Yesterday evening Jackie finished her work on the Lawn Bed.
She also continued her general maintenance, such as the Weeping Birch Bed weeding and replanting, following Flo’s earlier work on the footpath.
Early this morning Jackie and I transported the last of the garden refuse to the Efford Recycling Centre, after which we purchased three more large bags of compost and a few vegetables from Ferndene Farm Shop.
a gallery of garden views, each of which bears a title.
This evening Jackie and I dined on her spicy paprika pork while Flo preferred meat and vegetable pasty to accompany the boiled new potatoes, crunchy carrots, and firm cauliflower and broccoli, with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden; our granddaughter, Raspberry Rhubarb and Orange Blossom cordial; and I, more of the Chianti.
The usual division of labour applied to garden maintenance this searingly hot day, although Flo had worked until it was too long after dark to see, finishing the last of the compost and plants; and filling our score of watering cans.
As soon as I had prised my nostrils from the scented rose bushes, had a long sit down and a cold drink of water, I staggered round the garden with my camera.
Then I sunk my nose into the bookishly scented ‘Woman in White’ by Wilkie Collins.
Becky joined us this evening and we all dined on pizza, prawns, and salad with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Barolo. The others abstained. Strawberries and cream were to follow.
Martin and Jackie spent several hours between them this morning weeding and clearing; I chipped in with some of each and mostly dead heading, largely concentrating on
the Rose Garden, of which I wish I could convey the scents.
After lunch I recorded the general scenes, as usual titled in the galleries.
View east from Heligan Path. Where’s Martin?
This evening we dined on Jackie’s succulent beef and onion pie; boiled potatoes; crisp cauliflower and carrots; tender green beans; and meaty gravy, with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Douro.
Yesterday evening Flo had transferred one more wheelbarrow load of compost into the Rose Garden and another to the new raised bed at the end of the Back Drive.
This morning Jackie spread one heap on the newly planted bed,
and continued weeding the gravel path.
The borders are beginning to bloom nicely.
I began refilling the now empty compost bin.
Before lunch the Head Gardener distributed the last load of compost on the Rose Garden soil she had weeded yesterday.
The Heligan Path, weaving its way between the Cryptomeria and the Weeping Birch Beds; and the Phantom Path, separating the other side of the Cryptomeria and Margery’s Beds are looking tidier.
Late this afternoon Elizabeth visited with forms from Barclays Bank re closure of Mum’s account which should have come to me. Somebody has got their wires crossed. She will need to telephone the bank’s bereavement team again to sort this out before we can close the account.
Since we don’t have enough of yesterday’s roast meal leftovers for a fourth person we were unable to ask her to join us. That is what we will be having, with the same beverages as we had then.
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.
We have concentrated so much on paths recently that, on a bright and sunny morning, I decided to take a tour around the beds.
Each of these pictures bears a title in the gallery. The only editing has been a little slight cropping. I trust the Head Gardener will forgive the occasional inclusion of a trug.
I have now read two more of The Folio Society’s 1974 selection of Short Stories by Anton Chekhov. The first, which is not illustrated with a drawing by Nigel Lambourne, is ‘The Cross of Anna’. As Elisaveta Fen, the translator, writes ‘It is essentially a story of the destruction of innocence and the folly of so-called self sacrifice.’ One of the author’s themes seems to be the desperate sadness of the widespread custom of much older men being pledged to women barely out of their teens and consequently considered heading for the shelf. My reaction to the pun of the title is also shared by Fen who states that the female lead’s ‘husband is awarded the cross of Anna, worn on a ribbon round the neck; hence the Russian title ‘Anna around his neck’ – a Russian idiom for describing an unwanted burden.’
To my mind, the next story is a tragedy of an obsessional character who manages to transfer his own fears to those around him. Elisaveta Fen points out that ‘Contemporary reviewers enlarged on Belikov’s type’s social significance and importance, treating [him] as a representative of an influential and socially dangerous class of people who threaten and bully their colleagues into conformity with absurd restrictions on their behaviour.’ I agree with the translator that he is more worthy of pity than fear.
