Weekend Walk 31st May 2008

They say that in England people always talk about the weather.  I think for England you have to read Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well.  Since I have started blogging – weather is probably the thing I have mentioned most.

In the UK  we do have “Weather” and lots of it. I suppose, it is the fact that our weather is so changeable that we Brits are “always talking about the weather”.

Today – it was really weired here – One of the joys of living by the coast is weired weather and micro-climates.

For our walk today I wanted to walk along the beach because it was such a glorious sunny day. We arranged to start our walk from a friends house probably a couple of miles, if that, from my house.  I could not believe it when I drove a few hundred yards from my house – to hit a veil of sea mist. Her house and the beach were in mist.

You could hardly tell where the sea and sky met. The photo looks a little blurry – but it is actually wafty mist breaking up the picture. Those dark shapes in the center are people swimming in the sea – as it was really hot.

Perfect for the first paddle of the year!

I wish I had been able to capture it for you – to show you properly the weired light, and the sea mist.  To give you an idea of how hot it was, and yet there was no sun.  (Although apparently according to shed man – our garden was bathed in glorious sunshine all afternoon!)

It was a good walk.

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Wordless Wednesday – 29th May 2008

Wordless Wednesday – Acer Palmatum

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Salad Days are here again

First salad of the season, from the kitchen garden.

Three different sorts of lettuce leaves, with radish, red and “White Icicle”

yummy!

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After the Winds …

Last week I photographed this part of my garden as it really appealed to me. The hardy geraniums were softly round. The foxgloves were appearing beneath the cob tree, and in the foreground the heuchera had thrown up its flower spikes and were wafting softly in the breeze. All in all I was pleased with the whole effect:- a sort of gentle wildness. Especially as they were all put in there last year – “to be going on with for now”

We had taken a lot of ailing shrubs out of this area and made a path to walk down the garden. We knew that we had to replant shrubs here eventually because otherwise we would create a wind tunnel. And some shrubs have gone in – but they are still quite small.

To-day I was moodily wandering through the garden, collecting the foxglove spires that had been ripped off by the high winds, along with aqueliga flower spikes, heuchera flower spikes. Poppies and Honesty ripped out of the ground … you get the picture.

Shed Man however, is made of sterner stuff and after contemplating the “wind tunnel” for a few moments decided that what we needed was to extend the wall in a curve, to break the winds path.

This plan was based on moving a massive boulder, which has been languishing on our drive for the past year, and placing it upright in the flower bed as the end of the new stone wall.

Fortunately, just as Shed Man was hatching this plan (He moves rocks on rollers with leavers). Dobby arrived (phew – that let me out of roller duty).

It was an arduous task.

They have moved the boulder with rollers and leavers up the other side of the wooden fence and down the gravel path to its new position.

(I was very busy digging out all the plants from this area and replanting them)

They heaved up into an upright position and planted it in the flower bed.

(I was very busy making tea and generally overseeing the operation)

The stone looked really nice sitting on its own in the flower bed and I would have quite liked to have left it just like that.

However, as Shed Man rightly pointed out – the point of the exercise was to create a wind break and that he was going to extend the existing wall to this boulder.

Dobby – after lending her muscle, left to go home, and I went to the Kitchen Garden to rescue my French Beans, as they had been ripped of their supports, clear the garlic that had been uprooted, along with some rhubarb …. You get the picture ….

When I had finished there Shed Man had nearly finished the new wall!

And I love it. This is what you see when you come to our gate.

Now I’m thinking – wouldn’t one of those little early flowering clematis look divine climbing up that wall?

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Tagged by Veg Plotting

I have been keeping myself to myself pretty much this week. My sons wedding was fabulous. Thank you all for your good wishes.

We have had really high winds here to-day, with gale-force gusts, (46 miles per hour!). My kitchen garden is looking rather sorry – with flattened lettuce and limp beetroot. Shed Man was a hero and has made little wind breaks for two of the raised beds to keep the plants in them so they don’t get blown away to sea.

To-day was the first day that the self seeded poppies flowered.

They were moving around quite a bit – so they are a little bit fuzzy. The main garden is also looking very battered, so tonight I am a little bit despondent. Which is why is is a good time to play Tag as VP passed it to me a while a go and I have not had the opportunity to post it here.

Rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post linking to their blog.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six things about me.

I cannot go to sleep at night unless I have read a few pages of my book in bed.

I live in Wales – but I cannot speak Welsh.

I broke my collar bone a few years ago and it never healed up – so it is still in two bits.

My biggest extravagance is books – I love them

I really dislike conifers

My favorite color for my clothes, after black, is pink.

So I shall pass this on to the following bloggers – but please don’t feel obligated to play – I know this is a busy time of year – but if you get a Wet and Windy Sunday …. It may put a smile back on your face – it has mine. (Thanks VP).

