The Last Of The Summer Wine?

As a break from working on the garden album, I took a wander around.

Clematis Campaniflora

In the front, the tiny clematis Campaniflora quivers in the breeze, festooning the shrubs outside the window. The sepals of this plant just about span my thumbnail.

Foxgloves

In the bed opposite lies perhaps autumn’s biggest surprise. Foxgloves, we understand, flower once, drop their seeds, then die. This one’s giant spiralling stem bloomed all summer, rebuffing the gale force winds we experienced. All these new flowers are gathered on spurs from the original. What could be going on?

Mimulus

Mimuluses still abound. These are just outside the kitchen door.

Today’s offerings from the rose garden are:

Rose Festive Jewel

Festive Jewel,

Rose Summer Wine

and, could this be the last of the Summer Wine?

This afternoon an engineer from Premier Electrics called to fix the washing machine. Given that I only phoned them at 11.30 a.m. and the job was done by 4.00 p.m. we were rather impressed with the service. Their number had been gleaned from Village Voice, the Milford on Sea community magazine.This was a good result because Jackie had been wondering whether we would be able to get the sheets washed, and I was concerned lest I run out of underpants.

This evening we dined on a massive mushroom omelette, chips, and baked beans. We both drank sparkling water.

25 comments

    1. Thank you Pauline. You must have known my grandmother who always cautioned the preparedness for ‘an accident’. Mind you, when she used that phrase, I always thought it wouldn’t matter if they were already dirty.

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  3. Love the name Summer Wine, (reminds me of the song), the colour of the rose and its fading beauty.
    I believe you can hand wash your clothes?

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  4. The faint smell of roses. Smiling at an underwear joke. And mental images of a mushroom (and cheese) omelette. Seriously, dude, this is quality entertainment. Gracias 🙂

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  5. Ah, Derrick, everything is here. Beauty (those speckled yellow things…), wondrous service, a good laugh, and priceless comments. May your garden grow long and well!

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  6. All of this joking is theoretical and for naught…obviously your washing machine has been repaired and your cache of clean underpants is safe. You will not need to feel like the last rose of summer….

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  7. Your dinner sounds lovely, your pictures are beautiful and I am happy to hear you did not run our of underpants!!! 🙂 love your posts as I too am an avid gardener but alas, it is below freezing at night here in Maine so my gardening days are done for this year, nothing left to do outside but pull up the freeze killed plants and put away the garden tools and get ready to start browsing the seed catalogs that will be arriving in the mail box any time now! I have a long cold winter to spend planning next years gardens… a thought to keep warm with! much peace to you and yours… Michelle

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  8. At our previous residence, we had a beautiful cluster of clematis. Yet fall is the time of withering … which is it’s own beauty. …. and if you run out of underpants, go commando. Hi Derrick!

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