Jackie spent most of this gloriously sunny and warm spring day working in the garden.
In the front she photographed budding Amanogawa
and crab apple blossom,
and a row of different coloured cyclamens.
I took tours before and after lunch, choosing to focus first on a variety of daffodils;
these, alongside the Dead End Path, are strongly scented and aptly named Park Perfume;
iberis cascades over the New Bed wall in front of more;
nodding to the dreaded all-pervading white allium another masquerades as a cheery scarecrow.
The sunshine has encouraged one of yesterday’s tulips to open wider,
to blend nicely with these marigolds.
Camellias continue to shine and to discard their heavy blooms, some of which persist in
growing old gracefully.
Varieties of wallflowers are blooming;
these yellow ones kneel at the feet of euphorbia in the back drive border.
Honesty is bursting out all over. It will be a brave individual who sits on this chair in the Weeping Birch Bed.
The burnished Japanese maple near the Fiveways corner
takes the eye across the Gazebo Path to North Breeze,
skirting the peeling-pastel-sheathed eucalyptus on the lawn, beside which
clematis Cirrhosa Freckles still festoons the iron gazebo.
Looking south east from the above-mentioned maple takes us into the Rose Garden whence
we have a view towards the house. I will be in dire trouble for leaving that blue plastic trug in the shot.
Given that during the Covid-19 pandemic bedding plants cannot be purchased
Jackie’s pelargonium cuttings in the greenhouse are even more important than usual this year.
They are even attracting ladybirds.
This view from the Kitchen Bed leads to the Nottingham Castle bench;
this one across to the greenhouse.
It is through a kitchen window that I managed to catch Burt, the long tailed tit, playing on his honeysuckle trellis. Like a child who will run endlessly up the steps for another go on a slide, Burt swung through the air time and again, incessantly hopping back up for a repeat performance. The bird can be seen peering in beside the window catch – it is well worth bigifying.
The Head Gardener’s main task today was cleaning out the weedy Frog Pond. This is how she pictured it this morning,
and this with clear reflective water this afternoon.
This evening we dined on roast duck breasts; roast new potatoes; meaty sausages and fried onions; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; and tender cabbage, leeks, and runner beans, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Shiraz.