January Visit

 Jemima has made enormous progress on getting the weeds behind the graves under control.

But clearly the weeds are poised and ready to come back!

Primroses starting to show!

Meanwhile, the hazel Jemima planted last year is looking beautiful.

And the baby acer too!

Christmas Wreaths

 Jemima's glorious Christmas wreaths

Tidying things up for the winter

Jemima visited to finish the weed fabric and mulch, and do some more weeding and tidying up before she brings the new Christmas wreaths next week.

Projects for the future: new sign and new path

I was in Malvern for a meeting of trustees, so that we could all sign the trust deed in the presence of a witness.  As of today, we are official!

Sadly the old signboard by the graves seems to have disintegrated.  But this creates an opportunity for the newly established Elgar Graves Charitable Trust to think about what we can put in its place that will help put the graves in context for visitors.

Existing signage for context

The stepping stones up to the grave continue to be a bit precarious.  So maybe we can work together with St Wulstan's to find a solution?

Other Elgar family graves - Margaret and Catherine Ann.   I've asked Jemima to make sure they get included in the daffodil planting.

Getting ready for the Three Choirs Festival

Jemima and her colleague have been hard at work today getting the graves ready for the  Three Choirs Festival at the end of this month, which often attracts more visitors.

They have put a lot of work into getting the area of weeds behind the graves under control, and putting down more weed fabric and bark. This work is to be continued, to cover that entire area with bark as a temporary measure while we get the weeds under control. 

They also topped up bark on the path where it was thin. They have planted cosmos, some more ferns and a huechera which should fill out nicely for next year. 

They also did lots of watering and will do more next week. 

A couple came to visit while they were there and were thrilled to hear about the work we are doing!! And very supportive! They said we needed a visitors book … we will look into whether we could do a virtual one with a QR code...? 

They sat and watched them work while listening to Elgars music 🌷

Picking out daffodil bulbs for the future

We're going for Narcissi February Gold, top left, which seemed closest to wild daffodils. To be ordered very soon, and planted in the autumn.

Elgar Birthday Celebrations at St Wulstan's on 2 June

2 June is Sir Edward's birthday. The celebration was organised by St Wulstan's, and the wreath was kindly provided by Wendy Hill.

With grateful thanks to Angela Sutton for the photos.