In the Garden

A few snippets of floral colour taken this morning before the sun disappears again!

Gorgeous tulips

Sweet bluebells

Beautiful apple blossom

And I gave in and bought some runner bean plants from the garden centre, despite deciding not to do any veg this year.  If we are still here in a few months then at least there'll be something fresh from the garden.  I  wanted a few courgette plants too, but tried 3 places with no luck.  It's quite late for sowing seed, but hopefully they should catch up.  

Bye for now

xxx

A Garden Visit and Plant Fair

Despite the forecast of awful weather today I went along to the annual garden and gift fair at Farleigh Wallop and enjoyed a stroll round the wonderful gardens of  Farleigh House which were open for the day.  It was "blowing a hoolie" as the Irish might say! but the sun kept popping out and the rain stayed away till I got home.  Typical British summer then!

Anyway, this is the reason I love the place.  The beautiful greenhouse on one side of the walled garden. Isn't it fantastic?  There's not much happening in the veg beds yet, everything's a bit late this year, but it's just beginning to come to life.

Inside, it's a mix of exotics, cacti, succulents, pelargoniums and plants waiting to go out to the veg garden.  

The jasmine on the floor was scenting the whole place. They can be quite overpowering in a house, but was just right here.

I love this whale fountain in the rose garden.  When we came a couple of years ago the roses were all in bloom, but they're weeks behind this year.

This is very clever. A wave clipped hedge with floating metal seagulls.

It was a bit too busy to take photos of the plant and gift stalls, but I had to get a picture of the lovely old barn where most of them were.

The event will be moving to a new location next year but Farleigh House gardens are open again in June and September for the NGS.  Worth a visit if you're in the area.

xxx

Loving the Sunshine!

Hello,  isn't it wonderful to see such blue sky and feel the heat of the sun at last?

Lottie's doing the rounds of the sunny bits of the house.

It's great to be able to hang out the blankets again.  There never seems to be anywhere to dry them in the winter.

The tulips are looking beautiful, but don't last all that long in the sun.

The pelargoniums are growing well.  I ordered a few of my absolute favourites, so that I've got something to do in the greenhouse this year.  I'm really hoping for a conservatory or garden room on our next house to fill with lovely scented plants.  

This one, p. odoratissimum had self seeded in the gravel on the greenhouse floor.  It smells so strongly of apples. Gorgeous.  Other favourites are Attar of Roses,  Rober's Lemon Rose, Tomentosum (very minty) and Lady Plymouth.  There are dozens and I've grown most of them over the years, but unless you've got somewhere warm for them to overwinter it's often easier to start with new ones each year.

The frogspawn in our little pond had turned into hundreds of tadpoles

Opening up the greenhouse this morning I was met with this chap.  Is it a young goldfinch?  He must have flown in the window and couldn't figure out how to get out, but was soon on his way.

Coming back indoors, this little blue tit had landed in the utility room and was spinning round on it's back.  It seems like the sun is making everyone a bit giddy!

Hope you all have a good bank holiday weekend.  Looks like it might be barbeque time again :)

xxx

Changes

Hello,  I've been writing this post in my head for a while, but thought it was about time to talk about the garden and the lack of any veg related activity.  I've decided to have a break from veg growing this year, mainly because we'll "probably" be moving house some time in the coming months.

I can't go into details yet, mainly because I don't know myself where we'll end up or the sort of place we'll be looking for.  There's still lots of un-knowns at the moment, but things should hopefully become clearer over the coming weeks and months.  It's something that has been in the back of our minds for a while, but a number of things have happened over the last year that have made it seem like the right time to think about a change.

 Browsing the property websites has become a bit of an obsession lately.  Street View has to be the best thing ever (for buyers anyway!)  I've seen countless lovely looking places that turn out to be on busy roads or have pylons or pig farms next door!  My main interest is always the outside and if there's plenty of room for a kitchen garden.   I'm missing the annual routines of sowing and digging already!

There are still some things in the veg plot of course.  The tulips have suddenly shot up and have started flowering  away.  When they've finished I'll dig up the bulbs ready for planting elsewhere.  There's also lots of gladioli and lilies and all sorts of seeds to save later on.

So, that's how things are at the moment.  I love blogging and don't want to stop, but there might be less of the garden and more out and about posts as we start to explore other bits of the country.  And then comes the business of sorting out all our stuff and starting to pack, which I'm trying not to think about :(

I do love to read all your comments and hope you will still pop by now and again.
Hugs
xxx 

Spring Things

Hello, isn't it great to see the sun again?  With the bit of rain we had last week everywhere is suddenly looking a lot more fresh and alive.  The daffs and forsythia are really cheering the place up and the primroses and cowslips are finally beginning to show their faces.

  

I haven't done much recently.  Eldest daughter has been here for a couple of weeks and it was good to catch up with all her news before she returned to London.  The house felt a bit quiet this morning so I took myself off for a drive in search of some lambs!  The black sheep were out in their field, but it must be a bit early as there were only a handful of lambs, too far away to photograph.

I had more luck a bit further on where some white ones were frolicking around and came up to the fence to see me.

This is a lovely sight.  Acres and acres of new woodland and hedgerows have been planted.  It all helps the wildlife!

Talking of wildlife, I found some more little egg shells in the garden and added them to my box of "interesting bits and pieces"  I think the tiny one is a blue tit's, the larger one from a thrush and the others are blackbird's.  There's also some butterfly wings, and fossilised things and a beautiful tiny wasp nest.  I think these little ones are made by the overwintering queen. 

A proper display case is next on my list of things to look for, then I can look out for lots more bits.

Take care

xxx