Dayum chair-1…me-0.

Ok…I am sooooo sorry I didn’t put the chair in the chair upholstering

place.

Yep….kinda like military school. Sounds just about perfect

now. The beast.

Ripped off the cording. No prob. Massive amounts of glue. But no prob.

feeling strong

Carefully sorta pulled off very resistant material. No kinda sorta prob.

Wrote on overly resistant pieces

letting them know who is boss…

ha!

Down to the stuffin’

My crew…pathetic as they are

but skilled and trained…ready for battle. oh yeah!

WTH?!

I’m feeling dizzy...

C’mon…your kidding…right?

Oh dear God…Mother of mercy…

The chair is winning...

To be continued…..

arrrghhhhhhhhhh!

End of Month View - January 2010

The advent of a new year was a welcome prompt for me to join in with Patient Gardener's 'End of Month View'. It was a challenge to decide which part of the garden to select as the whole is in need of a makeover. It was also a challenge to take a photo of the selected area with not only snow on the ground this morning, but also a big pile of paving blocks in my way. Don't ask about the blocks :) When and I say when the blocks are out of the way, I can take another photo of the border facing me, instead of head on and sideways.



This border runs alongside our dwelling. It is east facing, about twenty feet long and seven feet wide. I am not sure yet where it is going but it definitely needs an overhaul. There are some plants that need extracting, thinning out or repositioning and I have some new arrivals waiting in my coldframe to go in. I am debating about what to do with the fatsia japonica which I put there temporarily but before I knew it had taken off. The border does need more height at the back. However I am wary of it becoming overgrown as we have squirrels visiting the garden regularly. I do not want to provide them with ready made access to the roof. I may have said it before but garden planning and design leaves me bewildered and bamboozled.

There is not much sign of life there at the moment apart from some emerging hellebores and the smallest gathering of snowdrops which I have no recollection of ever planting.





Hopefully a monthly summary will give me the chance to record my progress or lack of it as 2010 unfolds.

Silent Saturday

Down a Country Road

Have you ever been driving down a country road and been halted by an unexpected site? It happened to me recently in South Carolina. Sometimes the iPhone maps application will take you down an unexpected path that provides a surprisingly scenic route. On this particular occasion my husband and I followed the online navigational route which took us down a country road near Dalzell. Have you ever heard of Dalzell? Well, me neither, but the route took us down an eerily beautiful road lined with trees just dripping in moss.All of a sudden I spotted an historical marker. I'm always curious what story the markers are telling. Since we were in the woodsy wilderness I told my husband that we had to stop to read the sign and it was great that there was actually a pullover spot. Normally when the signs appear, there is no place to pull over to read the markers, especially when traveling at 55 mph (or more)! When I started reading the sign I was totally intrigued by the church I spotted and the description I read.
We had discovered the Church of the Holy Cross and who knew that Dr. Poinsett, the botanist who brought our Christmas flower, the poinsettia from Mexico to the United States, was buried in the church cemetery. The walls of the church had first been made from rammed earth, a mud compound, and was originally built in 1770. The original smaller structure was rebuilt in the 1800s. If I could have gotten into the church I might have been able to see some of the beautiful stained glass windows. The stained glass windows were designed by the French architect, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc though the glass works were made in Bavaria. The church organ was made by Henry Erben and was installed in 1851. It happens to be one of the only working Erben organs still in existence. The bell was cast in the Netherlands and is a "named" bell. Its sister bell, a twin to the Holy Cross bell, is located in the National Cathedral in D.C.
The church was under renovation and there were workers and equipment everywhere. I asked one of the workers if I could go inside the church and the big, burly guy I spoke to said, "don't think so." Of course, "thank you" seemed like the best response. So I clicked a couple of pictures and did my best to avoid the construction materials. I wish that road maps published an accompanying historical marker directory. As a lover of country roads and history, I would be more apt to stop to enjoy the surprises that one can find when taking the road less traveled.

'I Can Sing A Rainbow'

but oh it's a most lopsided one! Over at Prefer To Be In The Garden Rebecca has issued an invitation which allowed me to escape for a much needed fix of colour, on a dire grey January afternoon. I spent some time looking back on last years garden and allotment photos. I already knew that the colour palette in my garden was limited but it is even more top heavy than I thought in favour of blues, pinks, purples and white. I have almost no red apart from berries and fruit. The only red flower that I grow unless my photos and memory have conspired against me is crocosmia 'Lucifer'. I do not have a respectable photo of it to include here so my reds are the needs no intro strawberry and the berries of rosa rubiginosa. The latter has small single pink flowers and the foliage is stewed apple scented, noticeably more pronounced on damp warm evenings. It self seeds so I have taken down a spare to the allotment ~






