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 :-)

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!

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 :-)

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.

Cack-handed Musings!

Hello!  I am still here, complete with my strapped up arm (courtesy of the tree) which is causing me some (a lot) of frustration, but the good news is I've been to a physio and he's certain he can fix it.  So I haven't been able to do any gardening, or sewing, or knitting, and I'm only allowed to type left handed.  In fact I'm having to do most things left handed which so far has led to several cack-handed incidents including managing to break the front door key by twisting it the wrong way in the lock, fortunately I noticed what was happening just before it severed and managed to remove it from the lock in one piece!

Despite all of this the garden is doing well.  The new dahlias I bought in the spring from Rose Cottage Plants have been flowering for weeks and weeks now.

Dahlia Rip City

Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda

Dahlia Classic Poeme

In the front garden the roses are still blooming as are the clematis.

Rosa Scepter'd Isle

Clematis Gypsy Queen 

 But autumn is marching onward and the anemones are blooming their little socks off.

Those of you who follow me on twitter might have seen that I was quite incensed the other week when a non-gardening colleague of mine described my garden as 'over-grown'.  I suppose to the untrained eye it might appear that way, but I prefer to think of it as abundant and flowing!

Anyway, whatever it is, I like it :-)