Jackie and I put in gardening stints early on another warm and sunny day, while Martin continued throughout the day.
Continuing my war with velcro-stemmed sticky Willy, I weeded and dead-headed a little.
Martin came to us on the recommendation of Jackie’s sister Helen. One of the last jobs he carried out for her included extracting a clump of geraniums from her front wall. She gave this clump to Jackie. Today
the Head Gardener separated this into individual plants and positioned them in the soil around the patio border – one can be seen at bottom left of the first two pictures in this gallery.
Accompanied by a pair of Nugget’s progeny
our gardening friend spent the day clearing and tidying more of the Rose Garden. Where’s Martin? (4) is the subject of the first in this gallery.
Here we have pink Festive Jewel with white Madame Alfred Carrière; magenta Roserie de l’Haie with yellow Laura Ford; white Winchester Cathedral; pink Schoolgirl before a yellow climber; pink Shropshire Lad beside Gloriana; peach Crown Princess Margareta; red thornless Zephirine Drouhin; a close up of Roserie de l’Haie; and bright red Altissimo.
This evening we all dined on succulent pork and apple sausages and creamy mash; flavoursome carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and tasty gravy with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Bardolino.
This afternoon, while Jackie drove Flo, Dillon. and Ellie out shopping, I watched a BBC recording of yesterday’s delayed start of the final cricket Test Match between England and South Africa.
I then took a walk round the garden with my camera.
We had given up these gladioli in the heatwave. They have revived nicely as have the nasturtiums in the background.
Begonias are all doing well;
as are Japanese anemones.
A fly had visited Winchester Cathedral,
and a bee, verbena bonariensis.
Roses Crown Princess Margareta,
Doris Tysterman,
and Super Elfin, continue to thrive.
Elizabeth visited this afternoon to meet Ellie.
My sister stayed for dinner which consisted of oven fish and chips (haddock and cod); mushy peas, pickled onions and gherkins, with which Elizabeth and I drank more of the Côtes du Rhône; Jackie drank Hoegaarden; and Flo and Dillon drank fruit cordial.
Afterwards I watched the recorded highlights from today at the test match.
Beneath oppressively leaden skies on an unseasonably warm morning we carried out some tidying of the garden.
Enjoying the sounds of gentle birdsong in the trees; raucous geese honking overhead, and the
clinking and scraping of Jackie’s tools as she trimmed the grass and weeded brickwork, I concentrated on sweeping fallen beach leaves and dead heading in the rose garden and elsewhere.
The bonus of the weather conditions was the diffused light in which to photograph
Summer Wine (too high to reach with secateurs); crisp, pink, Just Joey; constantly blooming white Winchester Cathedral; and the seemingly everlasting Crown Princess Margareta.
Taking a break for lunch and cutting my hair, Jackie continued until early evening. Among her achievements were
the creation of a new bed opposite the greenhouse door; bringing one of her dragons further into view by providing him with a pedestal; and progressing the clearance of the stepping stones through the Palm Bed.
This latter project could be seen from the decking on which we took our pre-dinner drinks in gathering gloom, as could
Immediately afterwards, having now learned that tomorrow’s gentle breeze and light showers has transmogrified into the end of Hurricane Evert, we set about once more laying down the garden furniture raised this morning.
On another warm, humid, and largely overcast morning garden maintenance was continued.
Jackie mostly concentrated on the Rose Garden, then produced her own gallery. It was the cricket on Absolutely Fabulous that sent her indoors for her camera. She also spotted a bee and a beetle on Rosa Gallica. Winchester Cathedral, For Your Eyes Only, and Lady Emma Hamilton were all ready for their close-ups. The beetle on the leaf in the first Rosa Gallica picture may be an invasive ladybug
My work was wider-ranging weeding, dead-heading, and feeding the compost bin and bags for the dump with suitable material.
With the cordyline Australis and the Wedding Day rose in full bloom it seemed opportune for me to stick my camera lenses through the upstairs windows and produce some
shots from above. So I did.
I then spent a while completing Jackie’s driving licence renewal application on line, only to get to the very last item and be told that there had been a technical hitch which resulted in the whole effort being cancelled. Mrs Knight then repeated the process with a paper application in half the time.
Afterwards we posted the application at Everton Post Office; collected a prescription from Milford on Sea Pharmacy; visited Rosie Lea tea house, formerly The Hobler Inn, to book a meal for which Danni had given Jackie a voucher for her birthday; and, following a forest drive, purchased three more bags of compost at Ferndene Farm Shop.
Beside the stream at the start of Cadnam Lane, apparently exhausted in the heat, a trio of pigs lay flaked out. They occasionally twitched in an effort to shift the horseflies from their flanks. One sow found the energy to rise to her feet and slowly yawn.
