The narrow brick paths between the beds in the Rose Garden had become so covered in weeds as to be dangerous for me to dead head many of the roses further in when I couldn’t see where I was putting my feet; Martin’s clearance of these a couple of days ago made this much easier for me – a mixed blessing because I have no excuse for leaving them. Today’s session was therefore longer than of late, and I am still behind.
Roses pictured today include pink Compassion; an unnamed white; pale pink New Dawn, singly and along the Rose Garden south fence; pink and white striped Rosa Gallica; an unnamed peach; red Aloha, bought as unnamed for £1; yellow Absolutely Fabulous; crisp Lady Emma Hamilton in a group and individually; red Gloriana, alone and in the company of foxgloves; elegant little Ballerina; and Gloriana, clematis, and foxgloves.
I also photographed a hebe, without having noticed the insect settled on it; another clematis in company with another New Dawn, and a deep red hemerocallis, or day lily.
Finally, and clearly another tribute to Martin’s painstaking clearance work, we have an inherited philadelphus inodorus, which has never flowered before.
This evening we enjoyed second helpings of last night’s wholesome casserole meal and the same beverage.
Later, I joined Jackie in the Rose Garden where she rearranged plants and watered, while I dead headed.
Until the Head Gardener restrained her, Lady Hamilton spread herself about a bit. She has been tethered since I made these pictures
as I noticed when, later, we enjoyed evening drinks beside her.
Other views include Winchester Cathedral, Mamma Mia and verbena bonariensis, For your Eyes Only, backlit cerinthe, and Jackie in “Where’s Jacke” (10)
Elsewhere we have various dahlias, phlox, and pink double lily.
This evening we enjoyed second helpings of yesterday’s cottage pie with fresh vegetables. Jackie drank Calvet Prestige Sauvignon Blanc 2020 while I finished the Faugeres.
Jackie spent this pleasantly sunny morning completing a line of granite setts edging the lawn. I carried a few down from the back drive, so I know how heavy they were.
Here is the work in progress;
and here, the completed job, and finally the semi-circle around the gazebo planted up. The penultimate image offers Where’s Jackie? (9)
Danni and Ella came to lunch, which, as the wind was becoming furious, we ate inside. This included a birthday cake Danni had brought for me along with a good bottle of Barolo, and a card containing drawings of monsters by Ella. Because Danni had been pinged by Track and Trace they had been isolating on the actual date.
As usual, Ella made a beeline for her toys and was soon
reading a book with sound effects on the sofa with her mother.
Then, phone in hand, she demonstrated that she has begun to pose when a camera is trained on her.
After lunch we watched
on BBC iPlayer.
Our great-niece has reached the bossy stage, so adults in turn were led off “to school” in the library. She has a few older friends who are already attending school and would like to join them. This is perhaps the next best thing.
Elizabeth had joined us after lunch and was given a tour of the garden by her granddaughter. GeeMa, as the grandmother is known, and I were in turn sent off to replenish the duck irrigator as Ella watered flowers and replenished the fountain standing in the Rose Garden beside rose Twice in a Blue Moon which had been given to us by Becky for the Anniversary of our second wedding. Lady Emma Hamilton rose and very tall sweetly scented lilies are also blooming well.
Neither Ella nor GeeMa was permitted a peaceful rest because they were being chased around by “a big pile of poo”.
Eventually the windspeed escalated enough to start blowing things over and smashing them, so we were forced to take the normal battening down the hatches precautions – somewhat late.
Our visitors left at about 4.30 and Ella, who had refused to say goodbye, was asleep before reaching Pennington.
This evening we dined on our second helpings of Red Chilli takeaway food with which Jackie drank more of the rosé and I drank Recital Languedoc Montpéroux 2018
On another warm, humid, and largely overcast morning garden maintenance was continued.
Jackie mostly concentrated on the Rose Garden, then produced her own gallery. It was the cricket on Absolutely Fabulous that sent her indoors for her camera. She also spotted a bee and a beetle on Rosa Gallica. Winchester Cathedral, For Your Eyes Only, and Lady Emma Hamilton were all ready for their close-ups. The beetle on the leaf in the first Rosa Gallica picture may be an invasive ladybug
My work was wider-ranging weeding, dead-heading, and feeding the compost bin and bags for the dump with suitable material.
With the cordyline Australis and the Wedding Day rose in full bloom it seemed opportune for me to stick my camera lenses through the upstairs windows and produce some
shots from above. So I did.
I then spent a while completing Jackie’s driving licence renewal application on line, only to get to the very last item and be told that there had been a technical hitch which resulted in the whole effort being cancelled. Mrs Knight then repeated the process with a paper application in half the time.
Afterwards we posted the application at Everton Post Office; collected a prescription from Milford on Sea Pharmacy; visited Rosie Lea tea house, formerly The Hobler Inn, to book a meal for which Danni had given Jackie a voucher for her birthday; and, following a forest drive, purchased three more bags of compost at Ferndene Farm Shop.
