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

 

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

 

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) 

Playing catch-up ~ yet again!

image from Freepik

Apart from my reading round-up post earlier this week, I've been very remiss in posting recently.  It's not that I've been doing nothing, but I must confess that it's been a struggle to push myself to get on with things.  I mentioned in my last "proper" post that I was feeling pretty tired, and to be honest I've found it rather hard to shake that tiredness off.  Some of it is genuinely feeling tired with the physical work as I'm extremely overweight and unfit, plus I'm not as young as I used to be 😄  

However, there has been a large splodge of procrastination thrown in!  I worked my way round the relatively "easy" sections of the garden/kitchen garden but all the while the spectres of the ornamental borders in the front garden were dancing about in my head, most of which haven't been tackled for about three years 😱       

Behold, one of the overgrown borders 😏  Actually, I forgot to take a photo before we started to tackle it so this is after Adrian had dug out three overgrown shrubs!  I guess it doesn't look too horrendous from a distance.....

but once you get up-close-and-personal the disarray is plainly evident 😯  This photo was taken after some shrubs had been dug out, sadly not all of which were salvageable.

The poor rosa rugosa (which we inherited when we bought the house, and transplanted from the other side of the garden) had what I'd bought as a dwarf fuchsia planted in front of it.  Turns out that it wasn't such a well-behaved shrub after all ~ it just kept on growing and pushing into the poor rose.  Still, rosa rugosa are hardy buggers so I'm sure it will soon regrow into a better shape 🤞

Everything in the right-hand side of the border had got out-of-hand, too.  

We are still working on the border but already it was starting to look better by this point last week.

Whilst it's probably not the best time of year to trim it, I nevertheless decided to cut back the escallonia somewhat.  I didn't cut it down as low as I really wanted to as I didn't want to lose all the flowers.  I'll save the final chop for later in the year.  It doesn't look particularly pretty at the moment but like the rosa rugosa, escallonia are tough shrubs and I'm confident it will bounce back in due course.

We did manage to save three of the smaller shrubs, which have now gone into the low bed in the front patio area.  Needless to say, they have all lost their labels and I can't remember what they are called, although I believe the middle shrub may be Rose of Sharon 😕 

As you can see, I also moved the brazen mermaid bird bath (she was already in the garden when we bought the house) into the bed; one of these days I will get round to giving her a verdigris-type finish.....don't hold your breath, though, 'cos I've been saying that for the last seven years 😄

The peonies have been beautiful again this year.  I have no idea what variety these lovely red ones are as they were already in (different parts of) the garden when we moved in.  I planted a white-flowered one two or three years back which has been very slow to do anything, but this year it has a number of buds so I'm hoping for a good display in due course.

I'm way behind with greenhouse photos; these were taken a couple of weeks back.  As I mentioned in my last "proper" post I was contemplating tying the tomatoes to canes to help straighten them somewhat, which I have now done.  I'll try to remember to take some up-to-date photos to show you their progress.

The sweet pepper plug plants, Peppers from Heaven Orange, arrived looking a little sad.  They were pretty dry so I soaked them for a while, then put them into larger pots.  They looked like this for a few days but I'm happy to report that they have since perked up considerably ~ photos to follow in due course 😉

In the end, 15 of the 16 sunflower seeds germinated which I found immensely pleasing.  They are, of course, a fair bit larger by now 😄

Ta-daa!  I now have the perfect little spot for sheltering some of my plants that are not-so-keen on the cold and wet Orkney winter weather.  I can also use the shelf above the little grow houses to store the garden décor that might otherwise be damaged by being blown all over the place!  I'm so pleased with what Adrian has done with the old arbour seat, it's made such good use of something that was just going to waste.  I'm thinking of swapping the large tubs and chair display around at some point ~ I'll break the good news to poor 'ole Adrian in due course 😏

Little words of wisdom

 

Reading round-up: May 2025

image from Clipart Library

Well, my lovelies, this is rather embarrassing 😳 I have absolutely no books to share with you ~ for the simple reason that I did next-to-no reading during May 😯

I'm still wading through So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, which is the penultimate book in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Trilogy in Five Parts by Douglas Adams.  Other than a few crochet patterns, that was the sum total of my (unfinished) reading for the whole of May!