Round the next bend ponies sought shelter in the woodland. They, too, received their share of flies.
This evening we indeed on Jackie’s succulent beef and onion pie; new potatoes, firm carrots, and tender runner beans, with meaty gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Les Dauphins Cotes du Rhone 2019.
Today was even hotter than yesterday, so we began gardening early once more.
The sweet smelling rose Summer Wine shares the entrance arch to the Rose Garden with the white Madame Alfred Carriere.
One of the casualties of the recent gales was that a number of stems of the sturdy climber were ripped from their ties, and fell across the bed beneath it, seeming to form part of Festive Jewel. Although it then enhanced the bed, our task today was to prise it from its resting place and encourage it to rejoin its thornless French partner.
I was, of course, definitely the under-gardener in this project, essentially employed to hold the ladder and keep stems in place until secured. Not only that – someone had to record the event.
This is the final result. The Head Gardener assures me that all will soon fall into the proper place.
Naturally I took the opportunity to photograph other blooms such as Mum in a Million, gladioli Byzantium, feverfew, foxgloves, and Erigeron in the first of these images; bright red Love Knot and more muted Alan Titchmarsh in the second. The rose named for our popular gardening expert also appears in the final picture in the gallery.
Here is another foxglove for which species it has been a good year. Lidl name their plants quite simply – the second picture is called a white climber.
Special Anniversary appears in the background behind Absolutely Fabulous and a few aquilegias.
We inherited this pink climber towering above the Rose Garden Arbour, and Paul’s Scarlet which shares the Wisteria Arbour. Jackie planted the blue solanum.
Peach Abundance is in the Oval Bed just outside the Rose Garden.
A wood pigeon silently lurked in the shadows,
while the buzzing bee’s activities somewhat impeded the pruning operation.
The healthy buds of stems either broken or sacrificed to the secateurs found their way to the accident pot.
I had intended to continue weeding the brick paving later, but decided it was too hot and watch England’s football match against Croatia instead.
This evening we dined on oven fish and chips with onion rings and peas, to which Jackie added a pickled onion and I, cornichons with chillis. We both drank Salento Rosato 2019.
On a drab, drearily dull, day I tuned into the start of the second cricket Test Match between England and New Zealand, and scanned eight more of Charles Keeping’s excellent illustrations to Charles Dickens’s ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.
In turning ‘Nicholas found Bray lying on the floor quite dead, and his daughter clinging to the body’ upside down, Charles Keeping has given the image an additionally morbid perspective.
‘Mrs Nickleby would draw up a chair and run through a great variety of distracting topics in the most distracting manner possible’
In ‘Some of the neighbours threw up their windows and called across the street to each other’ the artist has sprawled across two pages, symbolising the crossing of the street.
‘As they stole further and further in, the old hag and Squeers were busily occupied with their tasks’ gives Keeping the opportunity to display perspective by having the foreground figure burst from the frame.
‘With eyes almost starting from their sockets, and in a fit of trembling which quite convulsed his frame, Smile was shrieking to him for help’
Keeping’s trademark dog in the street appears in the foreground of ‘To Gride’s house Ralph directed his steps, now thoroughly alarmed and fearful’
‘Ralph sat down, pressing his two hands upon his temples’
‘ ‘That’s my own brave Kate!’ said Nicholas, pressing her to his breast’
During the cricket tea interval and for a while afterwards I cleared and transferred to the compost bins some of Jackie’s weeding refuse, then wandered around with my camera.
Jackie continued planting hanging baskets and other containers
on the patio.
Other views include those beside the wisteria and along the Shady Path, where, beyond the shot containing the Arthur Bell rose,
a red climber stands over a spanning wooden arch;
the peeling bark of the eucalyptus; from Margery’s poppies through the Cryptomeria Bed; and
the Rose Garden, including
pink Mum in a Million, peach Flower Power, white Winchester Cathedral, yellow Crown Princess Margareta and Absolutely Fabulous, red and pink For Your Eyes Only, white Kent carpet rose, and pink Festive Jewel.
This evening we dined on succulent lemon chicken and roast potatoes; crisp Yorkshire pudding; firm carrots and broccoli, with tasty gravy. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Cotes de Gascogne.
The sun kept away today, and the cloud-wrapped air was mild.
To increase seasonal confusion the winter flowering cherry has bloomed early and nudges crab apples normally stripped by blackbirds by now.
This camellia is a very early spring bloomer, but never a November one.
Fuchsias like Delta’s Sarah and Mrs Popple just go on and on;
what is Margaret Merril doing distributing her summer scents over the latter?