Illustrator Nigel Lambourne has introduced a provocative element of his own to ‘Varinka was the first woman who had treated Belikov with friendliness’. It is, after all, his colleagues who thought it amusing to manipulate the prospective union of the two protagonists.
I am grateful to Maj for helping me distinguish between bees and hoverflies.
Today we were visited by both bees
and hoverflies.
Our new wooden bench was delivered this morning. This afternoon we carried it from our back gate to the Rose Garden in order to install it beneath the Agriframes Arbour. We had been pleased that we didn’t have to assemble it with flat-pack “destructions”. There was, however, a downside. The piece was quite heavy and would only just fit into the available space, so, having carted it up there we left it just outside and went back indoors to procrastinate and think about it.
This structure was to replace the smaller, white aluminium, two seater which was the previous occupant of this resting place, and really only suitable for children or small adults.
It was easy enough for me to shift that and to
leave it on the paving leading to single chair occupying the corner beyond the Little Climber rose and the fallen New Dawn.
After wrestling with the new bench we decided that lifting the fallen rose was a bridge too far, and could wait until tomorrow. Jackie relaxed on her pole and we both rested on our laurels and our new purchase,
looking at the view from Absolutely Fabulous through Festive Jewel.
Meanwhile our previous new bench still enables occupants to share the view with Florence sculpture.
Day lilies are blooming all over the garden.
This evening, after drinks sitting on our new bench we dined on our second helpings of yesterday’s Red Chilli takeaway, including the unopened paratha, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the CEO.
Given the forecast (accurate) of the very hot day we gardened in the morning.
My contribution was weeding the central brick paving of the Rose Garden,
where, later, Jackie took a break sitting in the shade.
This afternoon my Chauffeuse drove me into the forest. A parliament of rooks was held beneath a dead tree alongside
Mill Lane, where walkers, cyclists, and motorists were to be seen. In fact many visitors were about this afternoon, so we kept away from the more popular areas.
A cricket match was under way at Burley. Jackie opined that one of the bowlers reminded her of me in my youth, which she described as tall and skinny. Having watched his action, I replied that I hoped not.
The only livestock out in the sunshine today appeared on Wootton Common.
A small Highland cow nibbled at the verge, with its crop of
buttercups, daisies, and ferns.
A while ago I had photographed a heron beside birches in the middle distance. Today I spotted
a bovine trio in the same place.
Remembering the heron and realising that there was concave dip beside the tree, I wondered whether I might find cattle in a pool. My reflection was rewarded.
A pony mare grazed on the sward, hoping to build herself up enough to satisfy her nearby foal.
The usual two little Shetlands accompanied a group of their larger equine cousins.
Early this evening we continued emergency watering which Jackie had been doing on and off all day.
We then dined on spicy meat feast pizza with plentiful fresh salad. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Doom Bar.
Work continued on the Rose Garden this morning. We used a metal mallet to straighten the legs of the recent acquired rusty obelisks and hammer them into position.
More fallen leaves from the copper beech tree were swept, gathered up with big hands, and deposited into
black bags in bin subsequently transferred to the compost area. The potted pansies in the above pictures have settled in nicely.
Penstemons and fuchsias continue to thrive.
As seen on the Shady Path there are many more leaves to be collected.
This afternoon Jackie began our Christmas shopping at Otter Nurseries while I sat in the car and read more of Edwin Drood.
Although we had enjoyed the best of the light this morning we then drove into the forest where
trees are turning on Pilley Hill.
At the Lodge Lane road junction
donkeys foraged;
fallen trees stretched across the woodland;
and burnished mushrooms burgeoned beneath golden-brown beech leaves.
Indigo clouds swept across pale pink skies over St Leonard’s Road where
our familiar miniature pony still tagged along with the big girls;
and strutting pheasants trotted across adjacent fields.
This evening we dined on second helpings of Hordle Chinese Takeaway’s tasty fare with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Corbieres.
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.