Zoe and Garden Hopping

The Patient Gardener

Chey – A Maritime Gardener

Sandy – In a Garden

Carrots and Kids

HappyMouffetard and Somebeans

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Wordless Wednesday – 21st May 2008

Wordless Wednesday – Ligularia dentate “Desdemona”

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Come – Walk with me

It is hot here today – too hot to be in the garden – come walk with me, we will go to the woods where it is cool and shady and catch the last of the bluebells before they vanish until next year.

The road to the woods is lined with wild garlic (allium ursinum), a foam of starry white flowers in the dappled shade beneath the trees. The smell of the garlic hangs in the air – pungent, pleasant, a familiar woodland smell. You either love it or hate it.

Please click on the pictures for a larger view

The first path is between stone walls – we can peep through in places to see an ancient woodland. Large oaks, large boulders. The air is lush, the tang of woodland rich and deep.

A stream runs here – we will give that a miss to-day – the heat and the thunder has raised clouds of midges, they make me feel so itchy!

Walking deeper into the woodland – as VP so rightly said – the very air is a haze of blue

Bluebells are everywhere – and I find it so hard to capture them on film – where to look, where to focus.

The tree canopy is alive with bird song.

Some tree trunks are covered with moss – as are the boulders. Here and there ferns;- from tight curls – to lush fronds.

Moving along to another favorite spot of mine – over this style …

And into an area which has stone walls on all four sides – perhaps it was a pasture, but trees have grown here. To me it seems like a walled garden, a wild walled garden. Overhead a buzzard is circling and calling. It just feels magical.

I have to leave you now – and I will be away for a few days. You may remember that I went to one of my sons weddings a few weeks ago – this weekend my eldest son is getting married. I am so looking forward to it. It will be a wonderful occasion for all our family.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – May 2008

How quickly the months are whizzing past – it is that time of the month again when Carol from May Dreams Garden hosts her G.B.B.D. So check out her blog – and see what is blooming in Carols garden – and in other gardens around the world. Also Carol has received 5 Mouse and trowel Awards – Congratulations Carol – well deserved.

If there is one bloom that describes my garden this week it is Aquilegia.

A. vulgaris, is a British Native flower – and self seeds with abandon all over the garden – usually in a dirty pink colour, but it is pretty in a cottage garden way – so for now it stays. Among the pinks there are a few purples and blues

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR MORE DETAIL

The other prolific self seeder in my garden – and one of which I am very fond is Honeywort (Cerinthe major “Purpurascens”)

I never pull these seedling up – however inconvenient a place they choose.

Hardy Geraniums are also very happy here – and spread throughout the garden giving lovely soft mounds of ground-cover. I was delighted that this one Mourning Widow (Geranium phaeum) seems to have followed me from my last house. I think it self seeded in the pots I moved.

Also in bloom are a Rhododendron – whose name I do not know

The last of the tulips

And one of my best loved flowers – the foxglove (Digitalis)

(complete with ant!)

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Wordless Wednesday – 14th May

Wordless Wednesday – Arum Lily

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Relaxing Day in the Garden

On Saturday, while I was having a “Tough day at the office”. Shed Man was at home, having a relaxing day in the garden.

At the beginning of the year – the bottom part of our garden looked like this.

Actually, in this photo the area does not look to bad, but believe me when I say that last week it looked like a jungle!

In this part of the garden, there were a few seedling trees. Also I had “heeled in” plants dug up from all over the garden. Gradually through the year – this area had become a general dumping ground for anything we were not quite sure about, both in terms of plants and “garden rubbish”.

When I got home from work on Saturday, it looked like this …

Shed Man had dug up the seedling trees that we didn’t want. Dug up the “heeled in” plants, cleared the ground. Moved all the rubbish to the back wall.

He had also dug a trench for the new hedge that we are going to create from the beech trees that we have taken up from around the garden. This is the new hedge line, filled with compost from the compost heap.

This picture does not really show how deep the trench is. In our garden – planting anything is no easy task, and digging a trench involves taking out a huge quantity of stones like this

These rocks also came out of this trench

He also used a few of the rocks to make a retaining wall where the level changes.

When I got home I was so delighted, as I had no idea that he was going to work on this area of the garden.

Thank you Shed Man

(although I suspect he doesn’t read my blog!)

On Sunday, we planted the trees that will eventually form our hedge. (I think we may need to get another couple). Hopefully they will hide what will be our “messy bit”. I think every garden needs a messy bit.

Then we covered the area with a weed suppressant, which will help keep it moderately clear over the next few months.

Half of this area (fingers crossed) will be our soft fruit area. Although we probably wont start work on constructing it until the autumn. Dobby came by on Sunday as well, and she and I did more digging and clearing at this end of the garden – so I am really happy that it looks so much tidier. (I get overwhelmed when the garden goes a bit mad).

And I can spend the next little while planning what we will grow there – always an aspect of gardening that I really enjoy.

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