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 :-)

Days Off Amongst the Tulips

I love time off work at Easter, it always feels like a proper break.  This year I was able to spend most of my days outdoors.  I weeded all the paths (there are a lot!), and all the beds, and generally had a lovely time, mainly amongst the tulips.

These ones are at the very end of my garden, past the greenhouse and are mainly ones that have appeared by themselves.

These however, are ones that I've planted over the years:

Doll's Minuet

Charming Lady

Various Parrot types

Can't remember what this one is

Black Parrot

The greenhouse is full to bursting, but everything will need to stay in there for a while longer as we have some frosty nights forecast.

And the paths are mainly weed free, so I can sit and have a cuppa whenever I want to.

 I'm hoping for many more sunny days to sit and enjoy the garden :-)

Winter Colour

Yesterday wasn't a brilliant day weather wise but I decided to risk the forecast rain and head up to Anglesey Abbey for a spot of winter colour.

First of all I walked up to the water mill,

then through into the Winter Garden.  The birches were almost glowing.

Round the corner come the dogwoods - many different species and colours

The snowdrops were just starting to appear

The grass heads work well with the red dogwood stems.

And I just love this hedge of dogwood!

The garden isn't just about colour though, it also champions winter scent.

It's a place that's worth visiting at any time of the year, but especially on a winter day.

Exciting, Challenging and Relaxing - Three Very Different Days.

I've just had 2 weeks off work - I didn't go away but I did do lots of things.

The most exciting thing I did was a 20m tree climb.  Using ropes, knots and karabiners I climbed right into the tree canopy.

The tree was a 30m high, 200yr old sycamore in Marks Hall Arboretum

I'm the circled one, about to go through the canopy!

Once we'd got to the top (there were 6 adults and 2 children in my group, including the curator of Marks Hall), we did a free-fall abseil back down to earth.  This is where you don't put your feet on anything but control the descent through the ropes (picture the SAS climbing down a rope from a helicopter) - it was amazing.

The most challenging thing I did was to make a new deck for in front of my shed.  The old one was made of pallets and was rotting.

The reason I need a deck here is because underneath it is a big hole.  A old brick lined drainage chamber (old cess pit) which dates from when the houses were first built and before they were connected to the main sewer.

It's about 15ft deep and is not what you want to fall into (although it was very useful for chucking the old rotting wood into!).

It was challenging as the normal way of constructing a deck wouldn't work as there wasn't enough solid ground to lay the joists on, but I persevered and adapted as I went along and this is the finished result - it's very solid and looks good too (though I say it myself!).

The most relaxing thing I did was visit Wicken Fen - I'd not been for many years and it was just as lovely as I remembered it.  I took a boat trip along Wicken Lode where we watched dragonflies darting all around.

It was a glorious day and I went for a long walk - ending up at the mere before returning back to the visitor centre.

I also visited Fen Cottage, which is one of the last remaining buildings of the hamlet that once existed by the reserve.

It's constructed of local materials including peat, wood, sedge. reed and clay, all of which would have been harvested from the fen.

It was occupied until 1972 and has been restored pretty much to how it was when the last people lived in it.

The cottage gardens are gorgeous!

It was a lovely, relaxing way to end my fortnight off.

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Half Finished.

Hello, I'm still here, just running hard to keep up with life and in a state of half finishedness in lots of things.

A few weeks ago I decided to prune the 'hedge' of eleagnus, cornus kousa and choisya but couldn't bring myself to cut the cornus as it was about to flower - so I have a half pruned hedge with a large tree growing out of one side!

Not sure if you can see it on this picture but it's the tall shrub with white bracts on in the middle at the back, what you can't see is the large gap to the right of it where the rest of the 'hedge' used to be!

The bracts are beautiful but almost impossible to see from anywhere apart from my study window as they are so high up!

I also have a half finished stairs and landing - I ripped the carpet up a few weeks ago and have so far sanded, filled and undercoated.

before

half finished

I can't paint the floor properly until the decorator has painted the walls, ceiling and woodwork etc.

But the roses have finally come out properly, so I'll leave you with a few beauties from last week:

William Shakespeare

Lady Emma Hamilton

The Generous Gardener

Fighting Temeraire

Now tomorrow I have an appointment a conference involving a new frock and these little beauties by Kurt Geiger.

Do I have a shoe habit? You bet I do.  Do I care? Not one little bit!