Sunday, June 29, 2025

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) 

Sunday, June 22, 2025

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)  

Sunday, June 15, 2025

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) 

Thursday, June 12, 2025

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 😏

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

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 😏


 

Sunday, June 8, 2025

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)  

Sunday, June 1, 2025

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)  

Sunday, May 25, 2025

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)  

Monday, May 19, 2025

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 😄

Sunday, May 18, 2025

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)  

Friday, May 16, 2025

Still soaking up the 'ole rays!

image from Clipart Library

The glorious weather has continued all week 🌞  I still had plenty of "pottering about" jobs to keep me occupied Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday ~ we're really into full swing with the garden now!


I decided to tidy up the little tomato plants a tad, by removing the mangled-looking leaves.  They are still very bent but nevertheless do look rather better than when they first arrived.

The sunflowers just keep growing!  Of the 16 seeds I planted, 15 have germinated ~ to say I'm amazed would be something of an understatement 😮  

As they are now developing their "true" leaves, I decided to take the plunge and put each one into its own individual little pot.  I gently prised out the stronger-looking seedlings, potting them straight into their new homes.  I left the less well developed ones in the original peat pots, simply putting seedling and pot into the new pots together.

Whilst I was in potting-up mode I decided to do something with this tiny fuchsia, Pink Galore, that had really struggled over the winter compared to the rest of its family.  I'm not sure that it will thrive to be honest, but at least I've given it a chance.  I had just one pot of pratia pedunculata Country Park that I originally had in mind for somewhere else.  Since I ultimately decided against that idea it was going spare, as it were, so I split it in half and plopped it in with the fuchsia.  I fully expect to be reporting on the demise of the fuchsia in due course, I'm afraid!

Tuesday and Wednesday were rather disjointed sorts of days, with me doing little bits here and there, all of which I completely forgot to take photos of 😏 

I was pleased to see that the sunflowers seemed none-the-worse for their separation and potting-on.  It's quite fascinating to see how they turn to find the sun throughout the course of the day 😊

Just look at how clear the water is 😲  Perhaps all that dust from the Great Grit Spillage of '25 has filtered the water 😄  I will still empty out the bowl in due course to clear out the grit silt, though ~ when I can actually summon up the enthusiasm to do so, that is 😉

I decided to put the sunflower seedlings outside on Thursday.  They seemed very happy just soaking up the sun sitting on the garden bench in the back garden.

On Monday and Thursday mornings I usually Komp with my Dad so don't tend to do quite so  much outside, which probably is no bad thing to be honest.  Anyhoo, yesterday afternoon I decided to tackle the raised bed in the front garden near the bathroom extension.  My decision was rather fortuitous in that Adrian and I had been bemoaning the state of this border on the kitchen garden side of the path that leads to the gate earlier in the week.  It's a border that we've never been able to keep under control from the onslaught of the dreaded dandelions ~ the bloody things just keep on growing no matter how many times we try to dig them out 😠

I suggested to Adrian that we could remove a good chunk of the border, just leaving small sections at either end for the two shrubs that I would much prefer not to move.  As luck would have it, these sections of the border don't have dandelions so would only need to be kept free of much less persistent weeds.  That will be yet another "little" job to add to our ever-growing list of things to be done 😄

There were only four other plants in the border, so they were easily moved to the raised bed.  


Back to the current job, as you can see the bed wasn't totally overgrown but did need quite a bit of tidying up.  Everything that I had moved into the bed has settled in very nicely, except for the buddleja at the back which died off completely.


I'm particularly pleased with the ferns but nearly missed this little one at the front!  I thought it hadn't survived but luckily I spotted that it was sending out new shoots 😊


After I'd moved the four plants from the path border into the bed, I finished off with three of these rather lovely alchemilla erythropoda (dwarf ladies mantle) that I bought recently from the RHS.  As you know, my lovelies, I have a few garden flower favourites with alchemilla mollis being amongst them.  Much as I love it, though, it does have a tendency to grow rather large and blousy in our garden ~ I guess it really likes the growing conditions!  I was delighted to come across this little gem, though, as it appears to be a more restrained version ~ we shall just have to wait and see, I guess 😉  


I finished off the planting by splitting the basket of narcissus Cassata, that I had grown for cutting, in half and putting the two clumps at the back of the bed.


My last task was to try to do something about the bird bath.  The original dish is very shallow and the water quickly disappears from a combination of over-enthusiastic bathing by the local sparrows and starlings, and evaporation.  It is very popular with the birds though, so I wanted to leave it in situ.  I had a rummage around in the greenhouse for some supplies to "beef it up", and this is what I came up with.  The original dish now makes a very good base for this plastic planter.  As it's much deeper than the original I decided to make a sort of platform by placing a lump of stone in it that we found in the garden a few years back.  I sat the stone on an upturned terracotta saucer to give it a bit more height and it now protrudes out of the water somewhat.  The weight of the stone will hopefully help to keep the bowl in place when it's windy!

I'm pleased with this new set-up for the time being, but will be keeping a look out for a wider and shallower bowl to replace it with.  In the meantime, though, the birds still have a place to drink and bathe 😊