Garden – Page 14 – derrickjknight

Antipodean Blooms

On another very hot day Jackie drove me to the dentist this morning for a satisfactory routine check up. She waited in the car park. I knew it would be a short session. She said she would expect me in half an hour. In the event I was seen early. The session lasted ten minutes. I returned to the car at precisely my appointment time. The car was empty. Jackie had nipped off to Tesco in New Milton. I stood in the sunshine for ten more minutes, until she returned thinking she was early.

I then walked around the garden with my camera.

The Félicité Perpétue rose that I featured recently was on the Back Drive. This one stretches along the front eastern fence over a budding hydrangea and a cluster of geraniums.

In the front garden this pot of diascia has survived the winter.

Flowers are now appearing on the fuchsia Delta’s Sarah to blend with the blue campanula and white Erigeron beneath;

This peony, the alliums, and the geranium Rozanne, are all of complimentary hues.

This later flowering rhododendron dances along the Cryptomeria Bed.

Today’s representative roses are golden yellow Absolutely Fabulous, white Jacqueline du Pré; mauve/pink Gertrude Jekyll; white Madame Alfred Carrière, light yellow Summer Time; and pale pink New Dawn.

All in bloom concurrently in this aerial shot are

the spiky cordyline Australis, the white flowers of our eucalyptus, the yellow bottle brush plant, and the pendulous red lamps of the Chilean Lantern tree.

Ubiquitous day lilies proliferate.

Early this evening we all met Danni, Elizabeth, Ella and Jack to enjoy Mr Pink’s fish and chips on the beach at Milford on Sea, and a very good time was had by all.

Flo’s Fairy Garden

As the temperature continued to rise and no rain fell on yet another very hot day, Jackie and I were relieved that we managed our gardening tasks in the earlier part of the day. While she occupied herself watering and planting, I, inhaling the glorious scents of the roses, weeded and dead-headed.

This peony, clearly self-seeded and flowering for the first time, without the strength to lift its head from the Brick Path, stretched out from the weeded area of the Dead End Path Bed. Gave it a lift with a green tie.

On the opposite side of the lawn, suspended from the peeling eucalyptus, Jackie has planted a cluster of mesembryanthemums in a basket.

Clematises and a day lily claimed their own gallery,

while roses, Paul’s Scarlet, Ballerina, The Generous Gardener, Mum in a Million, Summer Wine, Rosa Glauca, Special Anniversary, Winchester Cathedral, Félicité Perpétue, and Compassion (all entitled in the gallery) warranted their own;

it was appropriate for Hot Chocolate to reach her peak on such a day.

Later, Flo put some finishing touches to her delightful Fairy Garden, which will reward enlargement by clicking on one of the pictures.

This evening we dined on roast chicken thighs seasoned with garlic; sautéed new potatoes with onions; crunchy carrots; firm cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts and flavoursome gravy, with which I drank Collin-Bourisset Fleurie 2021 and no-one else did.

Path Clearance

I spent much of the morning recovering the pictures to

A Knight’s Tale (47: Wedding And Honeymoon)

This really was a difficult task. None of the pictures was visible – although they were all in my systems I needed Wayback Machine to help me identify them and insert them in the right places. It looks to me as if this is the same for my whole Knight’s Tale series.

Last week, Martin, among other things, cleared weeds from the gravel

of the Oval Path.

Today he worked his way from the entrance to the Rose Garden,

past Florence sculpture at Fiveways,

and along the Gazebo Path. The gravel was raked at the end.

Our prolific rose, Ernest Morse, has been risking his life playing chicken across the Back Drive. Before getting out his kneeler our gardening friend began by tying back this rose which Jackie had bought along with his companion Doris Tysterman as weedy twigs about 6 years ago at Poundstretchers for the price of 49p each. At the end of the season, once these repeating blooms are over, the intention is to build a proper support for them.

