Gorge View Cottage  - beautiful eco-cottage in Cheddar
  • Home
  • The Cottage
    • Overview
    • Garden
    • Photos and video
    • Plans
    • Location
    • Charities
  • Green Tourism
    • Overview
    • Some car-free ideas
    • Green activities further afield
    • Electric Vehicles
    • Local produce & wholefoods
    • Wildlife charity support
    • Green Policy
  • Things to do
    • Overview
    • Places to visit
    • Food & Drink
    • Shops & Amenities
  • Booking
    • Rates
    • Availability
  • Contact
  • T&Cs
    • Data Protection
    • Access

Harvest Homecoming

4/10/2013

 
Picture
For those of you following the permacultural goings on at Gorge View garden you will know that our organically worked veggie plot is hard work, an ongoing slug war and needing constant attention through spring and summer. This year, with the long hot dry spell (aka "summer") the challenge has also been to make the rain harvested water last.
Mary of course deserves the credit with most spare moments (and they are precious) out in the garden, often doing slug patrol as the light is almost gone.
There is, of course, an up side. All through the year, but particularly around now, lots of the fruits of our (OK, Mary's) labours being harvested. Good lot of (relatively slug free) potatoes, tomatoes in quantity, still salad leaves, beans, garlic, onions, brussel sprouts just starting, even raspberry's for pud. Perhaps most eyecatching, the "charismatic flora" so-to-speak, are the pumpkins. We've got five or six big ones and a number of smaller ones ripening. They will last and see us through a lot of the winter.
Of course all this good veg needs storing: a lot of the root veg in dark, dry cool conditions. We don;t have anywhere perfect and so he idea is bubbling up on how we might build a root cellar. As we have grand dreams of one day building a small cob house, this might be the ideal learning vehicle on how to mash mud and straw to good effect. Dream on eh?

Gromit Unleashed

4/10/2013

 
PictureaMazing Gromit by Tom Berry
So this summer Wallace and Gromit fans have had a real treat in and around Bristol. Eighty large Gromit models were made, painted by an array of artists, exhibited in all sorts of locations and then collected together for an auction. If you didn't know Wallace and Gromit hail from Bristol because it is here that Aardman Animations (they of Morph, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep fame and more) have their studios. And for many years they have specifically helped raise money for the Bristol Children's Hospital (they even have Wallace's voice speaking the floors in the hospital lifts). So we have Wrong Trousers Day each year, and this year to beat the Gorillas in London, pigs in Bath, Swans in Wells and the like, they went for Gromits.
Given the fervent fan base for W&G this was always going to be a big hit but it became bigger than any imagined. People came for far and wide (and many from abroad) to hunt and photograph themselves with the illusive and humorous Gromits. Whilst most we in Bristol they did slip a few a bit further away, including Paddington Station and Bristol International Airport. And we were lucky to have one here in Cheddar by the caves, less than 10 minutes' walk from the cottage. This one painted by Tom Berry was called "aMazing Gromit" and the complex hand drawn leaf pattern is a real maze to be traced:

                    "I imagine Gromit turning into 'Treegromit' whilst getting lost in Leigh Woods. 
                     The tree motif that covers him is also a maze - can you navigate from the starting 
                     point on his right ear through the forest to the safety of the cottage on his tail?"
Picture
aMazing Gromit drew lots of fans. Sadly he is no longer in Cheddar: all the Gromits were collected together in Bristol for a viewing that then led on to an auction. The viewing became almost as popular as the Banksy exhibition in BRistol a few years ago, with queues of thousands in the streets trying to get in, traffic disruppted and extra days added. Finally all this generated £2,357,000.00 for the Grand Appeal charity If you want to see more about it all go to the website:
             Gromit Unleashed.
The best bit is the photo gallery which shows the incredible inventiveness of the various artists.

    Gorge View Cottage Diary

    Gorge View Cottage is a characterful and environmentally renovated  self-catering  cottage, with stunning views

    Archives

    August 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All
    Activities
    Art
    Cheddar
    Food
    Sustainability
    The Cottage
    The Garden
    The Gorge
    The South West
    Wildlife

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.