I was grateful today for the overnight thunderstorm and for Jackie’s watering the parts it couldn’t reach early this morning before she and Shelly drove to Helen’s to offer sisterly assistance.
This meant I could concentrate on the dead-heading necessitated by the storm’s stripping of many petals. After more than an hour I retreated indoors with wobbly legs and wringing wet shirt to sit at the computer and apply myself to retouching two more of the images from my mother’s old album.
First I tackled my grandfather from c1926 at Conwy. Judging by the position of his hand I suspect he was holding a cigarette.
This photograph was probably taken in about 1919, before the marriage of my maternal grandparents, Annie and George Henry Hunter, who are the couple on the right.
These two images suggest that my grandfather was, like me, happier behind the camera.
After completing this work I returned to the garden,
where bees were very busy, being particularly partial to swarming over purple alliums and pink hebes.
Red geraniums, white marguerites, and pink hydrangeas produce an attractive bank on the front drive. Jackie is constantly thinning out the daisies so she has sufficient vision to her right when driving out.
A variety of day lilies continue to proliferate.
The last three day lily images are from the Kitchen Bed, also home to lysimachia Firecracker.
Pale pastel blue and white campanula spills over the Shady Path
from where we have views towards the house, and across the Palm Bed, among others.
This clematis Polish Spirit is nearby in the Dragon Bed.
From the stable door we look down the Gazebo path, and back from the agapanthuses coming into bloom in the Palm Bed.
Further garden views are afforded by the Rose Garden and the Phantom Path,
leading to the West Bed with its honesty and lilies.
Some time after Jackie returned home she drove out again for a Hordle Chinese Take Away meal which we enjoyed with Hoegaarden in her case, and more of the Fleurie in mine.
It’s amazing that second retouched photo is 100 years old – doesn’t time fly!! 🙂 Your garden long shots are chocolate box perfect!
Thanks very much, Pauline. The garden long shots are done with you in mind
Thank you I appreciate that and enjoy them very much 🙂
So photography may be a part of your bloodline.
You do wonders behind the camera.
Many thanks, Drew. It would seem so
All looking fab Derrick
🙂 Thanks a lot, Geoff
your house, your garden …. it’s a haven of peace, a little paradise
Thank you very much, Yoshimi
Happier behind the camera–I was going to comment on your grandfather’s scowl. 🙂 Marvelous work on the touch-ups. Your garden and home are just so beautiful. I know I say that all the time–but it’s true. Your photos are like a brochure for some wonderful place to visit.
Many thanks, Merril. That kind of repetition I can take 🙂
🙂
100 year old photo. So many memories saved. I love the journey you take us on.
Thank you very much, Gary. My cousin, Yvonne, who shares these grandparents, got in touch after I published an earlier post about her father, Ben. Having grown up in Manchester, she now lives in Spain.
I absolutely the second photo, Derrick. The young men look quite proud of their ladies. 🙂 The garden is so peaceful. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks very much, Jill. And, to think that tiny print is 100 years old
That’s really amazing, Derrick.
I love old photos. That’s great you have saved photos of your grand parents. Images of your garden are beautiful and colourful too.
Thanks very much, Rozina
You’re welcome ✨✨
Such a beautiful garden and I love the old photos 🙂
Thank you very much, Nikki. I have visited and enjoyed your blog, especially the Old Coach House post. Not sure my Follow was successful
I like that campanula a lot.
It is lovely. Thanks a lot, Tootlepedal
Your maternal grandparents and their friends posed quite artistically.
So good to see your profusion of bees with all the talk about a future dearth of bees.
Thanks very much, Nicki. That effort at composition may explain my grandfather’s expression
Beautiful!
Thanks very much, Leslie
I so envy you Derrick for this garden 🙂 Beautiful!
Thank you very much, Ribana
Love the old photos, Derrick. Your garden is so beautiful and shows all the loving care it enjoys.
Thank you very much, Sylvia
My mother was always banging on about the importance of dead heading. You’ve clearly been doing a sterling job. Amazing work too on the old photos.
Many thanks, Sheree. Some people prefer to leave the dead and dying alongside the new growth 🙂
I think your grandad was in the standard pose for the 1920s and 1930s male. We have exactly the same photograph of my dad’s dad in a park in Blackpool. The pose was later developed, of course, by Robert de Niro with his “You looking at me?” speech.
And thousands of sports team schoolboys. Thanks a lot, John
And your family today, and those for generations to come, will be blessed and grateful because you not only enjoy being behind the camera…you know how to use a camera to capture the most precious and beautiful photos! 🙂
You and Jackie and Little Nugget and the bees…you all work so hard to keep the garden looking so very beautiful!!! 🙂 I think all the flowers and plants and trees are smiling because of the good, tender-loving care they get!
Maybe in those two photos the sun was in your grandpa’s eyes…or he was waiting for someone to say “Say Cheese!” 😉 😀 I think he is handsome and the the two couples look happy to be together!
HUGS!!! 🙂
Very many thanks, Carolyn. Nugget and Grandpa would be pleased
I concur with JFWK – Your Grandad seems to have adopted ‘the’ pose for a young man about to have his photo taken as i have an almost identical one of my Father some time in the 40’s right down to the wide lapels and open necked shirt. 🙂
What a preponderance of purple profusion today, but i note with sadness that your poppies are now past their prime. 🙁
Agapanthus and bottle-brush – sounding very much like my city in our Summer. 🙂
Thanks very much, Bob
I don’t know lysimachia Firecracker but I think I like it. The photograph of your is fantastic. It is especially interesting because the angle of the pose is identical to the angle of your pose in your Gravatar. Have a look and see what I mean.
I have to confess I don’t know how to find my Gravatar!! Thanks very much, Paol
I love the campanula.
So do we, Susan. Many thanks
Like grandfather like grandson (referring to picture taking).
Your garden pics are fantastic!!
Thanks very much, Gary
Those garden shots are a dream. Are you going to be framing some of the pictures of your family. They really are wonderful.
Thanks a lot, Laurie. They are all going into an album for Mum
Nice!
It’s obvious a lot of love and attention goes into your backyard paradise.
Thanks very much, Cindy
Gramps certainly does look grumpy. 🙂
I just managed to refrain from that phrase 🙂 Thanks very much, Widders
😀
Another lovely old photo. The garden is looking beautiful Derrick.
Thank you very much, Sue
You live in a Fairytale cottage ! I half expect Helena Bonham Carter to wander by with cup of tea in hand 😀 Everything looks dreamy. You’re Grandfather and friends dressed pretty dapper for a day at the beach. Not big on smiling was he? Still, a snappy dresser ! Cheers xK
Thanks very much, Kelly. He was not a smiler 🙂
I was thinking the same thing about your grandparents and also, my father would have been 16 the year this was taken–closer to the age of your grandparents than your parents..Were you the eldest in your family? I was the youngest in mine and that might have accounted for that.
I was the eldest, Judy. Mum was born in 1922; I was born in 1942
So you were born when your mom was 20. I was born when my mom was 37!
🙂
Actually Mum was 19 when I was born (July-October)
This time of year there is hardly room to walk in the garden. It’s so gorgeous. Tasks like dead-heading must take up time, but the result is wonderful.
Thank you very much, Crystal
One of my favourite places to be is the Chicago Botanic Garden, and the spot I can be found is in the English Walled Garden. Still, yours far surpasses that haven
Thanks very much, Pleasant