bees – Page 2 – derrickjknight

A Fly In His Eye

With the day growing steadily warmer and sunnier, Jackie began seeking stems for plant cuttings, continuing this afternoon, when I raked clippings, leaves, and twigs from gravel paths and added two more empty compost bagfuls to the heap for the next dump trip.

I made a start on reading John Prebble’s history of Culloden, then wandered around the garden with my camera.

Each of these random photographs, some featuring the various flying insects flitting about, bears a title in the gallery.

This evening we dined on a variety of Subway’s excellent fresh and tasty sandwiches, followed by berry strudel and vanilla Cornish ice cream, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Bordeaux. Afterwards we sampled Lyme Bay Winery Traditional Mead.

Picture Resizing Problem Possibly Partially Resolved

Jackie set today’s theme by producing a quartet of bees on a sunflower.

Encouraged by these and, although I have not yet received confirmation of the completion of my WordPress images rescue from Peacock’s who are still working on the task,

I wandered round the garden to add a few – on sedums, zinnias, cosmos, and Japanese anemones. Many other flowers were graced with the presence of pollen gatherers on this warm, overcast, afternoon, but I thought it best not to push my luck without confirmation.

It looks as if new pictures are automatically resized, although older ones are not.

Shelly popped in with an Ellie present later, and was happy to hold her great-great-niece.

This evening we dined on wholesome Shepherd’s Pie; crunchy carrots; firm Brussel’s sprouts; piquant cauliflower cheese; tender cabbage; and tasty gravy. Jackie drank Hoegaarden; I drank more of the Shiraz; Flo and Dillon drank fruit cordial.

Wash Day

This morning, in order to show a positive aspect of the hot weather, Jackie photographed Wash Day at Downton.

She then cut my hair.

After lunch I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2022/08/07/a-knights-tale-147-ten-hours-at-the-wheel/

Later, I carried out a dead-heading session and

photographed a few flowers which bear their titles in the gallery. Bees were quite busy, although the first one was clearly sheltering beneath the zinnia petals. A number of seeds, such as those alongside the deep red backlit petunia, were blown in the air.

While I was uploading these pictures Flo and Dillon set out on a watering and planting session.

This evening we dined on chicken breasts marinaded in Nando’s lemon and lime sauce; Jackie’s savoury rice cooked in my chicken sauce; and tender green beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden, Flo and Dillon drank water, and I drank Signargues Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2020.

Busy Bees, Hummingbird Moths, Decorator, And Gardeners

Today Nick continued with his painting of our bedroom and upstairs sitting room walls;

Jackie continued weeding, alongside Martin

who heavily pruned a couple of New Zealand flax plants and an ornamental poplar before mowing the lawn carpeted with daisies which will return in a few days.

In the meantime I photographed two other breeds of hard workers also struggling with the heat – namely

hummingbird moths on pelargoniums,

and bees on yellow bottle brush and mauve verbena bonariensis.

While I was at it I photographed a few more flowers which bear titles in the gallery.

This evening we dined on slow roasted pork with crunchy crackling; crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; al dente cauliflower, carrots and broccoli, with meaty gravy. Jackie and Ian drank Hoegaarden, Becky finished the Portuguese Rosé, Flo drank elderflower cordial, and I drank more of the Côtes du Rhône.

21 Chestnut Road

This afternoon we visited another NGS garden – 21 Chestnut Road, Brockenhurst.

This is my selection of photographs;

here are Flo’s. As usual each of these images bears a title in the galleries.

This evening we dined at Lal Quilla where the food and service was as good as ever. Jackie’s main course was Lal Quilla Special, Flo’s was Lamb Biriani, and mine was Chicken Jaljala. We shared pilau rice, sag paneer, egg paratha, and peshwari Nan. Jackie and I drank Kingfisher, while Flo drank J2O.

Swarms Of Moths

This morning I stepped out in the very warm sunshine with my camera. In the front garden the crab apple blossoms and the first of the libertia are blooming; the Amanogawa cherry reaches above the eaves; and some of our cyclamen still flower.

The yellow and red tulips in the patio bed which have taken some time to open fully have stretched for the kiss of the sun; Erigeron clambers beside the kitchen door. The red Japanese maple shows its colour; all our camellias remain laden with blooms. Shadows fall across the paths; a glass robin’s breast glints in the light; the chair in the Weeping Birch bed awaits a visitor; all but the broken stem of the last year’s New Zealand flax stand proud against the blue sky; Florence sculpture looks back towards the house; aubretia spills over the rocks bordering the Gazebo Path.

Tulipa Lilac Wonder has yet to welcome the sun’s rays. Bumble bees lumber among the yellow lamium. The Waterboy offers liquid refreshment.

This afternoon could even be described as hot. The Lilac Wonders now opened wide, as did more varieties; bluebells proliferate; Autumn sculpture enjoys a little shade. The carved owl we bought on our recent visit to Hockey’s now stands at the feet of Florence sculpture.

We were treated to swarms of hummingbird moths, hardly bigger than the forget-me-not blooms that they favoured.

This evening we dined on Mr Pink’s fish and chips, mushy peas, and pickled onions, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Shiraz.

Today’s Hobbyhorses

Our extended Indian summer continues.

Early this morning the three of us spent some time in the garden where I photographed

a number of blooms, the names of which are all included in the galleries. The blue Morning Glories only flowered for the first time last week. Bees are still plundering the cosmoses.

After this we shopped at Ferndene Farm Shop, and continued on a forest drive.

Pigs and their piglets scurried across the road at Pilley. Louise, who lives in the house on the corner seen beyond the scene including porkers, a Shetland pony and a walker, stood for while at the gate flagging down motorists to point out the piglets they could not see as they approached the cattle grid. Jessie joined me in photographing the animals. Its bright berries enliven a cotoneaster tree on the green.

