Freebies in the Garden

During Spring and summer many colourful little visitors favour us with their presence in the garden. 

I love the many Papaver somniferum - Opium poppies seen in the garden this year. They are stately, very robust, and have great structure. Their seeds are edible and can be used in cakes and sprinkled on homemade bread. 
I am not sure how they arrived - possibly they were carried here on the wind, but I think that it is most likely that they came courtesy of some birds.

More free colour is supplied by the Meadow Crane's-Bill which is a member of the Geranium family.

There seems to be a significant increase in the bee population this year which is very pleasing.

These Common Spotted Orchids grow as individual flowers in the grasslands that surround our home, but here they have formed a clump and found themselves a home in the middle of a large Phormium tenax - New Zealand flax plant that I have growing in a huge pot.

There are lots of these Meconopsis cambrica - Welsh poppies, which have been in flower continuously since the early Spring.

Plenty of wild Aquilegia vulgaris - Columbine - they tend to hybridise with my cultivated ones and produce a variety of different colours.

At this time of year there is a bountiful show of pink and white Foxgloves gracing the bottom of our hedgerow which are also much loved and visited by the bees.

Not all of the wild plants that arrive are welcome, but all of these are.

June in the Garden

I have long admired the splendid Italianate rill and water channels at Buscot designed for Lord Farrington by the Edwardian Garden Designer, Harold Peto. 
Walking the rill takes you down a couple of flights of stone steps from the house,

 past this delightful playful dolphin and putti water feature, 

across this manicured stretch of lawn, and over a small bridge, until you eventually reach the lake.
This is just a taster of what is yet to come as soon we are heading off in a slightly different direction to view the garden designed by Harold Peto for himself.

Everything in our garden is currently growing like 'topsy'.

Today we have planted up the hanging baskets, and lots of tubs with various geraniums. I have made, what I am hoping, will be a blue flower pyramid. I have used some homegrown Ipomoea seedlings - heavenly blue 'morning glories' along with some bright blue Convolvulus seedlings - 'royal ensign'. Fingers crossed that they will mature and become established before any hungry creatures come visiting the garden.

'By Jove it's cold out there!'

During the night Jack Frost spread his icy fingers across the garden and left a dusting of powdery white.

When the sun hangs low in the eastern sky,

Caught in the trees that shiver shy,

Red as the robin that flits nearby,

Sing hey, for a frosty morning!

When the lane is a-glitter beneath our feet,

Powdered with crystal, delicate, sweet, 

And the quiet pond is a silver sheet,

Sing hey, for a frosty morning!

Come out, come out, while the sky is red,
over the crunching fields to tread,

Ere the frost in the kindling sun lies dead,
Sing, hey for a frosty morning!
Enid Blyton

No going out on a cold frosty day for me.......

photos were all taken from inside.

Indian Summer

Each golden day must be cherished to the full, for one has the feeling that each must be the last. 

Elizabeth Enright

The perfect weather of Indian Summer lengthened and lingered, warm sunny days were followed by brisk nights with Halloween a presentiment in the air.

Wallace Stegner

"Indian summer comes gently, folds over the hills and valleys as softly as the fall of a leaf on a windless day."

Gladys Taber

".....and all at once, summer collapsed into fall."

Oscar Wilde

"By all these lovely tokens September days are here With summer's best of weather

And autumn's best of cheer."

Helen Hunt Jackson

"One can follow the sun, of course, but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter, too, so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received."

Beatriz Williams

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Addendum

I planted a fruit pip outside in the garden almost 20 years ago which has grown into a fairly substantial tree with large leathery leaves. Possibly as a result of the long hot summer, and now our Indian Summer, it has decided to bloom for the first time. Although the flowers are not appealing the fragrance is lovely and is attracting much attention from the local bee population. Apparently this is the tree's normal flowering period, and presumably if it was growing in its natural habitat with mild weather on the horizon rather than facing our looming winter, then it would set and bear some fruit.

When I had a visit earlier this year from Wendy, an Australian blogger, she said "gosh is that a ...... tree you have growing there", and she was correct. Do you know what the name of this tree is?

High Summer 2018

The heatwave over the past three months without any rain to speak of has changed our landscape from its usual lush greenness into something that resembles coconut matting. 

I miss our green landscape, and our garden is slowly withering away on the vine. Admittedly some plants are happy - we were sent 50 free Geranium plugs earlier in the year which are now looking magnificent even without rain. The fig tree is heavily laden and large bunches of grapes are busily ripening.

The seed pods of Honesty - Lunaria annua are ready to be harvested and prepared for vases - don't delay, do it now. Should we happen to receive some rain then it is very likely that the resultant moisture will turn the silver sheath within the seed pods black. 

Seed pods early summer

Freshly picked from the garden, and admittedly not looking very inspiring. 

This year there is no need to dry them by hanging them upside down, mother nature has already completed that task for you.
Hold a seed pod by the stem or the small projection at the opposite end, and gently peel off one side at a time revealing the pods silver sheath and seeds within.

A little time and patience, and you will be rewarded with some elegant bunches of 'silver dollars' with which to decorate your homes.

Buscot

During this season of blossom and renewal I am reminded of the words used by A.E. Housman in A Shropshire Lad, written as a young man of twenty at a time when seventy was considered to be good.
"Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room".
These thoughts are a gentle reminder of how time is of the essence and every moment so precious.
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The weather has been perfect, and we have been making the most of it following what felt like a very long confinement during the winter months.
A visit to Buscot Park for a stroll along the water rill designed by Harold Peto for Lord Faringdon at the beginning of the c20th was our choice of destination. There was plenty of welcome dappled shade beneath the canopy of fresh green growth on the trees.

Buscot is surrounded by parkland, a formal walled garden, and has many magnificent vistas.

The steps leading down to the water rill and the lake beyond always pleases and provides a source of anticipation.

Having now reached the lake, I also discovered when back at home, that it was also the end of the line as far as using the computer was concerned. I could not finish this post or export photos - was it blogger or the computer?

Previously I have solved problems sometimes with wise advice from eldest son, but I was finding things far too complicated to solve via a long distance phone call. Everything I tried led me down a different dark pathway with no light at the end. The machine was taken away, and has only just now returned. It appears that my Apple Mac is not the junior I thought it was but is really past it's retirement date. Obsolescence is built into them from the minute you bring them home. I am not sure how things stand at the moment as problems are still being encountered. I may be absent for some time during the foreseeable future.

Friday 4th May

I made a promise for tomorrrow, but I need a good bright day in order to fulfil it. I am keeping all of my fingers crossed and will let you know the outcome within the next few days.

Today is perfect, here's hoping it continues, but in the meantime enjoy some blossom from our garden.

Lots of wild flowers growing in our garden including some pretty yellow cowslips - one of which appears to have hybridised and turned from yellow into red!