This afternoon, while Jackie drove Flo, Dillon. and Ellie out shopping, I watched a BBC recording of yesterday’s delayed start of the final cricket Test Match between England and South Africa.
I then took a walk round the garden with my camera.
We had given up these gladioli in the heatwave. They have revived nicely as have the nasturtiums in the background.
Begonias are all doing well;
as are Japanese anemones.
A fly had visited Winchester Cathedral,
and a bee, verbena bonariensis.
Roses Crown Princess Margareta,
Doris Tysterman,
and Super Elfin, continue to thrive.
Elizabeth visited this afternoon to meet Ellie.
My sister stayed for dinner which consisted of oven fish and chips (haddock and cod); mushy peas, pickled onions and gherkins, with which Elizabeth and I drank more of the Côtes du Rhône; Jackie drank Hoegaarden; and Flo and Dillon drank fruit cordial.
Afterwards I watched the recorded highlights from today at the test match.
Pink sky streaks sent me out in the bright, chill, morning with my camera,
and perhaps led me to the hues of gladiolus, Dr Ruppel, Mamma Mia, Lady Emma Hamilton, this particular climbing rose, pelargonium, and carpet rose.
High up in the copper beech I think it was a blackbird serenading.
We took an early drive into the forest, and, enabling me to wander around the banks of Ibsley Water, Jackie parked her modus near the ford.
Angled sunlight cast long reflections on the rippling surface and penetrated the clear water to the shingle bed.
The gnarled oaks beneath Rockford Sand Pit have almost shed their foliate canopies.
While Jackie sat in the car an inquisitive jackdaw eavesdropped on her
animated conversation with a friendly robin. Our red-breasted friends do seem to be lingering in the woodlands.
Elizabeth visited us this evening and stayed for dinner which consisted of Jackie’s wholesome shepherd’s pie; crunchy carrots; firm Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower, with meaty gravy, followed by apple and gooseberry crumble and custard. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and my sister and I drank Adam Mason South African Merlot 2019.
This morning I was lulled into enough of a false sense of security to imagine that, although the heavy winds that have beset us during the last two days and the rain had desisted, the storm may be over.
The late or very early blooming gladiolus, bowed but not broken, rested on Delta’s Sarah fuchsia now basking in sunshine.
Other fuchsias, such as Mrs Popple, Hawkshead, and Army Nurse continue to thrive.
As I wandered around in the glinting sunlight which licked the eucalyptus stems, the grasses and cordyline Australis, and the lingering beech leaves, I grew in confidence of an unexpectedly fine day. Madame Alfred Carriere shared the entrance to the Rose Garden with Summer Wine hips, while Paul’s Scarlet still soared above the wisteria arbour. The house formed a bright backdrop to the view from the red carpet rose in the Rose Garden.
The fallen pot and trug were easily righted, which is more than could be said for Aaron’s truck which had broken down as he tried to leave yesterday. After an hour he sought our blessing to leave it where it was, which of course we gave.
After lunch, in the blink of an eye, the rain returned.
A few more minutes’ respite was soon granted, after which the wind and rain continued to do their worst to blow our house down.
For tonight’s dinner Jackie produced a delicious beef and mushroom pie with boiled potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and runner beans. She drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the La Repasse.
As we gradually return items to our sitting room we faced a dilemma that Nick has set us.
How on earth can we bang nails and hooks for pictures into his sublime walls? We certainly won’t being doing that for some time yet.
Nick Hayter, Painter and Decorator, is to be highly recommended for his skill, his attention to detail, his tidiness, his punctuality, his reliability, and his pleasant company. He charges by the hour and works hard and fast throughout every one.
Of all the out-of-season blooms our garden currently enjoys perhaps this gladiolus is the most extraordinary.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome savoury rice topped by a large fluffy omelette, accompanying prawns of three different preparations, namely tempura, spicy, and salt and pepper. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Cotes du Rhone Villages.
Knowing that we were to expect another leaden afternoon of rain Jackie spent a couple of hours in the garden setting gale damage to rights. I joined her and transported some refuse to the compost while chronicling the event. This was before we visited Mum in Woodpeckers.
Our mother, sporting another of her best outfits was on good form. She got the joke when, after the carer came to warn us that we had another four minutes, I said that would be enough for her to run a mile. This puzzled the carer, so I added “like Roger Bannister”. She was still puzzled but laughed anyway. Of course, the first four minute miler was Derek Ibbotson, but I wasn’t sure Mum would know that.
After lunch I set about drafting the garden report.
