These two photographs produced by Jessica on Christmas Day 1974
in our Islington garden contain a bunch of roses picked then by me.
This evening we all dined on Britannia Thai’s excellent takeaway fare. No-one imbibed.
Advent Day 24
Tag: roses
Very Little Damage
I wandered around the quite still post-storm garden this morning and was pleasantly surprised at the limited damage we had suffered.
On Friday evening Jackie had performed the usual battening down of the hatches, such as laying down plant stands and
the items that can be seen in these images of the patio except for the downed owl planter and the broken pot she had thought too heavy for the 75 mph winds to blow down.
The Head Gardener had tucked the watering cans out of the usual danger area, but some were scattered around as can be seen on the Kitchen and Brick Paths.
Apart from the owl in the first picture, and the hanging basket loosened from the eucalyptus tree most flowers in pots have remained unscathed.
One owl has been tipped a little as his support has been dislodged;
the copper beech has retained a few leaves, while depositing the rest on the soil and gravel beneath. We can always do with more bagfuls.
Some readers my remember that recently we transported two lidless dustbins to the local dump. Over this weekend we acquired another we could hear rolling around the front garden. This morning it was standing upright on the front drive. Jackie stood it outside in the street. We can’t take responsibility for everything that blows in.
Because strong sunlight burns out the colours in flowers I waited to show some roses still thriving until the
sun was about to retire for the night.
This evening we dined on tender roast chicken; crisp Yorkshire pudding; boiled new potatoes; firm carrots; flavoursome Brussels sprouts, and tasty gravy, with which I drank more of the Fleurie.
The First Camellias
Today the last few of our roses including the pink climber; the light pink Generous Gardener reaching the top of the lopped cypress; pink Festive Jewel and yellow Absolutely Fabulous in the Rose Garden; the Westbrook Arbour red carpet roses representing the three thriving examples of these, cheerfully welcomed
the first of our Camellias.
During the last two days I have returned to making good progress with “The Heart of The Family” by Elizabeth Goodge.
This evening we enjoyed further helpings of Jackie’s flavoursome, aromatic, and colourful chicken jalfrezi and savoury rice meal, with which I drank vino Argentino Bebida Nacional Mendoza Malbec 2022.
A Workroom Behind The Shed
After having cleared the footpath through the Cryptomeria Bed, Martin has now paved the area behind and alongside the garden shed that Jackie had spent some days tidying and levelling, thus providing her with a good working space without tripping over rubbish and requiring mud removal from her shoes. A couple of days ago she disturbed a wasps nest beneath this soil and set about it with a long-handled blunt instrument and effective herbicide. So incensed was one of her enemies that it lodged itself beneath her right spectacles frame leaving enough venom over her cheekbone to produce a very nasty hard lump down that side of her face. It is not so visible now.
The Head Gardener has completed her refurbishment of the planting in front of the garage door trellis with the addition of a basket hanging from the porch roof.
I added pictures of token roses in the form of New Dawn and Festive Jewel.
I didn’t manage much culling today, but this picture, my first entry into digital photography, appears in https://derrickjknight.com/2012/06/24/choosing-a-camera/
This is the header from https://derrickjknight.com/2012/06/28/dinner-with-the-mayor-2/
In January 1965 I was working in a building that no longer exists on the east end of Westminster Bridge, well able to watch the lengthy queues waiting to view Sir Winston Churchill’s lying in state lined up along the embankment and bridges from 27th to 30th which appear in https://derrickjknight.com/2015/01/24/1000-days/
Having perforce, at least until my cancer treatments are completed, to resort to more medium curries, I enjoyed my first ever king prawn biriani while Jackie chose her favourite ponir shashlik at Rokali’s restaurant this evening. The food and service was as excellent as ever. I drank Kingfisher and Jackie drank Diet Coke.
Which Season?
The side effects of my BCG procedure have subsided today, and squirrels and moles have ceased burrowing.
When I returned from wandering around the garden with my camera on this shirtsleeves-mild-slate-grey-air morning listening to the
trickling of the Waterboy, I found that unless I culled my 57 pictures I would be in danger of flooding my readers, so I managed to reduce the offerings to forty.
Having neglected to water the nasturtiums in front of the garage trellis we thought they had died.
New growth is now flourishing. Will we see them Bloom?
The last of the smaller crab apples seen in this image alongside fuchsia Delta’s Sarah have been abandoned by the wood pigeons,
and blackbirds are moving on to the larger red ones.
Other fuchsias such as Army Nurse continue to adorn the shrubberies.
Busy lizzies and erigerons alongside each other drape the patio’s low wooden wall.
Violas are potted everywhere.
Some can be seen alongside cyclamen beyond the stumpery ferns.
Such as these nerines and this lace cap hydrangea brighten beds.
Dahlias we would of course expect at this time of year;
But maybe not so many pelargoniums and geraniums.
This viburnum and our numerous bergenias are also in season,
but solanum sharing a perch above a dead trunk is perhaps surprising at this time.
Leaves from the copper beech flitter rustling down to
the Rose Garden,
to nestle among seedlings of forget-me-nots, campanulas and aquilegias and rose petals,
many of which have yet to bloom or to fall. As usual all these images are labelled in the gallery.
in closing with this blue geranium, orange and yellow bidens and mauve petunias I have to acknowledge that I have no idea which season we are experiencing.
This evening we dined on chicken Kiev; boiled potatoes, spinach, carrots; cauliflower and leek cheese; and a melange of onions, tomatoes, runner and broad beans, and mushrooms flavoured so well with oregano and basil as to make the delicious smell match the taste. I drank more of the Morgon.
Squirrel Suspect
In the murky light of an overcast shirtsleeves-warm morning I photographed a few garden views from the windows above.