Note to self: must do better during June 😏

 

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

 

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

 

Catching up with me!

image from Clipart Library

By Friday of last week I must confess that I was feeling very tired, so decided to have an easier day just pottering about in the back garden. 

The tomatoes are definitely straighter than they were, but I'm considering tying them to small canes to help the process.

I was so tired by the end of Thursday that I completely forgot to take the sunflower seedlings back into the greenhouse overnight 😳  Thankfully they were none-the-worse for my neglect and I've decided that they can now sit outside all the time.

I decided that I would spend my day of pottering about by doing some "tweaking" to the containers in the kitchen courtyard area.  By the way, just look at all that potential fruit on the standard redcurrant (Jonkheer van Tets) ~ I'm so glad I decided to keep it!

My first task was to pot up the pelargoniums, Sunflair Eva White, that I had managed to overwinter.  They were bought as a group of six little plug plants from Marshalls last year.  The four that survived didn't get anywhere near the 40cm x 40cm the description of the plants suggested they would reach; as you can see from the photo above, they are still only small!  I decided to put three into this one pot.....

and the odd one leftover into a pot of its own.  Hopefully they will put on some growth this year, and fingers crossed that I will be successful at overwintering them again 🤞

That single pot of Eva White isn't the only pelargonium on the display bench, as I included three scented-leaf plants of Attar of Roses with my order from the RHS.  I really like the scented-leaf varieties of pelargoniums but have never been successful at overwintering them.  If these grow well this year I will most likely take them indoors where they can spend the winter with my houseplants.

Next on the agenda was to put some more plants into the container with the chives and rosemary.  I split the basket of tulips Moon Blush, that I had been growing for cutting, in half and planted the two clumps either side of the old bird bath.  At the front I planted armeria pseudameria Ballerina White and Ballerina Red.  I bought these with my recent order from Shire Plants as a collection of three armeria, and had already planted Ballerina Lilac in the water bowl bed earlier in the week.   

Despite my constant moaning about the dreaded dandelions, especially in the front garden, I just couldn't resist this pair of "ornamental" varieties of our native weeds wildflowers 😉  This one is taraxacum albidum (white dandelion).....

and this is taraxacum pseudoroseum (pink dandelion).  The advice on the plant descriptions say "doesn't seem to self seed as readily as our native dandelion, but pull off the spent flower heads if you want to avoid it completely".  Of course if I was more on the ball I would have been doing that with the bloody dandelions that are plaguing me elsewhere in the garden 😏 

I also dismantled the water dish display and redid it, as it just kept tipping to one side.  I now have a terracotta saucer nestled into the compost, with an old slate roof tile set on it and the edge of the planter for a bit more support.  I sat the dish on the tile but it was a tad wobbly.  Looking at the base of the dish I could see that it wasn't flat, so got another terracotta saucer to place beneath it which seems to have cured the problem!  I felt that the large fairy could do with something a tad more stable to sit on; luckily the piece of stoneware that I had beachcombed a few years back made an ideal seat for her.  The little fairy also now has a better seat, perching on the terracotta balls. 

I was pleased with all the little jobs that I managed to get done, but was pretty pooped by the end of the week 😴 

Someone else who was obviously pooped was next-door's moggie!  I walked from the kitchen into the dining room on Friday evening and there he was, sprawled over the edge of the border with his face planted into the gravel path.  My first thought was "oh my god, he's bloody died in our garden", swiftly followed by "oh my god, what are we going to tell Helen and Paul" 😱  Thankfully he then stood up, had a big 'ole stretch.....and promptly settled back down again to finish his snooze 😄

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)