Later, in order to submit a post for a request, I converted this post from Classic to Block edit:

The Stockpot

This evening we dined on oven fish, chips, and onion rings, pickled gherkins and onions, with which Jackie drank Diet Coke and I drank more of the Bordeaux.

Worth The Effort?

This afternoon, changing the category of the second to Garden, I converted these two posts from Classic to Block edits:

Scarecrows

The Name Of The Rose

Later I joined Jackie continuing watering and planting in the garden; my task was weeding and dead heading – she has provided me with a Helping Hand which enables me to reach sticky willies otherwise beyond my span.

I photographed a few roses to demonstrate that dead heading is worth the effort;

and a peony because I felt like it.

Hopefully the edit conversions are also worth the effort.

I am familiar with neither the sight nor sound of a hornet, so when Flo, at the first buzzing drone, dived under the dining table apparently shielding her daughter from an air raid, and Jackie cleared all food off the table as we began our meal of the mild curry leftovers, and went on the rampage with an insecticide spray, I didn’t react any more than I would at the sight of a bee or a wasp – on the premise that if you leave it alone, it will leave you alone – and our granddaughter, while the creature was sticking itself to the skylight above, and Mrs Knight was squirting toxic particles up at it, warned that it would land in my glass of Calvet Prestige Bordeaux 2020; suddenly, like a body thrown over a balcony onto a car below in a thriller movie, the writhing menace thumped onto the table beside the wine, to be scooped up by Jackie and tossed onto the patio – now named Rasputin, the creature refused to die and wriggles still as I draft this post.

Around The Patio Table

This afternoon, in order to help me respond to a questionnaire, I recovered missing pictures to the following post:

A Postillion Struck By Lightning

Wayback Machine was invaluable in this because there was not even an indication of missing pictures on the post.

After this I joined the others around the patio table where we enjoyed cold drinks and happy conversation.

I admired Jackie’s recent planting on the kitchen wall and along the path.

Ellie made the acquaintance of the garden pig which she refrained from putting into her mouth.

Following the kitchen path I also photographed the planting outside the stable door, and continued

past Sweet William in the Oval Bed

to the Rose Garden, focussing on yellow Absolutely Fabulous, and red Aloha.

It was now time for Ellie to be fed crême caramel by Flo

and scone with clotted cream by Becky.

Jackie produced chicken korma and chicken makhani with pilau rice for dinner this evening. She drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Fleurie.

Weeding Plants And Postage Stamps

Warmed by a climbing sun; my paths eased by Martin’s clearance work; ears soothed by sweet birdsong, occasionally accosted by raucous jackdaws; I dead headed roses and Welsh poppies and pulled up weeds this morning.

Before a trip to Ferndene Farm Shop this afternoon in order to buy three large bags of compost,

I photographed more flowers and garden views, each of which bears a title in the gallery.

Something else has gone digital is our postage stamps. I have been doing my best to ignore this leaflet from Royal Mail, but bit the bullet today and followed the instructions, filled in the form on the reverse, and posted to the recycling centre 32 first class stamps which will soon be regarded as weeds ready for composting. We are promised replacements bearing the relevant barcode.

Becky turned up just before dinner and stayed over.

We all dined on pizzas, salad, and sausage rolls our daughter brought with her. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Collin-Bourisset Fleurie 2021.

The Lavender Garden

This morning I updated the following post from Classic to Block edit:

After The Deluge 1

Jackie drove us all to Lavender Farm Gardens at Plaitford, near Salisbury, for lunch. What looked like a limited choice of menus turned out to be very good. Jackie enjoyed her paté and salad; my smoked mackerel and beetroot salad was excellent; as was Flo’s roast beef bagel; Dillon was pleased with his cheese pastry; Ellie helped herself to crisps off her mother’s plate, and was fed other suitable items, like some of her great grandmother’s paté.

Afterwards we each wandered around the gardens at our own pace.

