Oh the birds and the bees

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.

The common blue.

A red admiral.

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.

Mrs Chomdley clematis, she never
fails to impress.

Oh the buzzing of the bees

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”.

Just a very few of our marigolds

The wheel came from Lithuania and the brugmaia from
the national botanical gardens.

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.

Gazanias from our daughter, just starting to bloom

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.

Phlox, delphiniums,day lilies,hostas and a whole lot more.

Somewhere to sit and just watch

Our new letter box .