I then dead-headed some of our roses, and
photographed a few still flourishing. The first is Compassion, from above; the red carpet rose is in the Weeping Birch Bed, as is Rosa Siluetta Lavender; the pink Festive Jewel, yellow Absolutely Fabulous, and red/gold Mamma Mia are all in the Rose Garden.
The first of these dahlias was also viewed from above.
Begonias white and pink continue to thrive.
Red/purple Army Nurse, pink and white Garden News, and the ubiquitous Delta’s Sarah are long lingering fuchsias.
These yellow chrysanthemums and red cyclamen will hopefully be safer than the recently planted tulips of which Jackie bought a number in three figures.
Some time this morning the bulbs began to be exhumed and eaten, we suspect by a squirrel which can read the labels. They have already ravaged the area around the patio. Even if these animals are illiterate they will probably eschew daffodils to which they are not partial. If not squirrels, who knows?
This evening we dined at Rokali’s where the food and service was as good as always. I chose methi goust; Jackie, ponir shashlik, and we shared sag rice. I drank Kingfisher and Jackie drank Diet Coke. I may not have mentioned before that the knives actually cut and the forks and spoons do not bend.
In Search Of A Mate
After more stimulating conversation Louisa, Geri, and Coco left us at 10 a.m. this morning.
Jackie then set about removing the tree roots impeding the level of the area behind the garden shed, and photographing her work.
I bagged up the waste roots.
We have a number of areas where the soil has recently been thrown up in what are now molehills produced by these normally solitary animals burrowing underground in search of a mate. One of these is the new footpath into the Weeping Birch Bed.
The Head Gardener also photographed the Cryptomeria Bed;
and roses Lady Emma Hamilton, aloha complete with raindrops and a fly, an Absolutely Fabulous bud, and Mamma Mia also bejewelled with rainwater.
This afternoon we took a forest drive. On a shaded bank at the corner of Bistern Close and Bennett’s Lane a squirrel scampered while the woodland behind enjoyed the sunshine.
This being bonfire season our nostrils often sniffed woodsmoke like this in the smoky landscapes seen from Picket Post carpark.
The rippling stream flowing fast under the ford at North Gorley reflected the footbridge above.
This evening we repeated last night’s meal of chicken and vegetable stewp and focaccia bread.
October Sunshine
Although my usual BCG procedure symptoms disturbed my sleep, by midmorning they had subsided, leaving me rather lacking in energy. I therefore dozed over the BBC radio transmission of the third day’s play in the second test match between England and Pakistan.
Having once more watched the cumbersome wood pigeons teetering precariously among slender stems while they attempted to keep the occasional crab apple in their beaks, I took a brief walk around the garden where
roses such as Aloha and Festive Jewel are still blooming,
and Rosa Siluetta Lavender continues to wind itself around the Weeping Birch trunk which it shares with mushrooms generated from its wood.
Fuchsias, for example Mrs Popple and Delta’s Sarah will probably survive the winter.
Clerodendrum Trichotomum is at its peak;
dahlias continue and Japanese anemones still attract bees
A hidden clematis cluster shelters alongside the Heligan Path.
Many pots of violas have not been mislabelled, they carry signs that bulbs are planted beneath them.
This evening we dined on Ferndene pork and garlic sausages; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. with which I drank another glass of viña San Juan.
Summer Time Flowers
Yesterday afternoon Jackie photographed a snails’ snuggery in a plant pot she unearthed. This contained 52 specimens.
On this still, warm, morning when we prepared the car for another trip to the Efford Recycling Centre, a T-shirt beneath a normal shirt was at least one layer too much. All was quiet, save for the grating rasp of the returning magpies.
We thought that the Hagley Hybrid, the first of these two clematises, had suffered the fate of a witch burnt at the stake during an early summer hot spell, but after a severe haircut it has risen once more.
A number of fuchsias, such as Mrs Popple, white Hawksmoor, and Garden News continue to thrive;
the Weeping Birch Bed features one of the several Delta’s Sarah.
Jackie has tried to plant nerines before without success. The first in this gallery, named Lipstick seems to enjoy this position beside the patio. Obviously the cosmetic sharing its name is more delicate than that favoured by Hot Lips salvia.
Some of the many roses still flowering are the peach climber, pink Compassion, red Super Elfin, pale pinks Penny Lane and New Dawn, yellow Summer Time, and mauve Alan Titchmarsh.
Hanging baskets and other pots contain begonias, antirrhinums, lobelia and violas underplanted with daffs.
Dahlias are in their element.
At the recycling centre we left five bags of green refuse and various wood and plastic items with no more useful life, and returned with a fine bevelled mirror to reflect light in the garden and provide a target for birds pecking their reflected enemies.
The lunchtime news on BBC featured a hospital carrying out medical procedures at weekends in order to keep down waiting times. The Hospital was Southampton General; the team Urology; the specialism Bladder Cancer. How about that?
This evening we dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent fare.
Garden, Pigs, And Ponies
This morning I read more of ‘The Berlin Diaries’.
By mid-afternoon, with the warm sun vying with the cotton clouds for dominance of the skies,
I wandered round the garden with my camera. The Virginia creeper has reddened up beautifully in the last 48 hours. Each of the images bears a title in the gallery.
Later, the sun having defeated the clouds, we visited Ferndene Farm shop to buy various food items and three more bags of compost for which I now have to avail myself of the trolleys provided.
We continued into the forest where we tracked a group of young
Tamworth pigs as they left the road for gleeful chomping on heaps of crunchy apples.
Ponies along Forest Road formed an orderly line along a wall in the shade; while
others disrupted the traffic on Tiptoe Road.
After drinks on the patio we dined on Jackie’s tasty liver casserole; boiled new potatoes, carrots, runner beans, and broccoli, with which I drank more of the Malbec.