A Very Very Special Day

On Wednesday I walked to the cashpoint - nothing really unusual in that, I often walk into Sudbury, but it is a very lovely walk.

I walked along the river edged with froths of cow parsley, to get some cash for a very special day.

Back in December Mum had told us she'd had a special invitation but it wasn't straight forwards as she was also going into hospital in February for a hip replacement operation. Cue master planner (me).  On my weekly visits to North Norfolk to visit them (amongst taking them home cooked meals and cakes, doing the  cleaning, gardening and a miriad of other little things that become big worries when you're elderly) we:

• bought a dress and I altered it
• bought a jacket
• bought a bag and I altered it
• bought shoes
• bought a necklace and I altered it
• hired a suit for Dad and the shop altered it
• booked a hotel and altered the booking
• booked a restaurant

Why?

Because Mum had been invited by the Queen to a garden party at Buckingham Palace as an acknowledgement of her 20 plus years of volunteering at a local museum, True's Yard (I've never been, must alter that!).

From 6pm I was standing outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace waiting for them.  Dad had been worried I wouldn't find them but I knew I would. 

I spotted them immediately they came out and was so proud - proud of Mum for her volunteering and so proud that she'd been totally determined to recover from the op in order to get there and enjoy it pain free.  

We went for a meal afterwards - a perfect end to a wonderful day, they look so happy :-)

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

Tulips

I do so love tulips and this week they are looking their best.  There are reds and yellows,

 top L - unknown double, top R Golden Artist, bottom L - Bright Parrot, bottom R - unknown/forgotten

and pinks and whites

All unknown except bottom right - Huis Ten Bocsh

Doll's Minuet

Unknown

Also flowering today is this pasque flower, I love the hairiness of it,

and this delightful little plant, which I think is a wood anemone, but I have no recollection of planting it, although I must have done.

It's very pretty!

Spring Is Late

It's official, spring is late! How do I know? Well Facebook very kindly showed me this photo yesterday, taken exactly a year ago, with the exochorda in flower amongst tulips and dicentra.

And this was the same view yesterday -

no flowers on the exochorda yet, tulips still in tight bud and the dicentra has only just poked its head above ground level.

But even with this lateness spring is evident in the garden

and I hope that with a few more warm days, as is predicted, the rest will catch up too.

A Little Detour

After a day of cleaning and gardening at my parents' yesterday I took a little detour on the way home and went to Castle Acre.

The views from the top were impressive, but all the time I kept thinking that it wasn't how I remembered it from visiting as a child.

I had a good wander round, it was nice but I was puzzled as to where all the arches were that I knew had been there before.

I wandered back to the car and saw a sign to 'The Priory' and the penny dropped - that was where I'd been as a child not the castle! As I walked out of the village the priory came into view across the fields.

It's managed by English Heritage and when I got to the entrance there was only 20mins left until they closed so I didn't pay the £6.90 to go in, instead I wandered around the perimeter on a footpath.

 Now I could see the arches that I remembered.  Arches from the cloisters,

and from windows long missing their glass.

I will go back and pay to go in as I'd love to get up close to those arches and see the re-created herb garden showing the herbs that the monks used to use for medicinal purposes.

But even from a distance it was a lovely end to the day - a day where I found this gorgeous cloche hat in mum's cupboard, bought and worn by me in the 80s!

Hope you all had good Easter weekends too.

Taking Something Old....

Back in April I bought a little, tatty, unloved footstool from eBay for £15.98.  I'd been looking at new ones and they were all either:

1. too big,
2. too expensive or
3. both of the the above

It arrived and sat looking sad in my conservatory until this week when I finally had time to tackle it.

First off all I removed the green cover and found another pink one underneath, so that came off too.

The padding/wadding seemed in good condition do I left that on and sanded the nasty brown varnish off the legs.  At this point it hailed so progress halted!

Today I removed the legs and waxed them, found some fabric in my ever increasing stash and armed with a staple gun set about re-covering it.  

I didn't really know what I was doing but I'm pretty pleased with those corners!  Then I put the legs back on and voila! I think it looks good alongside the free chair I obtained 18months ago.

I did some digging in the veg garden today and was supervised by this little chap and his mate; I don't know where they're nesting but they were certainly busy collecting grubs.

On my way inside I noticed the euphorbia fireglow has emerged - such vivid colours.

I also picked some hyacinth blooms on my way back up the garden and they're now filling the house with a heady scent.

Now if you'll excuse me I'll just put my feet up for a few minutes :-)