My Garden in May 2026

Peter has been working hard in the garden in May. I've been supervising.

He's painted recoated the shed and the raised beds and set up a watering system on the raised beds for me.

With the extension pipe fixed on the wall in the back garden it's made it a lot easier to water the garden now.

 I've been using this Ikea planter for the over run from the waterbutt and fill up the watering cans and use them first to water the pots and collect rain water in this buckets. The neighbours child came round needing rainwater for a new house plant he had bought.

The brick wall under the canopy is going to be clad with wooden panels. Peter is measuring up this week. We're going to display my late fathers random collection of road signs, car parts and pub memorabilia and I want to put up some hooks for coats, a chalk board and some other random items.

The last job for the back garden is to move these path over to the left, it's for aesthetic purposes only, but the fir tree, jsut in the shot needs digging up and a lot of soil needs to be moved to the front garden, o it can wait a bit longer.

We have some gorgeous flowers blooming and some buds waiting to flower. I hope I don't miss them as I'm away this week. I've asked Peter to send me some photos if they do.

The neighbours rose bush in the front garden and it smells divine.

May is of course the RHS Spring Festival in Malvern. My friend came with me on the Sunday. I also visited on the Thursday after work.

There were interesting talks with TV gardeners and chefs

Fantastic blooms

Fab displays

Gold medal gardens

Lots of ideas to take home and recreation, if not on a smaller scale.

My Garden in April 2026

There was a lot of tidying in the garden in April.

The garden furniture was cleaned and returned to the patio once it had been jet washed and all the pots were taken from their winter storage and the cloches and fleeces put away and everything put into place for the rest of the year. Still looking for a home for the orange buckets with the bay tree cuttings.

The temporary metal framed green house that I bought during covid has been dismantled now and taken to the tip. The compost bins with an old scaffolding plank have made an ideal potting bench.

The raised beds were weeded and planted out with veg I'd grown from seeds.

The parsley, strawberries and rhubarb had been under cloches from last year.

I bought two tomato plants that were almost dead from a supermarket as I was late planting mine and I still haven't put them out yet.

I left the cosmos in the second raised bed to flower first before digging this bed over. I've seen them in the garden centres at £7 for 6 plants. No idea where these came from, they just grew here. I'll have a lovely display.

So far this year I've grown from seeds and planted out: Courgettes, beans, sweet peas and coriander. 

The tomatoes, melons, peppers and cucumbers are too small to be planted out just yet.

We eat a lot of basil, especially in the summer. We take lots of cuttings and create new plants throughout the year. At the moment we have 5 large plants and several more cuttings on the go. There's always one in the kitchen on the windowsill.

After moving the greenhouse I discovered the neighbours ivy is creeping back. When I got the house back in December 2019 she had allowed it grow out of control and it caused our fence to collapse. I now spray it regularly with weed killer and at some point we'll remove our fence panel and let the ivy fall into our garden so we can hack it back as far as we can without going on to her property.

We're almost at the end of May now. There's been a lot more planting and a visit to the RHS Spring festival in Malvern.

 

One week and 3000 miles apart

Last Sunday morning. Making my way up to the top of British Camp in Malvern, UK.

This Sunday morning. On the beach in Dubai.

A random walk over the Malvern Hills

I went out in the week to post a parcel.

I ended up The Beacon.

When most people visit Malvern to walk the Hills they pull up in the car park, in most cases near the top or at least half way up.

I start my walks from my front door at the base of the North Hill (far end of the picture) 79ms and walk to the top of The Beacon at 425ms.

I went on a whim, although I did have suitable footwear and clothing on for walking off the tarmac track. The weather was perfect, not so much today as I head off to British Camp after last nights snow and I'll be starting my walk, halfway up from the car park.

New road build in Worcestershire - A4440 Worcester Southern Link Road. Carrington Bridge

I've no idea when these road improvements started, but I've found minutes of meetings from 2014 discussing planning permission and compulsory land purchase orders to be made.

My normal route from Birmingham airport for the past 10 years has been down the M5 to the M50 and off to South Wales. In 2019 I started repeating a familiar journey to our home in Malvern. A journey that takes 15 mins and covers 8 miles from the M5. The Worcester Southern Link Road from the M5 J7 to Powick is just over 3 miles, but in reality can take over an hour each way on single carriage way, hence the improvements.

The A4440 Worcester Southern Link Road, is one of Worcestershire's busiest roads, accessed by over 30,000 cars each week day.

I can't find a date when the project will be completed or the total cost spent, estimated around £33 million. There are footbridges, cycle paths, work to the railways, flood plains, roundabouts increased in size and almost all of the route is now dual carriageway.

The photo of Carrington Bridge is taken from the Ketch roundabout. Back in October, 6 steel girders 70ms long and weighing 70 tonnes were lifted into place by a crane 180ms tall. I watched them doing it as I drove past, but couldn't find anywhere to stop to walk back and take photos. 

This is still two way traffic until the new bridge and viaduct is finished at an additional estimated cost of £54.5 million. I have no idea of the completion date.

Carrington Bridge is only one of two bridges that crosses the River Severn in Worcestershire, the next nearest crossing is Upton upon Severn to the South and Stourport on Severn to the North.

New Housing Development, Malvern. QinetiQ Site. Construction photography.

Viewed from the Malvern Hills the old QinetiQ site, cleared for the development of 310 homes. 

Construction was stopped in October 2020 after a breach of a number of planning conditions covering a range of technical and environmental matters.

As and when constructions resumes I have found 3 view points where my view for photographing the development which shouldn't be interrupted by other developments. From the top of the Malvern Hills as long as it's a clear day, the main entrance from the road and the end of a public footpath, where I lifted my phone up over the wooden fence for the photo below.