This pink climber; the deep magenta Gloriana; gently blushing Crown Princess Margareta; never-ending For Your Eyes Only; dewy Mamma Mia; and ever-prolific Absolutely Fabulous still, beyond their normal spans, cling to life.
Even Winchester Cathedral has turned its back on Autumn.
Fatsia knows when to flower;
as for bidens, pelargoniums, and penstemon, they have no idea when to stop.
This afternoon the skies gently leaked and I scanned the last few black and white negatives produced from Kensal Green Cemetery in May 2008.
One of the most skilfully carved monuments in this, the earliest of “The Magnificent Seven” landscaped London cemeteries, stands in honour of Ninon Michaelis (c1864-1895) who ‘was the first wife of Maximilian (Max) Michaelis (1852-1932), a German-South African financier and diamond magnate. Max Michaelis was a partner in the mining company of Wernher, Beit & Co., and came to England in 1891 as the firm’s London director. An avid collector of paintings, he donated a magnificent collection of Dutch masters to the South African government, and endowed the Michaelis School of Fine Arts in the University of Cape Town. He was knighted in 1924. Ninon Michaelis was named as a popular figure in reviews of troops in South Africa. In May 1895, at the age of 31, she died of syncope (fainting), pneumonia and alcoholism. Also deposited in the vault beneath the monument are the remains of Max’s brother Gustav Michaelis (c1858-1901). Ownership of the vault passed to Maximilian’s second wife, Lillian Elizabeth Burton, whom he married in 1908, and who is recorded as the owner of the plot in 1932……..’
‘The monument is attributed to Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937). Pegram entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1881 and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1884.’ (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1246089).
A side view of this sculpture of artist Wiliam Mulready appears in the book so I will not reproduce it here.
Sorrowful angels populate these Victorian burial grounds.
Another sealed up mausoleum is this one erected for Sir Patrick O’Brien.
His obituary in the International Catholic News weekly reported ‘The death of SIR PATRICK O’BRIEN, BART., on April 25, is announced. The deceased Baronet was the eldest son of the late Sir Timothy O’Brien, Bart. When the Corporation of Dublin was reformed in 1840, Daniel O’Connell was elected the first Catholic Chief Magistrate of the City since the penal times. Sir Timothy O’Brien was the second, and he was again subsequently elected when it became known that the Queen was to pay her first visit to Ireland. It was on this occasion, 1849, that the honour of a Baronetcy was conferred. He had then been member for Cashel since 1845 and continued such till 1857.’ (http://ukcdngenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-london-cemetery-blumberg-obrien-and.html)
This evening we dined on Jackie’s well-matured spicy pasta arrabbiata and tender green beans with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Valle Central Reserva Privado Merlot 2019.
Beneath a constantly percolating cloud colander parky temperatures prevailed throughout the day.
I stayed at the computer while the Assistant Photographer produced the
precipitation photoshoot. Click on any image to access the gallery where each picture bears it own title.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy mango and lime piri-piri chicken served with chilli-potent savoury rice topped with omelette, followed by apricot jam tart and custard, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Fleurie.
My Under Gardener tasks this cooler, more cloudy, morning consisted of a little clearing to compost and a lot of rose decapitation.
Among the regular bloomers like the White Winchester Cathedral,
the prolific bright yellow Absolutely Fabulous, and the fulsome Lady Emma Hamilton a number of repeat performers are taking the stage.
Just Joey has risen from
the red carpet that continues to attract bustling bees.
The peachy velvet Schoolgirl graces the arbour
beneath which Gertrude Jekyll stretches from sleep, while
budding Deep Secret is currently keeping us in the dark.
This afternoon we drove to the less touristy east of the forest.
We had been promised a 30% chance of rain today. The nearest we got to that was a distant fall when driving along St Leonards Road.
The skies on the opposite side, across The Solent over the Isle of Wight, had no rain to drop.
The roof of the ancient St Leonard’s granary, which, as explained in https://derrickjknight.com/2016/08/04/salt-marshes/ once served Beaulieu Abbey, glows a rich rusty orange;
a pigeon surveys the scene from a ruined arch bearing similarly hued highlights.
Our mighty oaks do suffer in the heavy winds. Here, one huge limb has recently been wrenched off. The stump in the fourth picture has been a more distant casualty.
Further along a covey of juvenile pheasants were possibly discussing the approaching 1st of October when their shooting season starts.
This evening we dined on a rack of pork ribs in a rich barbecue sauce, mini spring rolls, Jackie’s tasty egg fried rice, and tender green beans, with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Trapiche Pure unoaked Argentinian Malbec 2019 – a birthday present from Helen and Bill.