Although I focussed on some of damage, like this pot and its contents blown of its brick plinth,
there were plenty of undamaged plants like these two varieties of dahlia.
Although a few gladioli had succumbed, others had stood firm.
Lilies, including the ginger variety in the second of these images, have survived.
The Brick Path won’t even need sweeping.
I picked up a fallen owl and replaced it on its perch beside another toppled pot.
The owl above was perched at one end of the Pond Bed, the rest of which was undamaged.
The Rose Garden didn’t fare quite so well.
Here Jackie indicates the damage to the top of one of the twin planters, which also lost its pot of petunias. The other stand was not damaged but its blooms were battered a bit.
The sweet peas were dragged down and the blooms shredded; some rose stems were bent over, so Jackie decided to give them their autumn hair-cut. Mamma Mia in the second picture here is quite intact.
Here is one of the trugloads I emptied.
The gauras and some clematis clung to life;
although one obelisk slipped a bit. Many pelargoniums remained reasonably intact.
Some views like these of the lawn bed, from the Dragon Bed towards Mistletoe Cottage;
and down the Gazebo Path are unimpaired.
This pot slipped off its plinth in the front garden, but its pelargoniums,
like other plants, such as Japanese anemones were unbroken.
Once again our garden has largely resisted the elements.
I have struggled with an intermittent internet connection throughout the drafting of this post, and we are on our way to our first lockdown-easing meal at Lal Quilla. If I find we have no internet when we return I may descend into a rant, so the restaurant meal will feature tomorrow.
In an earlier post Tangental asked for suggestions for flowers that would be blooming in the last week of August when he hopes to host a family event. Although, he, the Textiliste, and Dog themselves have an enviable garden I promised to let him know what we have currently flowering. Needless to say they will be aware of most of what I have to offer, but, here goes.
This month does not finish until next Monday, the 31st, but this will be the last full week. We are predicted to be hit by another fierce storm tomorrow so I decided to post what we still have today.
The second of these two pictures demonstrates that gladioli are vulnerable to gusts of wind and need to be supported with stakes strong enough to see off Count Dracula.
Carpet roses come in a variety of colours and drape everything in sight. The red one might be appropriate for the special occasion.
Super Elfin is a fast growing prolific climber.
Given the occasion, the red Love Knot, might be appropriate; this one, and the sweetly scented peachy Mamma Mia and yellow Absolutely Fabulous survived our heavy pruning yesterday. The latter two are most prolific repeat flowering.
This is all that is left of For Your Eyes Only, the most prolific rose of all, but so resilient is it that all our snips will have prepared the way for plentiful new shoots within the next sennite (Archaic English WP).
At this time of year Rosa Glauca converts clusters of delicate pink and white flowers to rosy hips.
A variety of hydrangeas still thrive,
and hibiscus,
seen also with red and white dahlias and tall, strongly scented, bronze fennel, has come into its own.
This is of course the time for dahlias, of which we have a range.
Our Japanese anemones come in two shades of pink and in white. In the third of these images they blend well with pink pelargoniums and fuchsia Delta’s Sarah.
Pelargoniums and geraniums will grace any hanging basket,
as will begonias of any shape, size, or hue;
likewise sometimes scented petunias.
Provided you keep up with dead-heading, as with most of these plants, sweet scented phlox of many different colours will continue to delight.
We find rudbeckia hard to grow a second year, but this Goldsturm variety returns.
A number of crocosmia, like Emily MacKenzie and the yellow one we can’t identify for certain, are still blooming, although others such as Lucifer have finished, but, like Arnie, will be back.
The daisy-like erigeron and yellow bidens offer points of highlight throughout the garden. Erigeron thrives in paving, steps, and stony soil; all our bidens are self seeded survivors from last year.
Sedums begin to blush towards the end of the summer. The second picture has a backdrop of ornamental grass, some of which puts us in mind of Cousin It from the Adams Family. All good space fillers.
Eucomis, or pineapple plants, are a fun talking point;
nasturtiums trail everywhere until the first frost.
Nigella is a little blue flower.
This white solanum has flowered consistently for more than twelve months, far outstripping its neighbouring honeysuckle, now transformed into not very attractive berries. The solanum comes in blue, too.
Jackie produced a dinner this evening consisting of her special savoury rice served with prawns, some of which were spicy, and others tempura, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Saint-Chinian.
Today was dank, gloomy, and oppressed by leaden skies so lethargic as to lack energy for anything more than a slow, steady, seeping of limpid liquid.
