On a warm day with sunny intervals it was time to record the garden as it comes alive.
The Brick Path and the Back Drive borders each hold some of the plants I am about to show, like the euphorbia fronting one of the dead stumps on the Back Drive.
We have many tulips in pots and in the beds.
Varieties of daffodils proliferate.
Camellias have been blooming since last November, and are now accompanied by magnolia Vulcan.
Hellebores hang about everywhere.
Japanese maples are coming into leaf.
Spring snowflakes are spreading nicely; forget-me-nots; primroses; pulmonaria; white fritillary; epimedium, wood anemones; cowslips; chionodoxa; and mahonia are further delights.
Unfortunately, on my rounds I found the body of the ailing dove, which had suffered no further damage.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s delicious chicken and vegetable stewp and fresh crusty bread, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Red Blend.
In the early morning chill I girded my loins with a thick cotton dressing gown and stepped into the garden to photograph the pink-streaked dawn.
Keen arboriculturists may be interested in the sylvan skeletons of copper beech, larch, weeping birch, and lopped bay tree.
Our great-niece, Ella, was two years old in January. She and her parents have been unable to visit since before Christmas. We haven’t heard her form clear sentences. Danni texted me this morning to say that her daughter has been shouting out of the window: “Where has Uncle Derrick gone?”
My late son, Michael, was not much older when I had to try to answer his question: “Why did my Mummy die?”. So my feelings prompted by the very welcome text were somewhat ambivalent. It was very pleasing to know that Ella, who will be able to visit at the end of the month, could remember and missed us, yet that memory of Michael, who would never see Vivien again, has always been most poignant.
For much of the day Jackie occupied herself trimming dead material from plants with which she filled a succession of trugs. I operated a relay service transporting the contents to the compost bins and returning the containers to the Head Gardener for refills.
Of course I did not undertake my Under Gardener duties without carrying my camera. Featured here are euphorbia, mahonia, leucojum Spring Snowflakes, primulas, pulmonaria, tulips, daffodils, camellias, hellebores, hyacinths, cyclamen, and viburnum bodnantensis Dawn. The first camellia shrub shows blooms browned by an earlier frost.
I was calm and contented when I produced the Dawn skies gallery. That was before WordPress had chosen to apply another simplifying process to operate from the sidebar. Until I got my head around this system to construct the plants gallery culminating in another Dawn, it was only reasonable to inform Jackie that it wasn’t her I was shouting at.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome savoury rice served with plentiful green salad and three prawn preparations, namely tempura, hot and spicy, and salt and pepper. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden while I drank Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2020.
Jackie took advantage of the early morning sunlight to photograph
a variety of colourful daffodils;
a striking range of hellebores;
a bee probing pulmonaria;
my dwarf azalea, still thriving after twenty years and several moves;
pale yellow primroses
and their brighter primula relatives;
mahonias,
companula,
wood anemones,
summer snowflakes;
and burgeoning tulips blending with light blue pansies.
When Jackie delivered my muddy red jacket to White’s cleaners last week she was diverted by the purchase of a weighty brass owl, now perched on a lurching post. Its relatives may be glimpsed throughout the beds.
We collected the dry cleaning this afternoon and went on to visit Mum, who, although not quite aware of the global nature of the pandemic, is certainly fully au fait with the precautions at Woodpeckers and the reason for them. Conversation included Spanish flu and the death of Mum’s aunt Holly.
We were required to wash our hands on arrival when our temperatures were taken and pronounced perfect.
As we approached Brockenhurst we spotted a contented pony enjoying the now familiar New Forest vichyssoise soup.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s succulent cottage pie; crisp Yorkshire pudding, sweet potatoes, cauliflower carrots, and broccoli: and tender runner beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Marlborough Pinot Noir 2016.
I wandered around the garden in today’s early morning light.
Alongside the magnolia Vulcan stand the first of our rhododendrons in full bloom.
The small diurnal yellow and orange poppies that crop up everywhere have woken up;
forget-me-nots also thrust through soil and gravel at will;
even more ubiquitous are honesty,
and bluebells.
Iberis, aubretia, dicentra, hellebores, daffodils, and primulas are thriving, although perhaps the ant has nibbled the last of these.
Rusty Duck keeps an eye on some of the primulas and the lamiums.
Hairy pulmonaria breathes in the sunshine.
Florence sculpture has a good view of the yellow Japanese maple.
The Shady Path catches the sun.
Camellia petals carpet the soil.
Greenhouse geranium cuttings will soon be planted out.
Elizabeth and Jacqueline came for coffee and stayed for lunch for which
Jackie mixed the coleslaw, after which, she regretted that she hadn’t left it for the superbly competent Louis who
mixed the salad and its dressing. It was only after he had crushed peppers using a couple of dishes that he realised we had a pepper mill. Each ingredient to the dressing was carefully added with a little tasting.
Seven of us sat down to the meal. I am not in my place because I was behind the camera.
My two sisters left to visit our mother this afternoon. The rest of us dined this evening on roast duck; roast potatoes; yellow and orange carrots; cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli; sage and onion stuffing, bread sauce, and tasty gravy. Louis drank Corona, I drank Dragon Hills Pinot Noir 2017, and the others drank Portuguese Rosé.
