Friday 25 May 2018

Chasing my tail










It has been a particularly good year for hawthorn







and pink campion.







The foxcubs - there are three this year 
don't be fooled by this tender only-child scene -
have trampled happily over most of the emerging plants in the garden,
but the runner beans have a bamboo barricade 
which has survived their predations, 
think.
I'd better go and check.




Yes. It's working.
And while I was out there I managed a little garbage collection.
The new game is scattering other people's refuse
all over the garden.
We have a handy new recycling system which separates out
the food waste into smaller bins for the foxes' better convenience.

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Reality check



We've been enjoying some beautiful gardens.
This one at Scotney Castle


with its stunning display of acers, azaleas






and rhododendrons






and of course Sissinghurst too with
the white wisteria just opening.





I took note of a pairing of smoke bush


and alliums, underplanted with a pale pink persicaria 
and thought I could do something similar at home.


But the fox cubs had other ideas.
These are the ones I salvaged.

 I thought of Freda and her deer-munched tulips
and all the other people working against the clock, the climate and the critters
to get their gardens ready for public display this summer.




Thursday 10 May 2018

Faux Fair Isle Fail


I was very taken by the idea that I could use a wool
that would knit Fair Isle all by itself,
according to the lady in the shop.
I have attempted the real thing and it's time consuming, fiddly
and rather too warm with the double layer of loops at the back of the work.
I needed a quick project that would be off the needles before
grand-daughter went away on her holiday.
Planes can be chilly even though her destination isn't.
So I embarked on a hooded jumper with pom poms
excited to see how this would work.


Hmm. Nice stripes with the merest suggestion of alternate stitch colour change
but Fair Isle it ain't.
For the real thing you could do no better than to visit this clever person.


Luckily grand-daughter likes it a lot
and wore it with the hood up on quite a warm day
until we both agreed that she was getting a bit too hot.

Monday 7 May 2018

Hold the front page




This Bank Holiday weekend delivered spring and early summer
all rolled into one glorious extravaganza.


The beach,


deserted and sandy for once, raked of its usual shingle layer.


Wisteria.


Rhododendrons.


Azaleas.



Other people's gardens,


open to the public under the National Garden Scheme.



Walks, with dodgy overgrown footpaths
and equally dodgy directions from an ancient guide book
but a bonus discovery


of an abandoned orchard, like a scene from The Secret Garden


with a mysterious gazebo in the middle of nowhere.


 Foliage colour to rival that of autumn
but with added zing and zest,


and finally, a rare treat, the handkerchief tree 
Davidia involucrata in flower
to wave us on our way home.