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Early this morning our septic tank was cleared. This happens every eighteen months, and Jackie always feels better when it is done.
Knowing we were in for a hot spell, Jackie undertook extensive watering. My tasks involved the eradication, cutting up, and bagging of niggling nettles, invasive ivy, bothersome brambles, and thrusting thistles.
This afternoon we spent much of the time seated on the patio with guests. First Margery and Paul came to lunch, then Helen came bearing birthday presents for Jackie for tomorrow.
Naturally the garden was a focal point.
Here are two views of the Gazebo Path.
In the Rose Garden, Just Joey
and Winchester Cathedral have joined the other attractions;
Margery, however, registered a protest at the number of foxgloves permitted therein.
She was, however, pleased to find a poppy in her Bed.
Compassion rose now proliferates above the Dead End Path.
Here is a smaller version of Sweet William that the one previously featured.
The leaves of this variety of poplar are delightful at this time of the year.
As promised, viper’s bugloss does attract bees,
as do geranium palmatums
and the still burgeoning bottle brush plant.
The strong sunlight gives the Florence sculpture the air of The Woman in White, Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel’s musical based on the novel by Wilkie Collins, that was playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre when I photographed it in September 2004.
Among the selection of presents Helen brought was a bag of Alpaca Poo, a garden fertiliser apparently unpleasant to rats.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome beef in red wine with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and carrots, served with swede and potato mash. Jackie drank Peroni and I drank Reserve des Tuguets madiran 2014.