Little words of wisdom

 

Monday morning blues

image from Clipart Library

 

Yes, I know it's Tuesday but nevertheless that's how I feel today I'm afraid 😞

We were supposed to be going south for a couple of weeks on the 1st September but have reluctantly cancelled the trip.  Poor Adrian has been really under the weather for well over three weeks now and although he is somewhat better than he was, he really isn't up to travelling over 700 miles by public transport.  We most likely won't get down until the spring now but will hopefully go in March rather than our usual April/May.

And although I most definitely haven't been unwell like Adrian has, I too have felt a tad under the weather myself these past couple of weeks.  There's been nothing I can really put my finger on, just a lack of energy and feeling a tad "down".  The icing on the cake has been an IBS flare-up this weekend ~ set off by who-knows-what ~ swiftly followed yesterday by a day of constantly sneezing and a runny nose!  Today I merely feel knackered 😒

Oh well, onward and upwards I suppose ~ at least I've used this period of "down time" by getting stuck in to crocheting the first of two blankets I've been planning to make for absolutely bloody ages...every cloud has a silver lining I suppose 😏

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)         

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)         

Little words of wisdom

 

I gritted my teeth...

...and made a start on those unruly kitchen garden borders.  And to tell the truth, it hasn't been quite as bad as I'd feared once I got going.  This side border, like the path border, is all finished now.  All the big weeds have been pulled out, some of the plants have had supports added and some have been moved.  To the left, just out of the photo, I've added some more of the escallonia that has been sitting in pots up by the house for the last couple of years or so.  I also planted two lupins (that I dug out of the ornamental border) at the back here, near the wall; hopefully they will now be more protected from the strong winds we get.  I shall be putting in some ground-covering plants in due course.

When I showed you how chaotic the borders had become, I completely missed sharing this photo of the lovely potentilla fruticosa Snowbird in the front wall border.  It's simply amazing the amount of growth all the shrubs and larger plants have put on ~ after all, it's only two years since we started the garden make-over, which just seems incredible!  I haven't quite finished weeding this border, there's still about one-third left to do, but it's been somewhat wet up here and I haven't felt like weeding in the rain to be honest 😄

I had bedding plants leftover after I'd planted up the wheelbarrow and pots, so they went into the raised beds as I had a fair few empty spaces in them.  Hopefully I will be better organised with my veggie planting next year but even so I will still dot a few bedding plants amongst them to encourage the bees.

Talking of the wheelbarrow, the osteospermums are starting to look really good.  I'm a tad behind with my photos, so they are looking even better now. 

And look, my second set of ceramic toadstools finally arrived.  The Etsy seller I bought these from, jostudio37, was very apologetic and made me another set.  The first set I ordered never did turn up so goodness knows where the parcel went to 😕   

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)         

Taking a deep breath...

I'm rather embarrassed to admit that the borders in the kitchen garden have been severely neglected whilst we've been so busy creating the ornamental garden.

Consequently I've been dreading having to tackle sorting them out and confess that I've been putting it off.  

They have been left to their own devices for a good couple of years ~ and it shows!

Weeds are running rampant, as are the plants and shrubs ~ and I discovered this cheeky fuchsia making itself at home in a large clump of escallonia. 

Still there are things to be happy about, such as this mahonia media Charity.  It's been going from strength-to-strength since I relocated it from its previous too-sunny position...

...and Fru Dagmar Hastrup, one of my roses from David Austin, is obviously very happy in this border too despite being somewhat swamped by neighbouring plants and the dreaded weeds.

And the area around the tiny nature pool (yes, it's still in there somewhere!) is what I'm dreading tackling the most, if I'm honest.  The thought has crossed my mind to just leave it but tempting as that may be, I know that I do need to have at least a bit of a tidy-up if only to make the pool more easily accessible to the birds, etc.

It's come to the point now, though, where I can't procrastinate any longer so I've pulled up my big girl panties and made a start!  Although it's not easy to tell in this photo the path border is now tidy.  When it has finished flowering I shall move the blue globe thistle over to the border on the other side of the path (which is wider than this one) to join a couple more that are already growing there.  Being swamped by the thistle on either side are a rose, Claire Austin, and a peony that I don't know the name of.  Moving it will give them both more room to breathe and folk won't be in danger of brushing against the prickles as they walk along the path.  

The leucanthemum superbum Banana Cream has been flowering beautifully, although it's become clear that some of those pesky weeds were helping to support it 😄 Hopefully it will fill out more next year now that it isn't competing with said weeds for nutrients!

And to finish here's the little madam who so likes to use our garden as her personal toilet!  I was able to get a photo of her as she was relaxing on the creeping jenny at the back of my new hedge border.  I don't know her name but believe that she lives a few doors down the road from us.  She is only young but it seems she already has "her" territory, which our garden is part of judging by the amount of time she spends here!

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)        

So many sparrows!

I previously shared some photos that I took through the dining room window of the sparrows who visit our garden daily.  I was very pleased that I managed to take these whilst I was actually out in the garden, without scaring them away.

They spend a lot of time lounging around on the wooden edges of the borders in between dust-bathing...

..as well as picking over the soil finding things to eat.

