Reportedly only for a couple of days, the wind had stilled overnight. The day was dull and warmer, with very little rain.
Jackie spent much of the morning rescuing tossed pots and loosened climbers.
After lunch I gathered up numerous small broken branches, then cut the grass and produced a few pictures, one of which shows
the pieris between the Nottingham Castle bench and the planted chimney pot.
Florence enjoys this view across the lawn to North Breeze.
Jackie’s latest owl purchase remained safely perched on its log, surveying the view across the Dead End Path.
We also have aquilegias, violets, dicentras, peonies, and a few lingering camellias.
A number of blue irises grace the Weeping Birch Bed and elsewhere.
Some plants, like the osteospermums in the Cryptomeria Bed have suffered from wind burn.
The Gazebo Path; and the Dragon and Palm Beds have recovered well.
Jackie spent much of the afternoon potting up in the greenhouse, where she was decorated with libertia reflections.
Later I scanned the next seven of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations to Charles Dickens’s “Nicholas Nickleby”.
‘Mr Tix transferred his admiration to some elegant articles of wearing apparel, while Mr Scaley proceeded to the minute consideration of a pimple on his chin’
‘The two combatants chopped away until the swords emitted a shower of sparks’ is a typical balanced depiction of action from Mr Keeping.
‘There bounded onto the stage a little girl in a dirty white frock who turned a pirouette’. Nothing less than a full page would suffice for her.
In ‘Two strong little boys were dragging the phenomenon in different directions as a trial of strength’, Mr Keeping has shown how balance is maintained by their planted stances.
To depict the distance between the higher admirer and the performer on stage in ‘The warmth of her reception was mainly attributable to a most persevering umbrella in the upper boxes’ the artist has used the different levels of the double spread.
‘Lord Verisoft threw himself along the sofa in order to bring his lips nearer to the old man’s ear’
In ‘ We come on a mission, Mrs Nickleby’ ‘ the success of the smarmy flattery is clearly apparent.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty liver and bacon; firm boiled potatoes and carrots; and tender cabbage and runner beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.
