A Quiet Bank Holiday

It's been a quiet few days here - mainly because I have almost totally lost my voice so am unable to speak!  However, the weather has been lovely so I've managed to get a lot done in the garden, which I think is looking rather lovely.

On the first patio rosa Fighting Temeraire is flowering and has clematis Ville De Lyon scrambling through it.

The oriental poppies are also in flower - this is Patty's Plum.

Going further down the garden there are more Patty's Plum in bloom,

alongside rosa Felicia.

The potato vine is flowering its little socks off

and there are more oriental poppies too - this one is Ruffled Patty.

But it's not all been about flowers, I've managed to plant most of the veggies out too.  On the this side the runner beans, broad beans and courgettes are planted with an edging nasturtiums and calendula so I can have some edible flowers in salad.

I finally planted the tomatoes out in the greenhouse too.

It's that time of year when everything looks lush, even the self sown 'weeds' amongst the paving!

So even though I have no voice, I've had a lovely few days :-)

Slowly Getting There.

Things are progressing steadily on the decorating front.  The decorator has done his bit and I've painted the floor of the stairs and landing and also painted the dining room furniture.

Before and After

Gone are the dark red walls and carpet, replaced by taupe walls and white painted floorboards.

Before and After

All the pine furniture has had a coat of paint, I've deliberately left the tops etc wood as I didn't want to go to all paint.

Nothing more can now be done until the new wooden floor is laid in August, until then I have to continue living out of boxes and in a bit of a mess!

But whilst the inside of the house is in a state of flux the garden is looking lovely:

The geraniums on Dad's steps are flowering well as are various clematis still.

This hollyhock has appeared from nowhere and is very pretty (I don't think I planted it....)

and I love the expectation that the agapanthus buds bring.

Meanwhile the front garden is doing very well too.  

I dug up some overgrown box balls earlier this year and planted with some dahlias and larkspur that I'd grown from seed.  Whilst this isn't a colour combination I would have chosen, it actually looks good!

And as for hydrangea Annabelle - she's putting on a fantastic show, intact she's encroaching into next door's garden too,

just look at the size of her flower heads!

Bursting into Life

I do love this time of year, a few sunny days and everything bursts into life.  Today I noticed that one of my Cedric Morris irises - Benton Deirdre had opened. If you're watching or visiting the Chelsea Flower Show next week look out for them as they are appearing there for the first time in many years.

All the aquilegias have opened this week too, mainly self sown and I tend to leave them where they chose to be unless they're really in the way.

and some more clematis have opened too, the one on the left is called Vino, the one on the right is some kind of montana that was here when I moved in.

Two roses have opened this week, the single chinensis rose 'Mutabilis'

and Abraham Darby.

There's still a lot of blue around as the ceanothus has opened (sadly I think it'll have to come out when it's finished flowering as it's leaning across the path and I have to scramble under it to get past)

But I'll leave you with a photo not taken in my garden but at Arger Fen, a Suffolk Wildlife reserve which I called into after work one day last week.

And I heard a cuckoo, black caps and willow warblers as well as seeing the bluebells :-)

Lots of Blue and White

There's a lot of blue and white around at the moment, both in the sky and in the garden.

First of all, the whites:

clematis avalanche

dicentra spectabilis alba

exochorda

variegated white honesty 

white lilac

Next, the blues: lots and lots of forget-me-nots

forget-me-not

camassia

iris bud

It's not all blue and white though, the sky sometimes goes dark dark grey and the garden has splashes of other colours too.

cerinthe

Cerinthe self sows all over my front garden, and in the back there's more dicentra

dicentra spectabilis

 and the late flowering narcissus tresamble.

narcissus tresamble

But before I go, I must just share with you a tulip, now fully opened and all frayed and pretty -

Tulip Huis Ten Bosch

Autumn?

Despite the fact that I still can't really do any gardening and haven't done any for what seems like years but is actually only about 6 weeks, the garden is still hanging on to many blooms.  It seems reluctant to acknowledge that it's autumn and rapidly heading towards November, preferring to keep its late summer blooms.

The arbutilon still has buds on but will need moving into the greenhouse soon,

I don't remember sweet peas still flowering this late before

and the bedding fuchsias are still going strong,

as are some clematis.

Soon it will be time to protect the dahlias (I don't lift them and they seem to survive fine).

This salvia (Cambridge Blue) is still flowering well,

as is the hardy fuchsia.

But there are signs of autumn - this rose (Wollerton Old Hall) nestles amongst the decaying seed heads of the poppies,

Sedum (Red Cauli),

and this Japanese Anemone,

are surrounded by autumn leaves.

But I am still harvesting courgettes, generally only 3 or 4 a week now though,

and there are flower buds on the hollyhocks!

This little robin was singing his heart out,

he's clearly enjoying the mild weather.