Spotlights

General garden maintenance this morning included Jackie’s replanting of the

Iron Urn consisting of pansies underplanted with purple tulips, having replaced the root-bound soil; and much more clipping, chopping, and bagging of wayward shrubs.

The winter pansies now blend well with the pale purple colchicums or autumn crocuses, phlox, and Japanese anemones while contrasting with Puerto Rico dahlias.

Pelargoniums and lobelias hang happily over the Pond Bed with its Japanese maples, neighbours to

red and white dahlias.

Japanese anemones,

many attracting hoverflies. continue to proliferate.

The hoverflies enjoy other flowers such as this rain-freckled pale pink rose; you will probably need to access the gallery and bigify the ginger lily to spot its fly, but perhaps not the bluebottle on the tiny diascia.

Numerous happy plantings like pelargoniums and sweet peas; eucalyptus with suspended petunias and cascading bidens; and fuchsia Delta’s Sarah with more pelargoniums continue to produce.

Further fuchsias include the red and purple Mrs Popple and the delicate white Hawkshead;

most petunias also hang from baskets.

Yellow antirrhinums have bloomed non-stop since early spring; many sweet peas persist; pieris produces red leaves.

The sun spotlights mossy stones at the edge of the Gazebo Path.

We now have so many full garden refuse bags that Jackie tried to book the one permitted half hour slot at the recycling centre. This, of course, can only be done on line. There are none available for the rest of the month; more distant appointments will be ‘posted soon’.

Later in the afternoon we carried out extensive watering.

Unfortunately I submitted yesterday’s post without realising that I had omitted the virgin beef pie picture, with the result that those who viewed it first will not have seen the complete rudbeckia bas relief. That has now been rectified by the inclusion of the original, and here is an image of today’s second serving. We have consumed the stem and most of the leaves, and despite the small shark emerging from the right of the crust, no marine animals were harmed in the making of this production.

With this delicious pie we enjoyed boiled new potatoes, crunchy carrots and, cauliflower, tender green beans, and tasty gravy; Jackie drank Hoegaarden while I started on another bottle of the Bordeaux.

77 comments

  1. Die blauwe vlieg en wesp bewonderde ik nog even en me antwoord over de pie was weg. Ik zal er over bloggen met foto’s en het recept van me groententaart … ik gooi er een spinazie pizza boven op van dr. Oetker, gewoon een eenvoudige pizza, omdat ik gebruik en opmaak, wat ik in huis heb … Het is veel werk, maar dan heb je ook wat. De Afhaal Chinees vult … , met grote stappen, vlug thuis … , maar echt lekker vind ik het niet …
    Ik ga me best doen. * http://www.friedabblog.wordpress.com * Amsterdam, 13 september 2020, 21.25 uur, Hollandse tijd …

  2. I got a kick out of that slightly cross-eyed owl nestled in with the sweet peas! haha, he looks content!

    You are so lucky having such a head gardener AND master chef in the house!

  3. As ever, your garden is a glorious proliferation of flowers. It would be delightful to walk through, especially along that spot lit path.
    I love the shark in the pie! I made pie last night too: spinach and cheese, with spinach from the garden, the first cropped from my mad rush to grow veg at the beginning of the pandemic.

  4. That is an impressive stack of garden waste. I hope that you can get a slot at the recycling centre before too long or you may disappear for ever if Jackie is doing more tidying.

  5. Shaman shape shifters have always been a topic of interest of mine. Now I can say I have witnessed the journey of a lowly leaf into one of the ocean’s most successful predators. Oh, and the owl is very cute.

  6. I was going to compliment you and Jackie on all the hard work you’ve done to prepare your gardent for its winter rest, but I got totally districted by the pastry shark.

  7. That pie looks just as good as I imagined it. And that slight flaky quality to the pastry…..Well, that’s the road to perfection in the world of pies.
    The next stage will be Cornish Pasties with decoration along the seam where the two halves come together.

  8. Oh wow Derrick, it’s nearly dinner time here in Geelong, 5.15pm, and the photo of delicious virgin beef pie, looks absolutely scrumptious… now I’m hungry.. !!

  9. HA! That sneaky shark! Trying to hide! You caught him! 😉
    Good to see the insects a’buzz and the flowers so happy! 🙂
    Purple is my fav colour so whenever you show your various shades of purple flowers that makes me giddy! 🙂
    I love how the sun spotlights different things at different times…so beautiful in the garden.
    I enjoy being an owl seeker…always looking for owls in your photos and happy when I find one! 😉
    HUGS!!!
    PS…How is your Mum doing? I think of her often and wish her well.

  10. What a joyfully colorful profusion of various flowers!
    A propos of small sharks, during our brief getaway to the Keys, while my husband was fishing for our dinner, the man next to him hooked a small shark, not much bigger than those snappers. The baby was sent to mama with a message to stay away from our territory.

  11. Mmmm… that pie is beautiful – I can almost taste it! Love your flower power, Derrick… especially the pale purple colchicums. The garden continues to delight and change as summer wanes and autumn knocks on our garden door!

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