Golden Showers – derrickjknight

Life And Death

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This morning I employed several efforts at procrastination to defer my tackling the installation of the new Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner. Included were reading a book, dead-heading roses, and a bit of clearing in the garden.
Eventually, I got down to it, and am happy to say managed the job. I suspect the discs I was most scared of were actually for a Microsoft PC, because it seems the downloads were done on line with a Mac. Maybe Elizabeth will be able to enlighten me when she returns from a visit to Mum’s. A little sister is maybe a good enough replacement for a grandchild.

This afternoon I celebrated by wandering round the garden, which has reaped the benefits of Jackie’s splendid Autumn Clean.

She has weeded and swept paths including the Brick one.

Our colchicums, or Autumn crocuses, continue to spread each year.

The echinacea, however, are not doing so well. Jackie has tried these several times. None have survived, and these don’t look very well. Apparently they are prone to succumbing to sudden unexplained demise. Maybe the botanical world’s version of cot death.

We have many dahlias,

and numerous varieties of fuchsia. Bees were constantly diving into them. Here one grapples with Mrs Popple.

Another busy pollen gatherer swings on a yellow bidens.

Opulent begonias abound.

More dead-heading, as in Absolutely Fabulous was now required in the Rose Garden. Here we have the life-span of these blooms in one shot. Youngsters await their turn to beguile;

while blousy middle-age embraces a spider enswathing its prey, thus completing an opera of life and death.

Schoolgirl

and Golden Showers

scale the arbour.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy beef in red wine; creamy mashed potato; crunchy carrots, and tender runner beans from the garden. My wife drank Hoegaarden, my sister, Becks Blue, and I, Albali reserva 2012.

‘Did You See Those Chairs?’

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On another dull morning I scanned the last few colour slides from 1980.

In October Becky enjoyed pushing the buggy in Tooting Common.

There was someone in it. That was Sam.

Jessica was also on the walk.

Here is Matthew the following month,

and in December with Sam, who,

on 25th was helped by Michael to open his first Christmas presents,

And, of course, we had a festive tree.

This afternoon we took a trip to New Milton to buy a posting tube for Pauline’s parcel, post it, and take a waistcoat to Johnson’s Cleaners. We began with the tube from the art suppliers. We made up the parcel outside the shop, parked a bit nearer the Post Office, and went our separate ways – Jackie to the cleaners and me to the Post Office.

On the way I walked past two garden chairs of the perfect size for me, displayed outside Hand Made New Forest. Following the invitation, I tried them, and found them to be extremely comfortable.

When Jackie met me outside the Post Office a short while later I asked ‘Did you see those chairs?’. ‘I saw them,’ she replied with a broad smile, ‘and I sat in them’. ‘Shall we get a pair?’ was my next unnecessary question. We ordered a couple, of a different colour.

By early evening the weather had cleared enough for us to take drinks in the rose garden, where

Roserie de la Haie is flourishing;

and the mirror behind Golden Showers happily reflects the similar hued Laura Ford filling the gap between between the two levels of the climber.

This evening we dined on spicy pork with vegetable risotto, followed by profiteroles. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the malbec.

The Doggie Bird

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Ali, Peter, Becky, and Ian stayed overnight. When we had all surfaced we drove to the Beachcomber cafe in Barton on Sea for a brunch.

Ali and Peter look forever young.

Anyone familiar with my healthy café fry-ups may be surprised to see my smaller than usual plateful. Anyone who knows what I ate last night will not.

Jackie was satisfied with poached eggs and toast.

Soon afterwards our guests returned home, Ian driving his parents back to theirs. Last night Becky, as is often her wont, asked for a doggie bag to take home what she couldn’t eat. The very friendly waitress made one up.

This was it. Our daughter left it at our place.

This afternoon, Helen visited with her grandson, Billy, who successfully fought against being woken up.

Until early evening this had been a cold, blustery, and wet day. Then I was able to take my camera into the rose garden and photograph

Mum in a Million,

and, appropriately for today, Golden Showers, which has reached the top of the pergola.

