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| If only you could smell them. |
I find myself this
morning sitting in our summer house on the finest of August mornings,
an absolutely
cloudless sky, checking the thermometer which is just by my shoulder
and in deep shade I see it reads 25c.
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| The common blue. |
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| A red admiral. |
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| Peacock butterfly. |
Our neighbours today
are harvesting their potatoes and have just returned with a trailer
load, one of many I suspect. Potato picking is very much a family
activity involving everybody from the youngest to the most senior
members. Children have to play their part as well (but maybe just
scrabbling around in the dirt is more fun for them than the hours of
back bending toil is for the adults.
The ground where we
grew our potatoes was so poor that we never really managed to grow
anything much bigger than a golf ball, and taking into account all
the hours of labour that went into the whole process, not to mention
walking the rows collecting colorado beetles by the dozen, we now
would pay a few Euros and buy from friends or neighbours. This has
given us more time to devote to the garden surrounding the house and
this is a constant source of pleasure.
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Mrs Chomdley clematis, she never
fails to impress. |
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| Oh the buzzing of the bees |
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| A rare sight, golden orioles tend to hide in the woods. |
Every day there is something
happening maybe it's a new bird come to visit, flowers coming into
bloom or just the butterflies settling on the brightest blooms. The
bees on the lavender have fascinated me, the lightest of insects
landing on a bloom and bending it to the ground or swinging in the
breeze and not taking any notice, so intent collecting all the
goodness the plant has to offer. With so many simple pleasures time
just slips away just watching, yes that sums it up “just watching”.
A friend sitting in the garden one day last week said “ To me this
is just paradise”.
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| Just a very few of our marigolds |
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The wheel came from Lithuania and the brugmaia from
the national botanical gardens. |
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| Pansies from a local market |
I guess this year has
been a year of appreciating many of the simple things, we so often
take for granted. Oh yes the hard work has to be put in if you want
to reap the benefit. In the spring we asked friends who were about
to visit if they would bring us some flower seeds, marigolds in
particular, this they kindly did and in due course I sowed them. The
packet said they would grow 20-30 cm high, after a while making a
little growth I planted them out not expecting to much. How wrong can
one be
they are exceptional growing
far in excess of the packet
description and our garden is filled with large patches of the
brightest colours from an almost lemon yellow through shades of
orange right down to a deep burnt orange. Every other day I take a
bucket and walk round dead heading, finish up with it almost full of
spent blooms and hundreds more to come.
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| Gazanias from our daughter, just starting to bloom |
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| A few more marigolds |
Our daughter sent us
some Gazania seed which are now in flower and just loving the hot
sunshine
Roses are another
plant that has done well this year, in fact just about everything has
done really well. But I will let you be the judge of that when you
see the pictures.
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| Phlox, delphiniums,day lilies,hostas and a whole lot more. |
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| Somewhere to sit and just watch |
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| Our new letter box . |