Beside the stream at the start of Cadnam Lane, apparently exhausted in the heat, a trio of pigs lay flaked out. They occasionally twitched in an effort to shift the horseflies from their flanks. One sow found the energy to rise to her feet and slowly yawn.
Round the next bend ponies sought shelter in the woodland. They, too, received their share of flies.
This evening we indeed on Jackie’s succulent beef and onion pie; new potatoes, firm carrots, and tender runner beans, with meaty gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Les Dauphins Cotes du Rhone 2019.
The moon was out of bed this morning when Jackie took her camera into the garden, yet cloud cover soon rolled in. She crouched low to offer the Cobaea Scandens cup to the lingering orb. Fennel seeds, sweet pea pods, and mahonia completed the collection of silhouettes. The Assistant Photographer finished with pastel shades of verbena bonariensis against New Zealand flax.
This afternoon I cut the grass for which the expression ‘mowed the lawn’ would be a little pretentious. It seemed somewhat ambitious to hand-clip the edges so I will live to fight them another day.
The hanging basket in the top centre of the first picture contains a bright lime-green heuchera.
For a little light relief I transported Jackie’s clippings from her weeding and taking cuttings to the compost bin and bagged up some of the woody material.
Beside her the Dragon Bed’s Polish Spirit clematis and hanging baskets petunias display vibrant colour.
Bees, like this one in geranium Roxanne, went about their business undisturbed.
This variety of rudbeckia has prove quite prolific this year, whereas several others have failed.
Recents storms virtually stripped this pink climbing rose of its leaves, yet buds keep on coming,
as do those of Flower Power, Lady Emma Hamilton,
Absolutely Fabulous,
and Crown Princess Margareta, who encourages the coexistence of different generations.
The Weeping Birch Bed, like most of the others, still contains a variety of colourful blooms.
There aren’t many without a dahlia or two.
Preferring the ebb and flow and artistry of Test matches, I am not fan of T20 cricket, but, as I watched England’s innings against Australia on TV this afternoon I began to wonder whether my apathy might be a teeny bit prejudiced.
This evening we dined on Mr Chan’s excellent Hordle Chinese Take Away fare with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.
On another sweltering, humid day we made short trips into the garden largely for the purposes of watering, mainly plants in hanging baskets.
Speaking for myself, I needed to wait until I had stopped soaking my T-shirt and recovered from my efforts before I was almost fit enough to wander around to admire our work and produce a few photographs.
As usual the images are titled in the gallery which can be accessed by clicking on any one. They include various petunias; a golden sunflower; a variety of dahlias; a bee on a geranium Rozanne; a bunch of begonias; mauve Japanese anemones purple and red fuchsia Mrs Popple; roses Margaret Merrill, Special Anniversary, For Your Eyes Only, Lady Emma Hamilton, Mamma Mia; and pelargoniums.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious liver and bacon casserole; boiled potatoes; and crunchy carrots and cauliflower, with which the Culinary Queen drank Hop House Lager and I drank more of the Carles.
My Under Gardener tasks this cooler, more cloudy, morning consisted of a little clearing to compost and a lot of rose decapitation.
Among the regular bloomers like the White Winchester Cathedral,
the prolific bright yellow Absolutely Fabulous, and the fulsome Lady Emma Hamilton a number of repeat performers are taking the stage.
Just Joey has risen from
the red carpet that continues to attract bustling bees.
The peachy velvet Schoolgirl graces the arbour
beneath which Gertrude Jekyll stretches from sleep, while
budding Deep Secret is currently keeping us in the dark.
This afternoon we drove to the less touristy east of the forest.
We had been promised a 30% chance of rain today. The nearest we got to that was a distant fall when driving along St Leonards Road.
The skies on the opposite side, across The Solent over the Isle of Wight, had no rain to drop.
The roof of the ancient St Leonard’s granary, which, as explained in https://derrickjknight.com/2016/08/04/salt-marshes/ once served Beaulieu Abbey, glows a rich rusty orange;
a pigeon surveys the scene from a ruined arch bearing similarly hued highlights.
Our mighty oaks do suffer in the heavy winds. Here, one huge limb has recently been wrenched off. The stump in the fourth picture has been a more distant casualty.
Further along a covey of juvenile pheasants were possibly discussing the approaching 1st of October when their shooting season starts.
This evening we dined on a rack of pork ribs in a rich barbecue sauce, mini spring rolls, Jackie’s tasty egg fried rice, and tender green beans, with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Trapiche Pure unoaked Argentinian Malbec 2019 – a birthday present from Helen and Bill.
On another hot summer’s day visiting traffic continued to pour into our area, so we stayed at home and I made do with garden flower photography.
During the morning and later in the afternoon Jackie concentrated hard on irrigation, including filling the Waterboy’s shell, the level of which suffers from dehydration and thirsty birds.
