May 2011

Monday 23rd of May will be remembered at the Palace for being a particularly wild day. The heavy wind peaked at around 5.30pm when we lost 6 trees in half an hour.

Most serious of the trees to come down was a large lime (one of four driveway trees to fall) which landed on the driveway. Luckily, local tree surgeon Dougie Macphee was on hand within 20 minutes of a “call for help” and he made quick work of the large limbs, opening the driveway again to traffic within an hour. The following two days saw his team log all the fallen trees and chip all the brash leaving little evidence of the carnage of Monday evening, a tremendous job done. As luck would have it the Forestry Commission were booked in for a conference later in the week. Skills on show included animal tracking and making fire from fungus. For me,however, the bark basket making led by Jennie Martin was especially impressive. Considerable skill and craftsmanship was on hand to show how to work the bark into various useful baskets and containers. The groups trying out the woodland crafts were delighted to have a ready supply of freshly cut bark from the limes and sycamores so at least some good came out of the storm.

After the early start to growth we have witnessed nature balancing things out over the last few weeks. Low temperatures and little sun have meant that border plants, grass and vegetables have been virtually static for two weeks. We need heat and when it comes I think the growth will be spectacular. Swifts have been absent from the Palace for a year or two so it was really nice to see groups of them acrobatically flying at speed around the turrets the other day. Screaming swifts is surely one of the great sounds of summer around a large building like the Palace.Come and enjoy them. Innes

Garden Gallery