The beach at the end of Tanners Lane was gathering visitors like the two above; teasels grew in the field at the top of the slope.

This evening Jackie drove us to Mudeford to catch the

sunset.

Swans were unperturbed by gulls taking flight.

I watched approaching its runway.

Two children sped along the shore on bikes with no pedals (Dandy horse bikes)- today’s hobbyhorses.

This evening we dined on tender roast lamb; crisp Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; tender runner beans, and meaty gravy, followed by coffee cake and New Forest ice cream, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden, I drank more of the Fleurie, and Jessie drank water.

A Knight’s Tale (27: Eventually Chris Twigged)

Sometime around 1950 when Chris and I were still at primary school, if you were prepared to walk home, in the days of small High Street shops before the advance of supermarkets such as Tesco, you could spend your bus fare on a bag of broken biscuits from the old style family grocer in The Broadway,

or, in season, a pomegranate from a fruit and veg stall in Russell Road. You ate the pomegranate seeds with a pin carried for the purpose. If you wanted an ice cream from De Marco’s alongside the stall that meant walking home two days in a row and managing not to spend the first day’s fare on the first day.

In this picture of Russell Road from July 2012, Hawes Estate agent who collected rent from my mother throughout my childhood, is on the site of De Marco’s ice cream parlour and MoneyGram was once a shop selling holy pictures and other religious mementos. A sign of changing priorities, no doubt. Especially in Wimbledon, now land of Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero. Wimbledon, where, in my childhood, you could smell coffee roasted and being ground in a shop along the broadway. Wimbledon, where Whittard of Chelsea now offers taste guaranteed luxury tea and coffee in Centre Court shopping mall.

Wimbledon Theatre, on our left of the picture, after several refurbishments, now styled New Wimbledon Theatre, is where, still in primary school I saw my first Shakespeare Play, details of which I cannot remember.

One day Chris and I, whilst walking home, decided to investigate Spencer Hill.

Some way up the hill, in someone’s garden, stood a tree with an inviting hollow area at the top of the trunk. I climbed up to the gap to have a look. Chris followed. As I entered the bowl shape in the bole I heard a rather angry buzzing sound. In an instant I was covered in bees. I’d like to say I was out of there like a shot. Unfortunately Chris was bringing up the rear and seemed to have some difficulty in understanding either ‘bees’ or ‘get down’ or all of it. He didn’t seem to grasp that he was in my way. I yelled incessantly until Chris twigged and leapt from the bottom branch. I was then out of Spencer Hill and onto a bus like the shot. Having, of course, spent my fare I had no money. I recall the concern of the bus conductor for this snivelling wreck with his head in a swarm of bees occupying the first seat on his vehicle, and the kindness of the woman opposite who paid my fare. Chris must have made his own way home, but I was no caring elder brother at that point.

To this day I remember sitting on a stool with Mum picking bee stings and the dead creatures out of my head. I can still see them crawling dazedly inside my fair-isle jumper. If ever I lose my hair and there are pitted marks in the scalp I bet they’ll be from those bees.

Logistical Problems

Garden maintenance – mostly clearing up and dead heading – began early this morning for us both.

No doubt attracted by the redolent scent of roses released by the warm sunshine, bees buzzed and butterflies flittered around me as I wielded the secateurs.

Bees and Red Admirals both tried the fading Festive Jewel;

both also favoured verbena bonariensis,

as did Comma and Small White butterflies.

Worker bees were mostly partial to Summer Wine.

A little later we drove to Milford Pharmacy for a repeat prescription; to Tesco for E10 unleaded petrol; to Ferndene Farm shop for three bags of compost and various vegetables; and to the forest for a preprandial drive.

Heather beamed bright on the verges of Burley Road, while

a group of ponies were already sheltering under the trees at the corner of Burley Lawn, doing their best to switch off each other’s flies, by the head to tail method.

This presented some logistical problems arising from a certain size difference.

Later this afternoon I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/03/a-knights-tale-26-town-halls-trams-and-trolley-buses/

This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, onion rings, and peas, with which Jackie finished the Pinot Grigio and I drank more of the Comte Tolosan Rouge.

Clinging Precariously

Knowing that we could expect heavy rain this afternoon, Jackie spent all morning

trimming Wedding Day on the Agriframes Arch which would be bound to be ravaged.

She completed the task as the rain began.

I carried out dead heading, a little clearing up, and photography.

Phlox are doing very well this year.

It is the season for dahlias

and Japanese anemones.

Fuchsias are enjoying it too. These examples are Garden News, Magellanica, Mrs Popple, Hawksmoor, and Sarah’s Delta.

Roses picked out by my lens include Alan Titchmarsh, Summer Time, a pink climber, Deep Secret, and Lady Emma Hamilton.

Other gems include two varieties of eryngium; blue agapanthus contrasting nicely with pale calendulas; the swamp lily Crinum Powellia; whiskery St Johns wort; White Pearl sweet peas and; potted begonias reclining on the rusty rocker, now a little unsafe to use for its intended purpose.

In addition to the clematis still sprawling on the Agriframes Arch above, we have many others, including

Polish Spirit in the Dragon Bed and on the barrier trellis, and Purpurea Plena Elegans in the Rose Garden.

Rather like the Head Gardener, bees such as these clinging precariously to lavender, to salvias, and to verbena bonariensis, were working against the rain clock.

This afternoon I posted “A Knight’s Tale (10: After the Revolution)”

Our dinner this evening consisted of chicken breasts cooked in Nando’s chilli, lemon, and mango sauce, and Jackie’s savoury rice, with which she drank Cotes de Provence rosé 2020, and I drank more of the Fleurie.