salvia Hot Lips – derrickjknight

Light-headed

I was wondering round the garden with a camera when Shelly arrived for a morning coffee visit with congenial conversation.

Raindrops bejewelled various pelargoniums,

keeping fuchsias like Mrs Popple, and

salvias Amistad

and Hot Lips glistening.

Honesty seed pods sparkled,

Penstemons and marigolds are either early or late,

while the viburnums Bodnantense Dawn are definitely early,

and rose New Dawn displays a new bud over the Rose Garden pergola.

Like the garden I felt brighter today, although, like Schoolgirl rose, a bit light-headed.

This evening we dined on more of Hordle Chinese Take Away fine fare with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank another glass of the Fleurie.

Mad Max

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It was finger-tingling cold when Jackie continued her winter planting on this sun-bright morning and I photographed some still lingering blooms.

Outside the kitchen door pelargoniums, petunias, and erigeron vie for space.

More pelargoniums,

some with autumnal plumage, as in this urn shared with verbenas, continue to spread their colour around.

Rozanne geraniums add splashes of blue

palely reflected by clematis Comtesse de Bouchard

just about thriving on the gazebo

along with the winter flowering Cirrhosa.

There are still hardy fuchsias

I may not yet have featured.

This maple on the grass had been cut down when we arrived three years ago. We are encouraging it to come back to life.

Honesty seeds are masquerading as Pauline’s light catchers.

They are seen here in the Cryptomeria Bed.

The roses to the right of the tree rise over the Oval Bed. As can be seen, there are more to come.

Hot Lips salvia,

varieties of nasturtium,

and even of antirrhinum, still bloom.

On such a day a late afternoon forest drive was essential.

A pony in a field off South Sway Lane was more interested in the grass than in Sway Tower.

Opposite Longsdale View, where gorse blooms among the bracken,

the Isle of Wight is visible across the moors.

Along the stretch of Highland Water just outside Brockenhurst,

where stumps stand like ancient tombstones on one bank,

the deciduous trees

now wear their temporary autumn plumage;

the banks are becoming waterlogged

enough for arboreal reflections.

It was here that I was introduced to Mad Max, who had no fear of freezing his nether regions.

The forest road between Brockenhurst and Beaulieu displayed trees resplendent

with the last of their glowing golds

and burnished browns;

falling fast

to carpet the floor.

As we approached Beaulieu, a pair of backlit ponies prompted Jackie to park the car on the verge and me to wander back to photograph them. Maybe it was something I said,

for, in turn,

they turned tail,

and crossed the road,

to join companions enjoying greener grass.

The portions of our meal at The Raj two nights ago were so generous that we couldn’t eat it all and brought some home.. Jackie added samosas and onion bahjis for this evening’s repast, with which I finished the malbec.

Aaron Knows The Score

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We have experienced an intermittently leaky kitchen extension roof since we arrived here. The amount of infiltration has depended upon the wind direction rather than the quantity of precipitation. One person has already allegedly repaired it – not very effectively.

Sid, a very personable extra pair of hands, has joined Aaron in AP Maintenance. Today he mixed up cement and mended the roof properly.

Aaron pruned a straggly climbing rose, and cleared more of the West Bed including stripping dead and intrusive growth from another palm, and sawing off an exposed tree stump we hadn’t known was there. When I told him that Sid had spotted a cracked tile and asked if we had any more, and I had replied that we had, but I would need to ask Jackie where they were, Aaron gave her yet another title. “The Maintenance Department”, said our friend, who knows the score.

Just to show willing, I assisted The Head Gardener in her general maintenance tasks this afternoon by occupying myself dead-heading.

This is, of course, the season for showy dahlias

bright, bushy, chrysanthemums,

and snaking nasturtiums;

but I am surprised to see honeysuckle rising again in both back and front gardens.

Geraniums

and begonias cling on to life;

and fuchsias like Mrs Popple dangle away.

We have some multicoloured Rudbeckia;

the aptly named salvia Hot Lips;

and long-lived cosmoses.

The apparently everlasting For Your Eyes Only keeps company in the Rose Garden with

fresh flushes of Love Knot,

Laura Ford,

and Mamma Mia.