Indeed the drizzle was so thin that it was only by observing the bejewelled plants that, from indoors, at times we could not be sure that it was still raining. I became quite damp photographing liquid pearls on gladiolus, hibiscus, Japanese anemone, clematis, fuchsia Delta’s Sarah, roses, spider’s webs, begonia, Angel’s wings, and pelargonium, each of which is separately identified in the gallery.
Indoors I also began work on the draft of a special future post.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome sausages in red wine; tasty boiled new potatoes; toothsome kale; and crunchy carrots, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Montepulciano.
This drizzle-wet morning gave way to the hot, humid-wet afternoon on which I carried out a dead-heading exercise.
For those worried about our robin family, Jackie’s internet research has revealed that in summer the missing small birds abandon gardens for woods where a plethora of readily attainable food abounds. They can be expected to return when it takes less effort to follow gardeners around than to forage the fields and forest.
In the meantime we have butterflies like the Small Whites that sup from the verbena bonariensis.
The still bejewelled Deep Secret; the apricot Mamma Mia; and red Love Knot are examples of the Rose Garden Roses, while
along the Shady Path the red climber also retains raindrops.
Yellow rudbeckia Goldsturm and rich red crocosmia Lucifer grace the Palm Bed;
an intriguing gladiolus whose label has been eaten by slugs is propped up in the Oval Bed;
Yellow kniphofias need no support in the Cryptomeria Bed;
in other locations we have more lilies;
bronze fennel and sweet peas,
Japanese anemones and pelargoniums,
and dazzling dahlias.
Later this afternoon I made a minor contribution to Jackie’s extensive watering project. One lesson I have had to learn is that water from the skies does not reach plants in pots.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s cheese-topped classic cottage pie, carrots, and mange touts with tasty beef gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Rioja.
The wind and rain returned with a vengeance today and beset us until late afternoon.
Knowing what we were in for last night we lay down the patio chairs and furled the three garden parasols.
During a slight lull in the deluge I photographed raindrops on agapanthus, sweet peas, gladiolus, pelargoniums, fuchsia Garden News, dahlias, hostas, lilies, begonia, rose Festive Jewel. As usual each of these is individually named in its gallery which can be accessed by clicking on any one. Each can be viewed full size by clicking the box beneath it and further bigified with another click.
I was born 7 weeks premature in Leicester General Hospital in 1942, which must surely mean that I am lucky to be here. That is the same length of time that these Japanese anemones have sprung early into life.
We have four little toy ladybirds whose wings swivel in the wind. The top one of this pair among the Erigeron, pelargoniums, and fuchsias outside the kitchen door has reached the end of its clockwise rotation after which it turns anticlockwise; its companion has just begun.
The sidalcea in the Oval Bed simply bowed before the blustery blasts.
This lily in the West Bed was protected by a shrubbery canopy.
An iron urn at the entrance to the Gazebo and Brick Paths, and a chimney pot on the lawn are two planters benefiting from the recent rain.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s sublime sausages in red wine; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots and broccoli; and tender runner beans with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Pinot Noir.
Today, still cool, featured intermittent sunshine while cotton clouds pierced by cerulean patches sailed sedately overhead.
We carried out the usual garden maintenance including watering, planting, pruning, and dead-heading.
Jackie smiled when she first spied that I had come out to join her, but she didn’t see the camera hanging round my neck. I have taken to wearing it in order not to miss such photographic opportunities.
Here we have the peach rose, a couple of hemerocallis, sweet peas, white dahlias, sidalcea, yucca, and fuchsia Shrimp Cocktail. As usual each individual image is labelled in the gallery which can be viewed full size by clicking the box underneath it. Further enlargement is possible by additional clicks.
Mauve gladioli stand beneath the clematis covering the Agriframes Arch.
Shropshire Lad and linaria purpurea checked themselves out in the mirror placed to extend the Rose Garden views.
Here Jackie carried out pruning, the results of which I would clear up later.
The marguerites alongside the hydrangea in the corner of the front garden will unfortunately need to be cut down soon because they obscure the view of the Chauffeuse when driving out.
Bees enjoyed flitting from one verbena bonariensis to another.
We now have more robins than we can identify. This is not Nugget.
It was a good gardening day.
For a while now, it has not been pleasant enough for us to enjoy our evening drinks in the Rose Garden. This changed today.
From my seat in the north east corner I could see the hemerocallis in the Cryptomeria Bed and the lilies above Mamma Mia catching the evening sun.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty lamb curry; savoury rice; salt and pepper prawns; and vegetable samosas. I also enjoyed the chilli bhaji. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Corte Aurelia Squinzano Riserva 2015.