Stormy weather and a heavy cold have kept me indoors for the last week. Today the wind has dropped to 20 m.p.h. and the sun has shone. I therefore took a walk in the garden. Jackie now has the cold and is currently housebound.
Our winter flowering cherry remains bright against the blue sky above.
The copper beech and the weeping birch still display their skeletal frames;
pruned roses are biding their time to burst forth in bloom.
Golden forsythia glows beside the patio.
Whichever way you look at them, the old cart wheels and the gazebo arches have designs on the gravel path,
visible beyond this end of the Phantom Path.
Camellias still bloom and bud throughout the shrubberies.
Daffodils still abound. Those in the patio are accompanied by tulips, pansies, and violas.
Primulas, bergenias, hellebores, cyclamens, comfrey, alliums, grape hyacinths, and pulmonaria all await discovery in the beds.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s piquant cauliflower cheese served with rashers of bacon, followed by lemon Bakewell tarts.
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Wandering down the garden paths today
provided very few corners without snowdrops. The Daphne odorata and camellias are blooming and budding. little blue irises, have and yellow crocuses are out. The white alliums easily confused with snowdrops are beginning to grace the beds. Pulmonaria, primulas, and pansies offer a little alliteration.
As so often at this time of year, a tattered Red Admiral basking on a bergenia revels in surviving the winter.
This evening we dined at Lal Quilla. The food, service, and atmosphere were as excellent as always. My main meal was davedush; Jackie’s was murgh noorijenani. We shared special fried rice, an egg paratha, and onion bahji, and both drank Kingfisher.
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Aaron, Jackie, and I continued tidying up the garden this morning.
Daffodils still glow all over;
the new generation of honesty crops up everywhere;
and the Anemone albas are spreading nicely in the Weeping Birch Bed.
Jackie has weeded around and cleaned the little cistern pond, thus revealing the frogs and Jattie’s sculpture.
The lamp glowing in the sunlight is one of the snake’s head fritillaries Jackie has added to those already shining in the Cryptomeria Bed.
A peacock butterfly tried in vain to look invisible on the gravel of the Heligan Path which joins
the south end of the Brick Path.
Bees continue to plunder the pulmonaria.
I had a fairly lengthy conversation with a young collared dove taking advantage of Aaron’s fencing.
Wood pigeons
and sparrows were far too busy gathering nesting material to chat.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s delicious lamb jalfrezi and special fried rice; followed by apple pie and custard.. She drank sparkling water and I drank Cimarosa limited edition Shiraz 2014.
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Today began dark, wet, and windy. Thinking we would be unable to do much more in the garden we transported the results of yesterday’s crab apple pruning to Efford Recycling Centre.
As is the Head Gardener’s wont, she bought two more fibreglass faux terra cotta plant pots from the sales area.
The sun did put in brief appearance this afternoon, so I was able to present a snapshot of the first official day of Spring.
Jackie has also started buying plants, like these violas,
and these snake’s head fritillaries just plonked in an urn for the moment.
Both are visible in this shot of the kitchen bed.
These camellias shed their confetti-like petals on the Dead End Path.
Others are visible on either side of the decking in this view beyond Margery’s Bed;
more in the Palm Bed;
and beside the Head Gardener’s walk which also displays cyclamens.
These two were buried in darkness when we arrived three years ago. Now they are able to flower,
being visible from across the Dragon Bed.
Figures lining the walk include dragons and a cherub.
There are, of course, hellebores and daffodils everywhere;
and pulmonaria, such as these clambering over a brick boundary.
A small mahonia planted last year is thriving along the back drive,
where a periwinkle has been stencilled on our neighbours’ wall.
A little bit of luck is essential to a successful photoshoot. As I was focussing on the garden it was appropriate that mine today should be blooming.
I was unhappy with my first shot at the epimediums, so I went back out to make some more efforts.
Then came my first ‘little bit o’ bloomin’ luck’. A bee had decided it was now warm and dry enough to flit from bloom to bloom.
As I clicked away at this insect, I received a second stroke. More clicking above my head alerted me to the fact that a pair of long-tailed tits were using the weeping birch branches as trapezes.
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Aaron of A.P. Maintenance has recently completed the last section of fencing, and reorganised the compost bins. Today, he and his nephew Rory took away some of the resultant rubbish. This photograph is one of the few that I was able to take today in sunshine and with a dry camera.
During the rest of the day I was in and out to the garden attempting a few photographs of plants enjoying the sunshine and the showers. Perhaps only the duck and the frog were really in their element. The rain bejewelled primulas, daffodils, camellias, clematis cirrhosa, hellebores, iris, pulmonaria, and faux poppy sat for me quite nicely.
By mid-afternoon I conceded victory to the wind which enforced such rapid changes in the skies that all this last batch of pictures were produced within minutes during which rain fell continuously. Clouds rolled rapidly across the Heavens, sometimes concealing, sometimes revealing the sun
throwing its glowing light on this holly trunk against a sludgy bank of cloud.
This evening we dined on minced beef pie, creamy mashed potato and swede, red cabbage, crunchy carrots, leeks, and onions. I finished the merlot.
