All Neat And Tidy

On another warm and sunny day Jackie continued the

refurbishment of the Westbrook Arbour begun yesterday.

Apart from recording the event and carrying out a little dead-heading of Welsh poppies I cleared up some of Jackie’s weeding and pruning which I added to the compost, being careful not to cover Félicité Perpétue, the splendid climber providing a scented canopy to the degrading material.

I wandered around the various paths seeking trugs filled with the garden refuse. The Brick Path was viewed from beside the Westbrook Arbour; the second image takes us from the Weeping Birch towards the Rose Garden; the third contains the house seen from the Shady Path – the Chilean lantern tree is on the left and pink pelargoniums hang from the baskets on the right. The larger picture takes us from the concrete patio towards the Rose Garden.

The large portrait image here leads from the shadows of Fiveways towards the Rose Garden. Accessing the gallery by, as usual, clicking on any image will facilitate enlargement and reveal further descriptions of the contents.

Her task complete, Jackie gleefully reclined on the bench now free of plentiful guano and surveyed the rest of her creations.

From her vantage point she could look down the Phantom Path towards Florence sculpture with the Agriframes Arch on the left supporting clematis Dr Ruppel and red rose Super Elfin; and the two-toned rhododendron on the right. She could look to her left and view the section of the garden leading to the home of our neighbours in Mistletoe Cottage.

I have to confess that I took the last two photographs above before removing Jackie’s neatly stacked garden tools. Knowing that she prefers pictures to be devoid of evidence of labour and that she had made the Arbour all neat and tidy, it seemed only fair to reciprocate for the post. To my mind the tools tell part of the story, but my wife is, after all, the Head Gardener.

This evening we dined on a takeaway meal provided by Forest Tandoori. We shared crispy popadoms, onion bahjis, and a plain paratha. My main choice was king prawn jalfrezi with fried rice; Jackie’s was chicken biriani. Mrs Knight drank Hoegaarden and I drank Benguela Bay Shiraz 2018. We couldn’t eat it all so some of the leftovers will supplement tomorrow’s fare.

85 comments

  1. I always like to have leftovers.
    Jackie, your hard work is very apparent by the clean paths and prospering foliage. Bravo! A bow is warranted from the Head Gardener!

  2. I so enjoy perusing your wonderful montages, Derrick. And as others have noted, the image of Jackie beaming from her bench is a most appreciated highlight! I will second GP’s Bravo.

  3. You and Jackie truly have a beautiful garden.
    I used to enjoy a nice red Shiraz but it doesn’t like me these days. My face turns purple. I still drink other red wines though.

  4. I must say Derrick, the Head Gardener’s creations are looking more sparkling and colourful today, glittering like a fairies mystical forest.. ?✨

  5. I have never minded the signs of labour being in photos – it adds to the story. However I understand Jackie’s preference for the impeccable garden – that’s the one that makes the chocolate box lid after all and is an absolute delight to view. And the particular shot in question has the tools so impeccably arranged who would think they weren’t supposed to be there? 🙂 And Jackie admiring her creation – just fabulous. Print that one out and frame it for sure!

    Now, today while biggifying Derrick I made a discovery. The photos in the gallery appear to be smaller than the photos on the post. (Which are on the whole, delightfully big and clear.) Double clicking doesn’t give us any further enlargements – so just as well you haven’t included any tricky ‘Where’s Nugget’ searches!

    1. Thanks very much, Pauline – for the solidarity with us both, and for the biggfying tip. It looks as if I should ensure that tricky ones are single images.

    2. I take it that you are clicking on the gallery and then scrolling down to show the titles and the box bottom right. The bottom of the box, under the technical gubbins’ has a ‘view full size’ to click on. Then it should have the magnifying glass appear, I have noticed that this sometimes takes bit of time to appear, so you have to wait, I thought at first that it was not allowing me to biggify, but it will after a while.

  6. I love the photo of the happy Head Gardener and the winding pathways of your endeavors. You two make a great team.

  7. Great photo of Jackie. She looks very happy. I like an impeccable garden, but I also delight in seeing the occasion bit of evidence that it takes work to make it that way. Yours is just lovely.

  8. The inner calling of a Head Gardener juxtaposed with the heart of a photographer. The tidiness is redolent of hard work and its fruits.

  9. I learnt another new word! Never heard of a “trug” but a quick look at Amazon revealed it to be a type of basket, I would think its origins are in “trough” perhaps, given the shape.

  10. Oh, Jackie and Derrick! Wonderful work and tender-loving-care…both of you! Your gardening and your photoing are the bestest! 🙂 Neat and tidy requires hard work, but always worth it! 🙂

    If the flowers are reading this, I have to say to them…you flowers are all beautiful…but you pale in comparison to beautiful Jackie and her amazing smile!!! 🙂

    Aren’t leftovers fun! Something to look forward to for the next meal! 🙂
    (((HUGS))) 🙂

  11. Jackie, the garden is looking splendid. Its not surprising that Derrick is so proud of you and your hard work in this beautiful garden.

  12. Your garden is aMAZEing!! It just gets prettier all the time. But tell me, Derrick, “crispy popadoms, onion bahjis, and a plain paratha.” …. what in the world are you eating?

    1. Standard Indian food: Poppadoms (fried in oil) are like plate sized thin crisps; onion bahjis are balls of onion strips fried in batter; paratha is a large flat bread rather like my mother’s potato cakes.

          1. Yes, I agree. Our little Montana town offers little beyond our ethnic borders. We miss the Thai, Indian, and good Italian restaurants we had in CA.

  13. The arbour looks great – and of course I am glad you can now sit down without fear of ruining your trousers!

  14. Jackie looks gleeful indeed and rightfully so. The garden is impeccable although I do agree that some reference to the hard work is not bad from time to time like leaving garden tools in one of the snaps like you did.

  15. I noticed that reading your posts is a bit tougher on ipad but in contrast the pictures look fantastic and can be blown up properly for viewing all the details which is not possible when browsing through the gallery photos on my laptop.

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