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!

Hydrangeas - a marmite plant?

Love them or hate them?  I never used to like them at all, they reminded me of municipal car-parks and my mother's never ending quest to make her pink ones turn blue, but a few years ago I discovered some that I do like, very much.

Hydrangea Paniculata Vanille Fraise opens a delicate creamy white

and gradually turns pink.

The flower heads have a lovely openness and a 'conical' shape.

My other favourite is Hydrangea Annabelle.

She opens white too but gradually turns a lime green. 

Her flower heads are enormous ball shapes!

I wonder if you love them or hate them? Or maybe, like me now, you love some but not others.

Still Going Strong

It's not exactly peaceful in my house at the moment (I live in a terrace and next door is being re-roofed), and the garden isn't exactly private at the moment either due to men on the roof but it's still looking good.

Hydrangea Annabelle has thrived this year

Echinacea White Swan would really prefer a sunnier spot but is still flowering

and the Passion Flower is just getting into full swing.

But it's not all white in the garden, there is rather bright Cosmos

and a very pretty Potentilla

and some very delicate Thalictrum (Hewitt's Double)

and even though the Monarda (Prairie Night)  is a bit scruffy now, the bees are still loving it.

Echinops provides a contrast of structure

and there's still a lot to come as this Dahlia bud shows.

I'm hoping the roofers will finish soon as I really want my peaceful house and garden back!

Autumn's Arrived.

Autumn appears to have arrived.  It's not my favourite season.  I do love the colours that it brings, but what I don't like is that it heralds the dark, cold days of winter.

Today though was all about colours.

The Snake Bark Maple looked as if it was just starting to turn into its fiery autumn colours,

but then I looked more closely.  It's not the leaves that are turning red, it's the seed pods.

I've never noticed them do this before.  The tree is absolutely dripping with them this year.  Is it because its getting older, or is it to do with the weather?  I don't know, but they are magnificent whatever the cause.

In the front garden the verbena is also full of seeds.  They are snuggling underneath the flower, again I'd never noticed this before (maybe I've just had my eyes closed before?).

And the clematis seed heads are wonderful as always,

as are the skeleton leaves on the hydrangea.

But I'll leave you with a close up of those amazing pink maple seed pods.

Isn't nature wonderful.

A Normal Weekend?

I've been in the garden quite a bit this weekend, which is perfectly normal for me.

This dahlia is one of my favourite flowers at the moment.

Dahlia Nuit D'Ete

Dahlia Nuit D'Ete

 
I have a bit of a thing about dark flowers but generally find they don't show up very well. However this one  looks lovely in the front garden growing alongside the white japanese anenome.

My other favourite thing in the garden at the moment are the skeleton flowers on Hydrangea Annabelle, the detail is just amazing.

Hydrangea Annabelle

Hydrangea Annabelle

A perfectly normal weekend... but there are some other things I have done this weekend that you may not regard as normal:
1.  Helping to catch a bantum who was having an asthma attack.
2.  Waking up to find this post-it stuck to a fresh duck egg outside my back door on Saturday (explanation below)

(Hinge and Bracket are my neighbour's ducks.  Since she got them in May I've been giving them all the duckweed that I scoop out of my pond.  They laid their first eggs this week, and were kind enough to give me one!)
3.  Showing both neighbours how to avoid the spiders' webs that are spun across our narrow gardens by teaching them the "Elephant Dance".  (Imagine sticking one arm out in front like a trunk, and waving it up and down as you move in an elephant like manner down the garden and you'll get the gist of it!)

A normal weekend?  I'll let you decide!

In Love

I think I'm in love - with hydrangeas!  I love how their exquisite little green flower buds

Hyrandgea Preziosa

gradually turn white

Hyrandgea Preziosa

and then pale pink

Hyrandgea Preziosa

I love that these unassuming buds

Hydrangea Paniculata 'Vanilla Fraise'

turn into these beautiful flowers

Hydrangea Paniculata 'Vanilla Fraise'

And I love that they can have flowers as big as these less than a year after planting!

Hydrangea Arborescens 'Annabelle'

I thought you might also like to see the "help" that I've had today whilst I was working from home...

it's of the less than helpful kind!  She did eventually get fed up with me trying to type over her and reluctantly relocated to my lap. I'll show you what her brother was up to another day!