The Sun Arrived!

What a difference a week, or there abouts, makes.  I went from wearing socks and boots to baring my feet in sandals practically over night!  And flowers seemed to open over night too, I'm sure the ceanothus went from no flowers to this in 24 hours.

And the irises have opened too.  For the first time since I bought them the two Cedric Morris ones have opened together (in previous years it's been one or the other), and they actually look quite nice together.

By the pond this iris Siberica has also opened, I like how delicate they are.

But my real favourite are these ones, and there are masses of them this year!

 

I've no idea what they're called as I inherited them.  In previous years I've been lucky to get 2 flowers, but I moved them last summer and they obviously like their new spot. 

 

They are so dark they're almost black, except when the sun shines through them and they turn this gorgeous purple.  I do have a bit of a thing about dark flowers!

It's That Green Time Of Year

It's the time of year when everything is green isn't it?  Everywhere I look in my garden is the bright green of spring.

Top Row:  Cerinthe, Box, Feverfew

Middle Row:  Choisya, Euphorbia, Philadelphus

Bottom Row:  Heuchera, Fern, Campanula

And hiding amongst the green leaves are poppy buds full of the promise of beauty still to come.

(This is actually one I don't remember planting and has appeared next to one that is normally orange flowered.  I guess it will all be revealed soon!)

And remember these trees in Elvedon Forest in the autumn?

Well today they looked like this - all green and young and new.

My favourite avenue of trees, and an extra bonus was that it wasn't raining and I didn't get mown down by passing traffic!

A Sunny Afternoon Trip

Boris and I went for a little trip this afternoon (Boris is my car in case you were wondering!).  We drove along roads like this

with views across the Box valley to the left and huge Suffolk skies to the right.

We drove through pretty villages

until we ended up here, in Dedham on the Suffolk/Essex border.

The sun was shining on the wisteria covered houses.

One of the houses has steps going down from the pavement to this lovely little door, I wonder what's behind it?

But I didn't really come to sight see, I came to the Handmaid & Vintage Fair.  I forgot to take any pictures inside the fair as I was too busy looking at all the lovely things but there was a nice mixture of things on sale, and I did treat myself to a few little bits.

An old bottle, 2 pretty napkins (which might end up being used for something else!) and a pottery "Be Happy" dove for the grand total of £9.00.  And a lovely tissue holder to put in my handbag made of linen and liberty fabric by Poshyarns.

But these were my best bargain

They're only silver plate, and I know they look manky here, but at £3.00 for all 6 there was no way I could resist them.  And after a little bit of cleaning they now look like this

Now all I need to do is make some cake to eat with them and then we can have a tea party - anyone want to come?

Bank Holiday Doings

How was your bank holiday weekend?  The rain actually stopped here at times so I was able to get out and do a little in the garden between the showers.

I love the contrast of this 'Queen of the Night' tulip against the self sown euphorbia.

I managed to do some much needed weeding in the veg garden and was pleased to see that, with the exception of the carrots, all the other seeds I'd sowed just before the monsoons started have germinated.

I was also very surprised at how many flowers there are on the strawberry plants.  I now have to make sure that the birds and slugs don't get them. There is such expectation at this time of year, imaginings of tastes to come!

But I didn't just garden, this afternoon I went over to Lavenham to the Art Festival - it was lovely.  The chance to see artists in their studios, with real range of work and also an amazing range of studios and settings; some old and medieval, some new in beautiful gardens and then this one, the last one we visited:

Not only was it a stunningly beautiful garden (and this is only a part of it!) it was home to beautiful bronze sculptures by Kate Denton (if you enlarge it by clicking on it you might just see a stag and a hare sculptures).  Did I have garden envy?  Just a little!

And to finish, it's Florence and Dylan's 7th birthday today.  They've had fish for tea and are now sleeping it off on the throw I made for the sofa  (I'm so pleased they use it after all the hassle they gave me when I was making it!)

P.S. Thank you for all your good wishes about my back on the last post, it's fine again now :-)