Nearly Spring in Mothecombe Gardens

Despite the icy blast, the camellias, snowdrops and Hellebore have been flowering for weeks in the garden here. The high winds have done some damage here, uprooting several large branches of camellias, splitting the huge shrubs in half. The bog garden is covered in twigs and branches from the brittle “crack willows”, which are pretty when small, but a pesky nuisance when they are bigger.

The beach has taken a real pounding from the sea, and heaps of debris have washed up into the sand dunes. The Estate normally organises a community beach clean after the worst of the storms have passed, and it’s usually the children who are the most enthusiastic scavengers for rubbish, encouraged by the offer of a prize to the person who gathers the biggest sack full. “ Tis the hope of reward that sweetens labour”.

In fact, many local people take it upon themselves to gather rubbish on the Flete Estate beaches because they love them, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who does, and has done for many years, sometimes dragging enormous fishing nets or plastic containers that have washed overboard from fishing boats, and alerting the Estate’s beach maintenance team who remove them.