Mr Pink provided fish and chips for our dinner this evening. We added pickled onions and gherkins; and onion rings from Becky’s doggie bird. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I didn’t.

Before And After: The Brick Path

This morning Jackie continued her winter planting, such as this hanging basket and I pruned roses.

Here are today’s offerings from the rose garden:

Laura Ford,

and the climber, Golden Showers.

Following yesterday’s post, Jackie has given the Gazebo Path its correct sign.

This afternoon Jackie drove us to New Milton for me to visit the bank and to buy a return ticket to Nottingham in readiness for my trip to Louisa and Errol and the girls on Sunday.

I then prepared the next section of the saga of the garden, namely the Brick Path.

On 15th April 2014, the cracks were full of weeds, and the urn had yet to be planted up.

By 21st, Jackie had made considerable progress in eradicating weeds on the urn circle;

and by 30th, made her way along the composite brick section.

We tackled the older, original length from opposite ends. It was then that Jackie uttered the phrase: ‘Last one to the chimney pot’s a sissy’.

Some of our visitors, such as my Mum, need sticks for walking. These original bricks had become rather uneven over the years, so we asked Aaron to reset them. On 9th August 2015, his friend Lee, the carpenter who had fitted our stair rails, made a start with him. The following week Aaron finished the task alone.

By this time, the overgrown foliage that had bordered the path on 31st May 2014 had been thinned somewhat.

Two roses and a Virginia creeper were meant to be supported by a rickety wooden structure, most of which had fallen into the undergrowth. By 14th June that year we had bought and installed a new Gothic Arch, retrained the existing climbers, and added a couple of clematises.

This was the south easterly view from this point by 28th September 2015,

by which time the path had mellowed, and an owl had taken up residence in the dead snake bark maple.

Beyond the Gothic Arch and nearer the house, Wedding Day, a huge rambling rose, romped confetti-like across the red-leaved Japanese maple and a mature hebe. It needed some special support. We provided this in the form of an Agriframes Gothic Arch, installed on 30th October 2014.

Even this is insufficient for the prolific climber. It received further heavy pruning on 2nd October 2015.

This evening we dined at the Royal China restaurant in Lymington. Taking the advice of our friendly waitress we halved our order from last time, and just about managed to finish everything. We both drank Tsingtao beer.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Jackie is gradually sifting the old compost which still contains rubbish and woody material, to produce, with the addition of bonemeal, rich compost for the rose garden. We applied some today.

The scented ground cover rose, Magic Carpet, attracting numerous bees, is spreading nicely;

Kent has begun its second flush,

and the climber, Golden Showers, has produced its first bloom.

On this dry, blustery morning, I walked to the paddock in Hordle Lane and back. The horses, intent on grazing, kept their distance.

One wore a rug;

one, a fly mask;

and the third was unprotected.

I fought my way through to the obscured footpath, which petered out along the edge of a barley field. As I watched the waving grain, I thought of Ken Loach’s wonderful 2006 film, ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’.

There are few films, these days, that stay in my memory, but this one certainly does. I recommend anyone to watch it, so I will not reveal the plot, but this is how Wikipedia introduces its feature:

‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 Irish war drama film directed by Ken Loach, set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1922) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923). Written by long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, this drama tells the fictional story of two County Cork brothers, Damien O’Donovan (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O’Donovan (Pádraic Delaney), who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from the United Kingdom. It takes its title from the Robert Dwyer Joyce song “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” a song set during the 1798 rebellion in Ireland and featured early in the film. The film is heavily influenced by Walter Macken‘s 1964 novel The Scorching Wind. Widely praised, the film won the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Loach’s biggest box office success to date, the film did well around the world and set a record in Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film ever, until surpassed by The Guard.^‘

This afternoon we planted four more roses, and plonked a couple more. I will feature them as they bloom.

This evening’s dinner consisted of Jackie’s scrumptious chilli con carne (recipe), egg fried rice (recipe), and green beans, followed by rice pudding. Her accompaniment was Hoegaarden, mine Alexis Lichine Bordeaux supérieur 2013.