Fire Watch

It’s been a strange autumn in the gardens of Betley Court. Some trees, like the beeches and sweet chestnuts have shed their leaves already. Others, like the oaks, seem a little reluctant. It’s still very clement for autumn, so perhaps that has something to do with it. As a youngster, the first paid work I ever did was sweeping up leaves, and putting them on a bonfire in preparation for the 5^th November - bonfire night, so it seems to me that the leaves are hanging on for longer than usual.

Autumn in the gardens

The leaves of our liquidambar (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Fire Watch

Nigel and I spent a rather memorable night on Saturday, up on the scaffolding, on fire watch. Our vantage point was way up on the roof line, and we carried camping chairs up onto the platforms on the southern elevation, and set them up overlooking Betley Court Farm, who host one of the biggest bonfire and fireworks displays in the North West. We’d been advised by our scaffolding suppliers that this would be necessary just to keep an eye on things, and given our recent experience with fire, we were more than happy to comply!

Betley Court, security lights aglow during bonfire night (Photo: Nigel Brown)

It wasn’t much of a chore to keep an eye out. The organisers lit a massive bonfire around 6pm, and as it was a lovely still and clear evening, it looked spectacular from our rooftop platform. We watched revellers spinning on illuminated fairground rides, and listened to the announcements over the PA. Eventually, a countdown started, and as a suitably dramatic montage of music rang out over the fields, a superb pyrotechnic display began. The sky lit up over the gardens for over fifteen minutes, ending in a final crescendo of enormous explosions. Then a huge ripple of applause and cheers erupted, before people returned to the fairground attractions, the food sellers and entertainments. Bravo to the organisers, and all the volunteers who make this important local fundraising event happen each year.

By next bonfire night, the temporary roof structure will be gone, so I glad we made the most of the opportunity of a bird’s eye view.

In the Gardens

We have some new helpers in the gardens. I’ve been joined by Tanya, and her lovely dog, Mabel (a gorgeous blond that Nigel has fallen head-over-heels with!) on gardening duties. Tanya has been giving our ever-so-out-of-hand roses a good ‘haircut’ and I’m delighted to say, they have been prompted into flowering again, in response. Mabel’s main responsibilities are making friends with contractors and staff in the garden, and foraging for sneaky morsels of food; scrounged biscuits, grass, and if she can get away with it, yew berries. The later earns her a sharp rebuke from Tanya!

The new blond in Nigel's life - Mabel. This is a classic pose for Mabel - she is trying to will biscuits into her mouth, by the power of her hypnotic eyes!

Newfriars minibus

We also have a group of young people from Newfriars College. The college is an Independent Specialist Day College in North Staffordshire dedicated to supporting young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. The young people are aged between 16-25, and a group of around ten of them will be coming once a fortnight. This week they were helping with leaf collecting, and clearing undergrowth around the grounds. It was lovely to have their fresh energy around the gardens. I hope they enjoyed their time in our open air classroom, and they got something out of their seesion!

All best wishes

Ladybird Su