All 3 photos taken from the same direction.

November 2020

I suspect it'll be quite some time before I am able to update this photography project while the dispute is ongoing and suspect it will take a lot longer than than they do in Dubai to finish and have clear 'before and after' photos.

There's quite a bit of activity going on over the past 4 months. I suspect my chosen points will be obscured soon, so I've choosen a new point, looking back up to the Malvern Hills and I'll get up on the hills soon to take another photo looking back down.

February 2021

The origins of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C S Lewis

This is door at Malvern Priory where the choir boys would exit after the service and return to Malvern College.

C S Lewis was a choir boy and a pupil at Malvern College, this is the gas lamp outside the door that he saw when leaving the Priory and it is alleged that this was his inspiration for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Why is this post box in Malvern painted green? - My Sunday Photo

This post box catches my attention when I walk into town. It's out of service and it's painted green, although you can see flecks of red paint underneath.

Green was adopted as the standard colour for the early Victorian post boxes.

However GR is for the Reign of George V 1910-1936.

Basically I can't answer this question and I've googled extensively. 

The only possibility is that green boxes, usually without a slot are used for the local postman to store letters in on his round to save carrying them all together.

All I know for sure is that this post box isn't used anymore.

Malvern Priory and Charles Darwins daughter - My Sunday Photo

In 1851 Charles Darwin brought his 2nd child Annie to Malvern for the water treatment after she suffered with scarlet fever, sadly she died aged 10.

Malvern Priory

The grave of Charles Darwin's Daughter, Annie

Dr. James-Manby Gully's patients at Malvern were woken at 5 am, undressed and wrapped in wet sheets then covered with blankets. An hour later, buckets of water were thrown upon the patients who then went on a five-mile walk, carrying an alpenstock and a Gräfenberg flask of mineral water, stopping at wells for the waters. They returned to the Malvern pump room for a breakfast of dry biscuits and water. They then had the day to spend bathing in a range of kinds of baths, or in some cases wore a wet sheet called the "Neptune Girdle" round their middle at all times, removing it only at meal times. Dinner which was always boiled mutton and fish was followed by a few hours in a dry bed. The exercise, plain food and absence of alcohol together with the congenial company of other wealthy patrons proved generally beneficial.

Copied from Wikipedia. Photos are my own.

My Sunday Photo - The Worlds Smallest Theatre

Google the 'Worlds Smallest Theatre' and you'll discover The Theatre of Small Convenience

It gets its name from the fact it was once a Victorian Gentleman's Lavatory

I've taken the youngest child there quite a few times to see various puppet shows, when he was younger, but I'd forgotten all about it until moving back to Malvern earlier this year, I walk past it when I do my fortnightly food shop in Waitrose.

Malvern is renowned for many things. Charles Darwins daughter is buried here. Elgar was born here. Radar was invented in the town. They hand make Morgan Motor Cars here, it has the theatre, the hills, Malvern Priory with stained glass windows dating from the 15th Century, the home of the 3 Counties Show ground, springs and well dressing. CS Lewis was a student at Malvern College and wrote about the gas lamps in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. WH Auden was an English teacher at the Downs School who are also the owners of the world's oldest private miniature railway. 

There's so much history here, things to do, see and explore. No where is open at the moment, but I will be putting a list together of all the things you can do here ready to explore all over again.

Week 24 One daily Positive

Peter returned to Dubai on Monday and I set about sorting out all the stuff we've been storing in the flat for various family members and going through some of my father's things we've yet to decide if we want to sell or not.

It's been a lovely week weather wise and I've enjoyed being outdoors as much as possible. As much as I've loved catching up with everyone, I'm actually rather tired at the end of the week, my body feels broken. I guess I'm probably more ill than I realise. I just don't actually know why I'm ill and what I'm ill with yet. It's difficult adjusting from nothing to full on and unless you've lived abroad you just won't get it, it's not the same as living in another town from your family. I've done that also, so I can make the comparison.

161 Sunday Took mum with us to collect child 1 and visit child 5 in his new home in the Cotswolds.

162 Monday Popped out for coffee at some point during the day, but spent most of it tidying and cleaning the flat after saying goodbye to Peter.

163 Tuesday Coffee, a walk, more tidying. Mum came down for dinner.

164 Wednesday Met old friends for lunch in town, pub in the evening after Mum joined me for dinner again.

165 Thursday Drove to Warwick to collect my father's stamp collection I'd taken for valuation, the price offered didn't even cover the face value of the unfranked stamps, so time for me to become a stamp expert while I work out out how to catalogue and sell this lot. Mum came down to help me unpack the car and carry the boxes up a flight of stairs.

166 Friday Spot of Thing 3 baby cuddles, then sports day, coffee with daughter in laws mother in town and pub in the evening.

167 Saturday Took mum to the 3 Counties Show in Malvern, it's something we used to do with family when we lived in the UK and the event usually covered fathers day and mums birthday, so it became the thing we did. Spent the evening sorting through my father's stamps. there's a lot of information out there on Penny Red's and most of it is quite fascinating.

On the blog this week:

Parenting Expat Kids - It's one thing to hire a nanny, but handing over all parenting responsibility is a different matter. You'd be surprised at just who is raising the next generation abroad.

Where is Ramadan in the UK? - You'd never know Ramadan had just come to an end in the UK, outside the major cities.

Building the World's Tallest Tower - Dubai Creek - Dubai's next construction project is anything between 928 and 1300ms high, find out why the true height is being kept a secret.