This evening we all dined on tender roast chicken; sage and onion stuffing; crisp fried potatoes; crunchy carrots; and firm broccoli with which Jackie finished the Asahi and I finished the Malbec.

A New Visitor

Having already drafted yesterday’s post I joined the family on the patio chairs being entertained by Ellie in her bath, during which time I wandered off to have a look at Jackie’s planting from earlier in the day.

A creature that none of us recognised flew silently past my left ear and came to rest on a dry stem not yet removed from, appropriately enough, the Dragon Bed. Unusually, it remained long enough for me to return inside to collect my camera and to photograph it. In fact it remained in situ for much of the rest of the afternoon, circling those who disturbed it and returning to its chosen perch. Later research revealed our visitor to be a broad bodied female chaser – a dragonfly native to our New Forest.

Now I was grasping the camera I photographed a few flowers, each of which bears a title in the gallery.

This morning Jackie unclogged the Waterboy Fountain, and this

afternoon transferred the astrantia photographed yesterday in its pot to the soil in the Pond Bed.

Agriframes Destructions

After lunch I converted this post from Classic to Blocks edit and changed the category to Garden. I needed the assistance of Wayback Machine to identify missing photographs which I then traced in my iMac Photos, omitting rugby photos taken from the TV screen because they were not crucial to the post and I had had enough,

My gardening tasks today, partly this morning, partly this afternoon, involved dead heading and weeding.

I then photographed a batch of scenes which should put yesterday’s images into context. Again titles are with the galleries.

This set pictures the Rose Garden.

This evening we all dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent fare, with which Jackie, Dillon, and I shared Asahi beer.

Robin In Attendance

Jackie and I put in gardening stints early on another warm and sunny day, while Martin continued throughout the day.

Continuing my war with velcro-stemmed sticky Willy, I weeded and dead-headed a little.

Martin came to us on the recommendation of Jackie’s sister Helen. One of the last jobs he carried out for her included extracting a clump of geraniums from her front wall. She gave this clump to Jackie. Today

the Head Gardener separated this into individual plants and positioned them in the soil around the patio border – one can be seen at bottom left of the first two pictures in this gallery.

Accompanied by a pair of Nugget’s progeny

our gardening friend spent the day clearing and tidying more of the Rose Garden. Where’s Martin? (4) is the subject of the first in this gallery.

Here we have pink Festive Jewel with white Madame Alfred Carrière; magenta Roserie de l’Haie with yellow Laura Ford; white Winchester Cathedral; pink Schoolgirl before a yellow climber; pink Shropshire Lad beside Gloriana; peach Crown Princess Margareta; red thornless Zephirine Drouhin; a close up of Roserie de l’Haie; and bright red Altissimo.

This evening we all dined on succulent pork and apple sausages and creamy mash; flavoursome carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and tasty gravy with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Bardolino.

New Heights

Before lunch Jackie and I swung gently into our matutinal garden

tasks – planting in her case; weeding and dead-heading in mine.

The yellow Welsh poppies are in regular need of decapitation.

When I ventured out with my camera this afternoon I made sure to neglect neither the

clematis Montana cascading over the front wall nor the established pink climbing rose festooning the trellis.

One of the owls I righted a couple of days ago was returned to its perch alongside the Shady Path while another peeps round a clump of campanula alongside the daisy-like Erigeron.

Some peonies remain at their best while others bear sculptural seed heads.

Other clematises include the close-up Doctor Ruppel and the one I cannot name sharing its arch with a blue solanum. Magenta valerian is a focus of the Cryptomeria Bed; Leather leaf viburnum stands in shade beneath the copper beech; irises thrive in the West Bed; and these aquilegias are found in the Rose Garden, of which

these are further views, the last of which contains

both Gloriana and For Your Eyes Only.

Meanwhile Arthur Bell has reached new heights this year.

This evening we all dined on tender roast lamb; crisp Yorkshire pudding; boiled new potatoes; carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli al dente, and meaty gravy, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Moerbei.