Butterflies and bees didn’t seem to mind the heat as they flitted from plant to plant. There is room for both Small White butterfly and a bee on the hibiscus in the first picture; bees had sole occupation of the bidens and the saxifrages; the Meadow Brown and the Small White butterflies were unwilling to share space on the sedum or the verbena bonariensis.
Today’s lilies are the heavily scented pale pink double and the freckled beauty seen in better light.
It is the season for dahlias including the two-toned Puerto Rico.
The season for this rhododendron is long over, but the plant doesn’t know that.
Pale pink phlox coexist with rich rust-coloured chrysanthemums.
Lady Emma Hamilton and Ballerina dance on in the Rose Garden, while soaring Altissimo and an unknown pink climber once more reach for the skies.
Hollyhocks, rudbeckia Goldsturm, California poppies, petunias, and hydrangea Tricolor all lend their colour.
Much as the Head Gardener tries to train her clematises, some, like this Niobe, insist on trailing where they will.
As always, the galleries can be accessed by clicking on any image, each of which may be viewed full size by clicking on the box beneath it and further with another click.
Later this afternoon Elizabeth visited for a cup of tea and didn’t stay for dinner which consisted of Jackie’s egg fried rice, mini spring rolls, and tempura and spicy prawns. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Carles.
During a heavily overcast yet warm morning I took a walk around the garden with my camera.
At the front of the house I photographed just one example of our fuchsia Delta’s Sarah and pink pelargoniums; a severally-hued hydrangea alongside white marguerites with yellow buttery centres; and the first of three rich red lily plants to bloom.
Another Delta’s Sarah is found among pink sweet peas and verbena bonariensis in the Weeping Birch Bed
which can be approached via stepping stones across the Cryptomeria Bed which is named from
the tree seen behind the standing lamp to the right of top centre in this picture of the Gazebo Path.
The white rose, Winchester Cathedral, and the peachy Lady Emma Hamilton are enjoying further flushes in the Rose Garden.
The blue and white petunias in the Ali Baba planter are beginning their descent which will have them cascading like those in this container accompanied by sweet peas, hot lips, and lobelias.
Just before mid-day we drove through a busy Highcliffe intending to brunch at The Beach House café on Friars Cliff. Both the car park and the beach were so crowded that we turned back and lunched at home.
I spent the afternoon finishing reading ‘Love in the time of Cholera’ by Colombian Nobel prizewinner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is the entry from brittania.com written by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria:
Gabriel García Márquez, (born March 6, 1927, Aracataca, Colombia—died April 17, 2014, Mexico City, Mexico), Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, mostly for his masterpiece Cien años de soledad (1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude). He was the fourth Latin American to be so honoured, having been preceded by Chilean poets Gabriela Mistral in 1945 and Pablo Neruda in 1971 and by Guatemalan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias in 1967. With Jorge Luis Borges, García Márquez is the best-known Latin American writer in history. In addition to his masterly approach to the novel, he was a superb crafter of short stories and an accomplished journalist. In both his shorter and longer fictions, García Márquez achieved the rare feat of being accessible to the common reader while satisfying the most demanding of sophisticated critics.
It must be 30 years since I first read this marvellous novel, and now, I hope, have done so with far greater understanding.
I do not know Spanish, but I am quite certain that Edith Grossman’s translation has contributed greatly to the fluidity of Jonathan Cape’s 1988 edition. The author is clearly a master of the long, eloquent, sentence and it must have taken great skill to convey this.
The book is filled with wisdom, insight, and humour, penned in flowing, natural language. Its theme is a lifetime of loves described in emotional and physical detail with all the accompanying passion, anxiety, intrigue, anguish, guilt, jealousies – you name the feelings – they are there.
What, wondered this reader in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, has cholera to do with the story, which is well told? After all the disease barely merits a mention until the penny drops; I will refrain from telling you when.
This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, peas, gherkins, and pickled onions, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Fleurie.
Today was cool and overcast. This afternoon I dead-headed the Rose Garden,
then photographed some blooms that escaped the chop. These include Absolutely Fabulous, Ballerina, Gloriana, Deep Secret, Mamma Mia, Aloha, Lady Emma Hamilton, Special Anniversary, Crown Princess Margareta, and Shropshire Lad. Each is labelled in the gallery which may be accessed by clicking on any image. For enlargement scroll down to just beneath the gallery pictures where, to the right, is a box indicating ‘view full size’. The full size may be further enlarged with one or two clicks.
A certain little robin followed me around, sending me in for the camera before I was ready. We were both rewarded by a big fat juicy worm
Nugget tossed the writhing creature, twisting his head faster than the speed of my shutter, enabling him to peck off beak sized bits. For him, fresh food is now available.
We prefer our fodder cooked, so this evening we dined on roast gammon with Jackie’s moist ratatouille and firm penne cheese, with which she drank Becks and I drank Flores de Soligamar Tempranillo & Garnacha 2018.
