{"id":49748,"date":"2017-03-27T04:30:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/the-gardener-becomes-a-priestess-of-fire-country-diary-100-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2017-03-27T04:44:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:44:34","slug":"the-gardener-becomes-a-priestess-of-fire-country-diary-100-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/the-gardener-becomes-a-priestess-of-fire-country-diary-100-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"The gardener becomes a priestess of fire: Country diary 100 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nOriginally published in the Manchester Guardian on 26 March 1917Kew Gardens, March 24For several glorious hours the gardener has been feeding a bonfire in a snowstorm. The great piles of damp straw which had packed the fruit trees and of herbaceous canes \u2013 bocconia and Michaelmas dairies and phloxes and chrysanthemums \u2013 had been waiting and waiting in the hope that they would dry. But they didn\u2019t and the spring tidying called for their abolition. It seemed to the prudent people in the house as if the gardener had chosen the very worst possible day, for scarcely had a start been made, when the first flakes began to whirl around, light, but threatening. \u201cCome in!\u201d they cried. \u201cAre you a lunatic? You\u2019ll get wet. You\u2019ll be frozen! It\u2019ll never burn!\u201d But the gardener shook her head. She may have been a lunatic, but she was having the most glorious holiday, and the song of the hissing, spluttering fire, fanned by the rising wind to a roar, was an exultant song. The coils of smoke, first thick and shapely, ascended in the still air, and no fire was seen. Then came a gust which blew it in a formless sheet away, and a flame leapt. Quickly the small beginning was fed with more fuel, a little at a time and chosen from the driest portion. The wind rose and became an auxiliary; of puckish temper, however, for he blew all round the compass, and it seemed to the gardener that he wilfully dogged her steps, so as always to puff into her eyes. Every now and then she had perforce to close them, and the delicious pungency made her cough, too. But he would veer again and show her a flaring corner to be quickly fed. As the heat grew more and more of the damp stuff was piled on and a great incandescent mound was formed. The gardener became a priestess of fire, performing a dance of service to the god she had created. The wind rose and the blizzard grew, and the god defied them and grew with them. \u201cCome snow, come wind or thunder, High up in air!\u201d cried the gardener. Cold? She was glowing! Wet? It was delicious to be so wet and so smoky. By and by she would be dry and clean again, and the accomplished work would be a sober satisfaction for a season. But the song of the fire and the wild loveliness of whirling snow would be an exultant memory for all time. Continue reading…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…The gardener becomes a priestess of fire: Country diary 100 years ago<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 26 March 1917Kew Gardens, March 24For several glorious...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-cWo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":139951,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/make-this-half-term-one-where-you-nurture-a-budding-gardener\/","url_meta":{"origin":49748,"position":0},"title":"Make this half-term one where you nurture a budding gardener","date":"October 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Lots of autumn jobs are robust enough to be taken on by smaller hands \u2013 and you\u2019ll be grateful for the helpOf all the activities children can get involved in, gardening never seems the most immediately practical. 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Meet four green-fingered growers and their \u2018hosts\u2019Rocketing demand for allotments across the country \u2013 some with people on waiting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137801,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/let-weeds-and-climbers-grow-to-help-wildlife-beat-heat-says-top-gardener\/","url_meta":{"origin":49748,"position":2},"title":"Let weeds and climbers grow to help wildlife beat heat, says top gardener","date":"June 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Springwatch presenter Kate Bradbury, who will present a garden at Hampton Court, says we have responsibility to nature Cover your fences and garden walls with plants and let weeds grow in your patio to help wildlife beat the heat, a top wildlife gardener has said.Prolonged dry, hot weather, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140628,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/with-christmas-around-the-corner-what-to-give-the-gardener-in-your-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":49748,"position":3},"title":"With Christmas around the corner, what to give the gardener in your life?","date":"December 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Smart secateurs may be a bit extravagant, but there are many more gardening gifts out thereJust two weeks to go until Christmas Eve. But what to give the gardener in your life? Or more accurately, presenting here a modest list of a few of the garden gifts I\u2019d dare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":148487,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/why-an-apple-tree-is-a-perfect-christmas-present-for-the-gardener-in-your-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":49748,"position":4},"title":"Why an apple tree is a perfect Christmas present for the gardener in your life","date":"December 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\r They come in all sizes, they blossom and you can eat their delicious fruit straight off the treeOn the other side of my village is an apple farm, and every year I\u00a0wait eagerly for their sandwich board to appear, announcing the arrival of apple season. I\u2019ll happily eat two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115923,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/this-is-no-damn-hobby-the-gangsta-gardener-transforming-los-angeles\/","url_meta":{"origin":49748,"position":5},"title":"'This is no damn hobby': the 'gangsta gardener' transforming Los Angeles","date":"April 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Lockdown is an unlikely ally for Ron Finley, who has set about revolutionising attitudes to gardening in inner city areas Read more stories from our wild cities week\u201cThe garden seduces me,\u201d says Ron Finley, who is known around the world as the \u201cgangsta gardener\u201d. \u201cI\u2019ll get out there at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}