigning the whole of the potager beds.

And fly to Sydney for her funeral.

I will spare you the unbelievable admin involved in getting there when the country was mostly closed due to the Pandemic. My nose has never had more probing swabs to get the right amount of covid tests to satisfy the UK government, the French government, the Singapore government, and finally the Australians.

But these things get forgotten when you are grieving for your parent.

Here are some lovely shots of Jan that we found while clearing the house.

Wasn’t she a beauty? My favourite shot of her is actually one taken at my friend Andrew’s in the southern Ardeche.

Always the adventurer and game for a trip. Even though the dementia and finally the Alzheimer’s overtook her.

She had a beautiful funeral with gorgeous flowers. And then we had to endure the shock of her two remaining brothers dying in the same week. (Aged 90, and 84). So three funerals in six days. That was quite the cousin fest, believe me. (Huge family, we bred like rabbits.)

Then a fabulous party to celebrate her life (over 140 of her friends and family came to say farewell).

Jan would have loved it.

I have plenty to show you from my trip. So here’s hoping that now I have FINALLY posted something I can drip feed a few shots of amazing work my sister and I achieved getting the garden back into order and preparing the family house for sale.

It has been the longest month of my life.