In The Greenhouse

Reportedly only for a couple of days, the wind had stilled overnight. The day was dull and warmer, with very little rain.

Jackie spent much of the morning rescuing tossed pots and loosened climbers.

After lunch I gathered up numerous small broken branches, then cut the grass and produced a few pictures, one of which shows

the pieris between the Nottingham Castle bench and the planted chimney pot.

Florence enjoys this view across the lawn to North Breeze.

Jackie’s latest owl purchase remained safely perched on its log, surveying the view across the Dead End Path.

We also have aquilegias, violets, dicentras, peonies, and a few lingering camellias.

A number of blue irises grace the Weeping Birch Bed and elsewhere.

Some plants, like the osteospermums in the Cryptomeria Bed have suffered from wind burn.

The Gazebo Path; and the Dragon and Palm Beds have recovered well.

Jackie spent much of the afternoon potting up in the greenhouse, where she was decorated with libertia reflections.

Later I scanned the next seven of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations to Charles Dickens’s “Nicholas Nickleby”.

‘Mr Tix transferred his admiration to some elegant articles of wearing apparel, while Mr Scaley proceeded to the minute consideration of a pimple on his chin’

‘The two combatants chopped away until the swords emitted a shower of sparks’ is a typical balanced depiction of action from Mr Keeping.

‘There bounded onto the stage a little girl in a dirty white frock who turned a pirouette’. Nothing less than a full page would suffice for her.

In ‘Two strong little boys were dragging the phenomenon in different directions as a trial of strength’, Mr Keeping has shown how balance is maintained by their planted stances.

To depict the distance between the higher admirer and the performer on stage in ‘The warmth of her reception was mainly attributable to a most persevering umbrella in the upper boxes’ the artist has used the different levels of the double spread.

‘Lord Verisoft threw himself along the sofa in order to bring his lips nearer to the old man’s ear’

In ‘ We come on a mission, Mrs Nickleby’ ‘ the success of the smarmy flattery is clearly apparent.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty liver and bacon; firm boiled potatoes and carrots; and tender cabbage and runner beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

91 comments

  3. using the blue irises as a guide \I’d guess you’re about a week ahead of us right now; but then you do live int he tropics…

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  5. I’m surprised everything held up so well with that wind. Ours usually dries out and an emergency watering has to be done.

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  9. Jackie seems to have taken on magical qualities in your header image, with the delicate scattering of Libertia – you have both certainly worked wonders in your beautiful garden.
    It’s lovely how colours are so much richer after rain.
    Your aquilegias are a week or so ahead of ours – and our Iris’ are still in tight bud!

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  10. I’m glad you weathered the stormy weather. So far all we’ve had is nonstop rain.
    I swear that deep pink peony was smiling!

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  11. I love the image of Jackie with reflected libertia, too! Very pretty 🙂 I’m sorry there was so much clearing up to do. There is more wind forecast for some of us tomorrow as well!

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  14. How wonderful to see Jackie decorated with libertia reflections and that you were paying close attention to be able to share this delight with us. I enjoyed looking over Florence’s shoulder.

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  18. Another chilly 1’C morning here, but the autumn sky is vividly bright blue and clear, and the day is gradually warming up, it will probably a reach a sunny 19’C … and your glorious garden photos are definitely appreciated and appropriate on this lovely Sunday here in Geelong ..

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  21. Garden appears fully serviced and ready to be photographed. I was looking for the newly installed bench near Florence but it appeared in a picture below —it looks inviting. The photos of flowers and Jackie’s grayscale portrait in the greenhouse are marvellous. I was not expecting you to do scanning today and yet Mr Keeping abound joyfully in the latter half of the post.

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    1. Thank you very much, Uma. The pigeons have already blessed the new bench. I try to keep up with the illustrations as I read the book. Bad weather means more reading 🙂

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  22. I have read about the strong winds experienced in your part of the world. We have had strong gusts that snapped electrical cables, but they were over after only a day. The two of you have done a marvellous job of getting the garden to rights afterwards.

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  24. Despite the weather, your garden looks beautiful. No doubt this time, the photo/header of Jackie wins. I love the delicate reflections decorating her.

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  25. I heard it was supposed to be windy but none arrived here. I’m sorry about the work it created for you and Jackie and hope that is an end to it now. I’m glad your own survived on its perch.

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          1. If you’re a computer I think the symbol for degrees is CTRL + 167 (using the numbers on the right next to the letter keys). I haven’t got the degree symbol on my phone, which is a surprising omission, I think.

          6. Thanks again. The link is useful, but I’m still not managing to press 4 keys simultaneously – I’ll get someone younger to try and teach me

  27. The views of the gardens are beautiful, Derrick and Jackie! I am glad the storm did not do much damage, though it did create extra work for you both. That is a beautiful contemplative photo of Jackie in black and white. The images of flowers are impressed on her, a lovely effect, and I am guessing this photo was taken through the glass?

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  29. We are in day four of high winds. I solider on even with them. Your gardens are beautiful. I did not get any pictures or ours because it was so windy it just blurred.

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    1. I’m so pleased you fully appreciate him. In fact he died soon after these were published. We are lucky he managed so many. Thanks very much, Dolly

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