Crystalline Flower Beauty! Frosty January Garden Tour, Folklore & Pretty Scenic Pathways

There is something enchanting about crystalline flowers on beautiful frosty mornings, with fern-like fractals covering the frozen birdbath. On the January garden tour of our small plot in Kent, South East England, we love the magical atmosphere of the winter scene and admire our foraging buff-tailed bumblebee queen. We explain why a Norfolk cow jumping over a fence was such a source of inspiration and explore the history, mystery and folklore of countryside footpaths, including the clamorous events at Knole Park in Sevenoaks in 1884, when Lord Sackville blockaded a bridleway and an irate crowd took action. Back in our garden, emerging leaf tips tell us that ‘Winter’s green stirrings have spring in their yearnings’ and we peek at green shoots of bulbs and poppy seedlings in patio containers and remind ourselves of the joy they have yet to bring, with colourful footage revisited from spring and summer flowers last year.

Thank you so much for joining us on our first garden tour of the year, it is wonderful to have company on a shared journey.

CHAPTERS *

0:00 Magic of a Frosty Garden
0:32 Busy Buff-Tailed Bumblebee Queen
2:51 Jumping Cow Knows the Grass is Always Greener ...
4:13 Atmospheric Country Paths
5:53 Knole Park Palaver!
10:57 Historic Routes
11:35 Hollow Ways, Sunken Lanes
12:40 Deer Tracks & Duck Directions
13:05 Urbanisation, London Gets Large
13:44 Dorothy & William Wordsworth
15:27 Paths aka Information Superhighways
18:11 Folklore, Witches, Fairies & Elves
20:55 Venus, Morning Star, Evening Star
21:30 Helleborus x sahinii ‘Winterbells’
21:45 Grape Hyacinth, Muscari armeniacum
22:03 Shirley Poppy Papaver rhoeas
22:46 Foraging Winter Bees
23:12 Greek Squill Scilla messeniaca
23:38 Snake’s Head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris
23:57 Narcissus ‘Verger’
24:12 Tulipa ‘Prinses Irene’
24:28 Narcissus ‘Spoirot’
24:37 Crocus thomassinianus ‘Whitewell Purple’
25:34 Attributions

FURTHER INFO *
The National Trust provides information on Knole: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visi...

Read more about the Knole bridleway blockade in ‘Rights, Riot and Ritual: The Knole Park Access Dispute, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1883–5’ by David Killingray in Rural History. 1994;5(1):63-79.
doi:10.1017/S0956793300000479

ATTRIBUTIONS *
Unsplash Images:
Tom Rickhuss (Brecon Beacons) https://unsplash.com/@tomrickhuss
Jules D Truman (young buck) https://unsplash.com/@julesd1962
Kym MacKinnon (moon) https://unsplash.com/@vixenly
Zoltan Tasi (white stag) https://unsplash.com/@zoltantasi
Michael Barnes (two stags) https://unsplash.com/@mikeyb63
Jonny Gios (squirrel) https://unsplash.com/@supergios
Amit Jagnada (walking group) https://unsplash.com/@amitjagnade
Oliver Cox (wheat) https://unsplash.com/@oolivero45
Peter Neumann (birds) https://unsplash.com/@peterneumann
Vincent van Zalinge (badger, upright hare, leaping hare) https://unsplash.com/@vincentvanzalinge
Gary Bendig (rabbit) https://unsplash.com/@kris_ricepees
Andriy Nestruiev (misty forest) https://unsplash.com/@greendino
Andriy Babchiy (rowan sapling) https://unsplash.com/@andriyba
R David Cummins (fly agaric 1) https://unsplash.com/@rdavidcummins
Florian van Duyn (fly agaric 2) https://unsplash.com/@flovayn
Timothy Dykes (fly agaric 3) https://unsplash.com/@timothycdykes
Wikipedia Images:
Please see final chapter.