Then it came to orange and I realised that again there is a big gap. At the allotment I grow nasturtiums, pumpkins, carrots and calendulas and a dahlia by the name of 'Orange Baby' but not one plant in the garden has orange petals. I am not quite sure why this has arisen. It is not as if I have got it in for orange - well I would never wear it but apart but from that ...... I am pleased that I am trying to remedy this omission. In my plan to introduce more late summer/autumn colour, sitting in the coldframe waiting to be planted are the orangey/yellow rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii inspired by Artists Garden and a helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' as featured in the vase below ~



I was surpised to see that despite my aversion to the colour I actually had more yellow than I thougt including various daffodils, primulas, courgette flowers and alchemilla mollis ~









For greens apart from foliage here we have peas at the allotment and the new to me last year mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream'. The green bracts slowly become tinged with pink as the season progresses.





Blues could have a post to themselves - I debated over which to include but start with bluebells which were already growing on the plot of land that became our garden, then polemonium caeruleum, brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' and hardy geranium lost labellus ~









I find indigo and violet hard to distinguish in my mind so here is a selection which between them I think captures both hue - the long flowering clematis 'Petite Faucon', geranium pratense 'Plenum Violaceum' and sweet pea 'Matucana' ~







I was much intrigued by Rebecca's reference to Roy G.Biv in her post which turned out to to be mnemonic for the sequence of hues in rainbows, similar to our 'Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain'. Thanks for the fun Rebecca and also for reminding me that I must introduce a more well balanced spectrum of colour in the garden. The garden is missing out !

Warmth…

Today…I am floating

Just being.

swaying…

Sipping…

Drifting off under the coconuts

Catching up…

…Taken care of

…being celebrated.

And then...

The alarm goes off.

poof.

Thank you Amanpulo Hotel

and

Photographer: Jordi Canosa

Home Sweet Home

B IS FOR?



BIRD BOX!

A bird would have no problem finding its way back here to this bright nesting box, fashioned in the style of a pillar box . These beautifully made bird boxes were on sale at the Arley Hall Garden Festival last summer. Too expensive for my budget but still one can look albeit briefly.

Be sure to be quick and make your way over to ABC Wednesday where lots of folk have beavered away, to bamboozle you with lots more on the letter B!

The Blog Post Formerly Known As ......

'Take A Walk On The Wildside' but Arabella Sock beat me to it with the title! I started this post some months ago after visiting Wildside in August 2009. I faffed about trying to decide which photos to include as I took so many, that the post went on the back burner. Arabella's post came and went and still I faffed. Recently Rosthchild Orchid posed the question where should she go on her garden odyssey ? Without hesitation I suggested Wildside, at the same time deciding that I must stop dallying and write about our visit to this exhilarating garden.



We visited the garden at the end of the first week of August on way home from France. After embarking from the cross channel ferry at Plymouth in previous years, I have persuaded himself that our campervan must steer itself homeward bound via The Garden House in Buckland Monachorum, Devon some ten miles or so from Plymouth. However I had read that Keith Wiley, the former gardener at The Garden House had moved on and had been creating his own garden and nursery at Wildside, some short distance from from the Garden House. Oh joy of joys as luck would have it we got back to England on a Thursday, which last year was the only day that Wildside opened to the public! So once we had escaped from Plymouth we headed for the moors, circumnavigating (me with heart in mouth) the odd few wandering wild ponies and then on to Wildside. Above the noisy diesel engine that propels our van I was aware of himself muttering away that as usual that any garden/nursery I want to visit is in the back of beyond and takes some finding. All part of the experience I tell him.

Needless to say we reached our destination and off we went into the garden. Whilst walking around we found out when talking to other visitors that the garden had very recently featured in a national newspaper. The article which you can read here describes how a former cider orchard was turned into a garden and explains the inspiration behind its development and the naturalistic plantings. I will let the photos do the talking and do hope that you click on them to see the planting in more detail ~





Down by the water ~













It was a muggy and grey afternoon in the main but from time to time the clouds rolled back and we were treated to some glimpses of blue ~











There was also an excellent nursery at Wildside stocking many of the plants which were growing in the garden. A small exhibition of paintings by Keith's wife Ros was on display. There were also copies of Keith's books 'Shade: Planting Solutions For Shady Gardens' and 'On The Wildside: Experiments In New Naturalism' for sale. Another visitor was purchasing one of the books was asked if she would like a signed copy. She was told that although Keith was out in the garden on his mini-digger, that he would be more than happy to be disturbed to sign the book. Yes this is a garden that is still in the making. I would dearly like to return one day perhaps at a different time of year. In the meantime I am looking forward to seeing more glimpses of Wildside, when it is featured on 'Landscape Man' - a Channel 4 series due to be screened later this year. Meanwhile if you find yourself near Plymouth and the garden is open be sure to take a walk on the wildside!