The rotavator man cometh!
Since moving to The Secret Acre, on the principal of cash poor, time rich, Paul has dug over the veg patches each spring, having never quite managed yet to get our ‘no dig’ act together sufficiently.
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Following our unexpectedly early ‘three seasons’ spring equinox BBQ, the UK weather delivered a prolonged heatwave.
Thanks to the growing climate crisis, after last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet spring and summer, causing England’s England second worst harvest on record, spring 2025 could prove to be one of the hottest and driest on record. We are already suffering the most extreme marine heatwave since satellite monitoring began.
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Last week saw the arrival of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The UK enjoyed an unseasonably warm day, including Wales’ warmest spring equinox on record, as the early impacts of the coming climate chaos continue to make themselves felt.
Naturally, here at The Secret Acre, we took the opportunity for a summer BBQ. Our earliest on record, after none at all in last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet.
We ended up enjoying three seasons in one day! A summer BBQ on the warmest spring equinox, having dug up the last of the winter leaks, to char on the BBQ coals, and eat with an excellent romesco sauce.
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Stop sniggering at the back.
As regular readers know, back in the mists of time, we decided to dump the traditional dull wedding anniversaries here at The Secret Acre, in favour of our own list of anniversary themes of things we like, that would make celebrating each year fun.
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As you know, we no longer send Christmas Cards, in favour of posting our news on our blog – http://www.thesecretacre.com – throughout the year. But, wishing all our friends another Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Readers here in the UK will know that, after the wettest winter/spring on record and stubbornly cold temperatures, finally as we reach mid-summer, we might finally be getting some summer weather.
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Wishing all our friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Like many people, we are no longer sending Christmas Cards, in favour of donating the money to charity instead. You have to follow our posts here for all our news through the year.
So we thought we’d end 2023 then, with these pictures from our ‘Museum’ anniversary year!
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Very sad to post that our beloved Noodle left us this weekend after a short illness.
Noodle came to The Secret Acre two and half years ago through unexpected serendipity, just a few weeks after the heartbreak of losing our long-term family companion, Ruby.
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Here we are again, about midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice, at least in the northern hemisphere, with the garden once again bursting back into full life.
We may have to visit a Henge today to celebrate!
At least the Asparagus has been enjoying our wet spring weather, even if the seedlings have been suffering from the unseasonal cold.
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The start of February marks the traditional Druid festival of Imbolc, celebrating the beginning of spring, being about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
Of course these days, Imbolc is some six weeks ahead of what we now tend to think of as the official start of spring in March, but nonetheless, this is the time when the first earliest signs of the garden waking up start to appear.
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The Secret Acre 