They've really enjoyed the new bird bath, especially in this warmer weather.

And the first bird-bath we put in the garden is still visited regularly, too. 

😊

Little words of wisdom

 

Getting there...

...slowly, but surely 😊

I mentioned previously that I had dug up all the Fox and Cubs plants from one of the kitchen garden borders.  Well as you can see, I've ended up with a fair few plants from the three little ones I started off with ~ and no effort needed on my part at all!  Between them and the creeping jenny along the back I'm hoping that the bare soil will soon be covered.

Here's an up-to-date photo of the last section all planted up now, too.  As I mentioned before, between the Balfour willow and the forsythia is a daisy bush and an oleaster.  I bought three more sweet woodruffs to finish edging the front; I'm sure it won't be too long before they have spread out like the one already planted near the Whitebeam.

Looking back along the hedge border...

...and down towards the front wall border.

To be fair, once I'd got the thistles out it wasn't as bad to clear out the remaining weeds as I'd feared.  On the left is a clump of escallonia that's been sitting in a pot near the house for a good couple of years now ~ I could almost hear it sigh with relief when its roots touched the soil!  It's joining some that were planted when the border was first made.  I'm hoping to make a nice clump similar to the one in the right-hand corner of the wall border, on the kitchen garden side.

The shrub in the middle is oleaster Limelight, one of the new ones that I didn't really have space for in the new hedge.  Either side is verbena hastata Pink Spires that I moved from elsewhere.  The peony on the right popped up from nowhere when we took out the old hedge!  I dug it out and was able to split it into four pieces, all of which have gone in this border; they are all doing much better than I expected considering how they were swamped by the other plants/weeds. 

Peony either side of this section, with spirea nipponica Snowmound in the centre.  It was planted when the border was first made and I'm sure it's relieved that all those weeds are gone!  Either side, looking a wee bit sad at the moment, is some more of the achillea that I can't remember the name of.  I had thought it might be Summerwine but I'm now wondering if it's actually Cerise Queen. The little plant in the front right corner is papaver rupifragum, one of the new plants I recently got from Shire Plants. 

Peony again in the left-hand corner, with another papaver rupifragum in front.  In the centre are three of the Russell lupins I moved from elsewhere.  I know that they are planted very close together but I'm hoping they will help to support each other, although I will most likely still put in some plant supports in front of them.  Either side of the lupins are pennisetum alopecuroides Hameln.  Again, I know that they are planted very closely to the other plants in the border but I wasn't even sure if they were alive when I  moved them!  They are starting to show new shoots now so I will just have to keep an eye on how much space they take up as they grow.

On the right-hand side of the border is viburnum bodnantense Dawn, again planted when the border was first made.  In front of it is euonymus Blonde Beauty.  They have both suffered somewhat from being overrun with weeds, so I'm hoping that they will start to perk up now that they have some space to breathe.

The honeysuckle, American Beauty, over the arch is doing well and has had some flowers this year.  I pulled out a lot of weeds and dead plants from around it and have decided to just let the crocosmia fill the space ~ I know it will be more than happy to oblige!  When we first moved in the garden was full of it and we have removed a lot as there was just too much.  I kept a few clumps as it does have attractive flowers, I just don't allow them to run riot.

I've been moving plants into the path border from the other borders that I've been weeding and thinning out.  The two clumps of tiger lilies have gone over but hopefully will be looking good again next year.  Between them is viburnum burkwoodii Mohawk, which was looking very sorry for itself when I finally rediscovered it amongst the weeds.  Behind it is an achillea which I think may be Terracotta ~ we shall see when it (hopefully!) flowers next year!  

To the right of the viburnum, in front of the tiger lilies, is potentilla nepalensis Miss Willmott.  Then we have a rose, Lochinvar, that was being swamped in one of the kitchen garden borders.  Next is astilbe chinensis Vision Inferno that I moved from the other side of the gate.  Amazingly it doesn't seem to have even noticed that it's been moved ~ no drooping, nothing!  Then we have viburnum opulus Roseum, which was also smothered by weeds, with one of my favourites, alchemilla mollis, in front of it.  Finally, before the run of dwarf elder, are a couple of echinops bannaticus (blue globe thistles).  

The same border, from the path side.  Down by the gate is a fern, dryopteris affinis Cristata.  Then a grass, briza media (Quaking Grass).  To the left of the tiger lilies is lamium maculatum Beacon Silver.  Behind the astilbe are some short orange-flowered lilies that I don't know the name of; they were a free gift with a plant order from a couple of years back.  The border is edged with clumps of London Pride that were all over the garden when we moved in.  I dug them all up and split the clumps so that I could edge all along both sides of the path.

Back to the new border and the third section is fully planted now...

...as is the "starlings" border.  I hope they won't be put off by all the changes and will come back to nest in the wall again next year 😊

Pretty blooms

Dahlia White Aster

Dahlia Souvenir D'Ete

Dahlia Creme de Cassis

Dahlia Mikayla Miranda

Spiraea Anthony Waterer

Leucanthemum superbum Banana Cream

Rose Claire Austin

Echinops bannaticus (blue globe thistle)

Rose Blanc Double de Coubert

And finally my little bit of chaos 😊