The Small White butterflies are still enjoying the verbena bonarensis,

and bees still gather pollen provided by such as this clematis.

This evening we returned to the Turfcutter’s Arms

for a roast pork dinner. Jackie drank Peroni and enjoyed a chocolate sponge dessert with ice cream; my choices were Ringwood’s Best and fruit crumble with custard.

Salt Marshes

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Early this morning I walked around the garden to survey the elemental damage. The review of the situation was actually encouraging.

The nicotiana and agapanthus staked up a couple of days ago have perked up;

as have the white gladioli,

and the surviving Priscillas

in the New Bed.

When we arrived, the clematis Campaniflora in the front garden rambled over all the other plants, including numerous brambles. We cut it down drastically. It has set off again and is now, the tiniest such bloom we have, dancing with abandon.

The Hot lips salvias are similarly enticing.

The gauras, and heucheras have just bent gracefully with the wind.

This clematis at the top of the Agriframes arch, an unnamed bargain from Lidl, has proved sturdy enough.

On the strength of that pleasant surprise, we enjoyed a drive around the forest. We didn’t visit Buckler’s Hard, which featured on 12th January 2013,

but peeped through the fence at others who were doing so as we drove past.

St Leonard’s Grange is one of the fifteen barns that once served Beaulieu Abbey. There is not much of it left at Beaulieu St Leonard’s. Just one and a half gable ends and one and a half walls. At 300 ft long and more than 50 ft wide it was one of the largest in Europe.

Here are part of the roofs of a newer building.

I found some nearby farm buildings equally photogenic.

Further on past Sowley, we ventured down a dead end road called Tanner’s Lane. This led straight to a shingle beach we couldn’t drive onto because this is what it was:

These were the salt marshes we had seen from the cruise boat out of Lymington Marina,

which was, in turn, even in the hazy sunlight, visible from here;

as was Hurst Castle,

and The Needles, demonstrating that the castle is on the nearest mainland point to the island.

An empty boat bobbed among the buoys.

Here is yet another view of the Isle of Wight and The Needles, for the delight of Mary Tang.

We will shortly leave for Barry and Vicki’s home in Poole. We are to try out the Isan Thai restaurant in Parkstone Road. Anyone who wishes to be informed about our gastronomical investigation must defer their gratification until tomorrow.

An Extended Flowering Period

The date prompted me to begin the day by providing a link to a post from 2012: http://derrickjknight.com/2012/08/07/would-you-believe-it/ – well, would you? Any of it?

On another very mild morning, we continued preparations for winter. Although a considerable amount of cutting back is required, the garden is still full of colour, some from unlikely sources at this time of the year.

We have snapdragons everywhere. These two examples are from the beds alongside the back drive.

Nasturtiums still festoon beds, baskets, and window boxes.

A number of clematises, like this nibbled Polish Spirit, are enjoying a resurgence.

The salvia Hot Lips was The Guardian’s plant of the week on 10th May last year. Ours is bent on extending its flowering period;

as are these achilleas Desert Eve.

Chrysanthemums are to be expected.

Last Sunday, Aaron had discovered a wasps’ nest in one of the dead stumps along the back drive. Jackie had been delegated to buy some suitable insecticide for him to deal with it. She thought she would show it to me. This meant bashing it with a trowel. Soon the air was thick with vespas scooting everywhere. Remembering the bees, I did not hang around. Later, sitting at my p.c., I felt a tickle on my neck. I brushed it with my hand. A wasp flew from my hair to the windowsill. Refraining from photographing the creature, I squashed it.

This afternoon I mounted the Through To The Front series of photographs into the garden album, then watched the Rugby World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand.

In the early evening Jackie drove us to The First Gallery in Bitterne where I delivered my three prints for the Christmas exhibition. We went on to Elizabeth’s in West End, where Jacqueline joined us. The four of us dined at the revamped Eastern Nights at Thornhill. Under new management, the food is as good as before, and the service much more efficient. We all enjoyed the meals. My choice was Gosht Lal Mirchi with special fried rice. We shared a parata and onion bhajis. I drank Cobra. We separated outside the restaurant and Jackie drove me home.