On my short drive to work in the countryside I pass three fields - the first a sea of red - the poppies are back! The next a hazy blue vista - ahh linseed! And the last, white - oxeye daisies! What a pleasure 🌺🪻💮
Fingers crossed for my own sweet peas 🤞 yours is looking fab! This week I baked a roast strawberry Victoria sponge and ate it with a glass of prosecco + homemade elderflower liqueur. The flavours of the season 🍓🍰🌸
I swapped the moors for 2 days by the Welsh coast. To listen to the sea and walk paths next to hedgerows bursting with blackthorn, birds and honeysuckle has been heavenly.
That sounds great. To leave one beautiful place for another. And to able to walk along the coast as you described. The nearest I got to a coastal path was when I went to see the Salt Path in the Cinema! It was a really wild evening and the cinema is looking out on Galway Bay so I felt that I was still on the Salt Path when I came out of the Cinema!
I also had my first sweet pea this week - a bright hot pink one to make a statement! It came out on Monday which was also the day of my dear Granny’s funeral and she loved sweet peas. It almost felt like it was her saying ‘I’m still here with you’ 🥲
Harvesting a few sprigs of lavender for drying - our house is named ‘Lavender Cottage’ so I have planted several bushes in the garden. Also, harvesting the first basil leaves and freezing them with olive oil to make flavour cubes for soups and stews.
My beautifully laden rose bushes are drooping with the weight of the rain, though I know the garden (and everything else) will be so grateful for it. No sweet peas here yet - at least another week I reckon. And I know what you mean Lia - I've just had salvias delivered from Mrs Raven's sale, but I'm holding off planting out slug lunch!
I’ve been heartbroken this week when the naughty pigeons nibbled almost all my perpetual spinach ( which was just ready to start picking ) and my mixed salad leaves crop - and uprooted all my radish seedlings. I was so cross and discouraged! After I feed the birds daily too! Anyway, I’m making a frame to cover each raised bed with netting to foil their pesky raids on my precious veg!
Ahh the pigeons have been really going for my spinach too :( although in the back green, they're mad for the fresh elder leaves, which seems to have distracted them. Good luck with your anti-pigeon measures!
I experienced two failed attempts to grow radishes before giving up, even when I used netting the hungry creatures got in - I hope you have better netting and better luck!
A tall angelica stalk was snapped aacidentally during window cleaning. Rescued, in a bottle on the kitchen table, it filled the house with perfume in the night, the familiar angelica fragrance but with underlying spice - an unexpected gift.
A moment of calm watching Scarce Chaser dragonflies, repeatedly returning to the same perch as dragonflies do. The abdomens gently expanding and contracting as they breathe.
I’ve got the bedding plants in, so while my sweet peas are still green and yet to flower, I’ve got busy lizzies, petunias, lobelia and geraniums giving me happiness every time I look out into the rain.
From my bedroom window I can see the cherries are just starting to turn red... and no sign of any houses, they have all disappeared behind the trees for the summer, hooray!
A lovely week when driving after the rain smelling the petrichor and celebrating the verdant life in nature . Enjoying swifts and open skies and open air markets buying herbs and attempting to plant out and dodge those munching snails that explode after rainfall . The Wheel of the Year is turning and Summer is here 🌞🌿🌱
On my short drive to work in the countryside I pass three fields - the first a sea of red - the poppies are back! The next a hazy blue vista - ahh linseed! And the last, white - oxeye daisies! What a pleasure 🌺🪻💮
Wow - what patriotic fields!
Droplets of water shining like diamonds on the lady’s mantle leaves this morning.
I dug up lady’s mantle about 10 years ago, and it still pops up all over the garden. It’s absolutely indestructible!
Definitely! And it will look a real state and need a good haircut later in the summer, but for now it’s lovely.
Ate my first sweet and crispy peas and my first small but extremely hot radishes,perfect snack whilst desnailing the veg patch ,!!
Fingers crossed for my own sweet peas 🤞 yours is looking fab! This week I baked a roast strawberry Victoria sponge and ate it with a glass of prosecco + homemade elderflower liqueur. The flavours of the season 🍓🍰🌸
My first ... a small yellow gem of a summer squash peeking through the green foliage. I just hope the slugs don't find it!
I swapped the moors for 2 days by the Welsh coast. To listen to the sea and walk paths next to hedgerows bursting with blackthorn, birds and honeysuckle has been heavenly.
That sounds great. To leave one beautiful place for another. And to able to walk along the coast as you described. The nearest I got to a coastal path was when I went to see the Salt Path in the Cinema! It was a really wild evening and the cinema is looking out on Galway Bay so I felt that I was still on the Salt Path when I came out of the Cinema!
That’s a stunning setting to see the film.
I also had my first sweet pea this week - a bright hot pink one to make a statement! It came out on Monday which was also the day of my dear Granny’s funeral and she loved sweet peas. It almost felt like it was her saying ‘I’m still here with you’ 🥲
Harvesting a few sprigs of lavender for drying - our house is named ‘Lavender Cottage’ so I have planted several bushes in the garden. Also, harvesting the first basil leaves and freezing them with olive oil to make flavour cubes for soups and stews.
My beautifully laden rose bushes are drooping with the weight of the rain, though I know the garden (and everything else) will be so grateful for it. No sweet peas here yet - at least another week I reckon. And I know what you mean Lia - I've just had salvias delivered from Mrs Raven's sale, but I'm holding off planting out slug lunch!
I’ve been heartbroken this week when the naughty pigeons nibbled almost all my perpetual spinach ( which was just ready to start picking ) and my mixed salad leaves crop - and uprooted all my radish seedlings. I was so cross and discouraged! After I feed the birds daily too! Anyway, I’m making a frame to cover each raised bed with netting to foil their pesky raids on my precious veg!
Ahh the pigeons have been really going for my spinach too :( although in the back green, they're mad for the fresh elder leaves, which seems to have distracted them. Good luck with your anti-pigeon measures!
My raised bed is now fully netted with a frame over the whole lot Sarah! Let’s see if it works 🤞🏼
I experienced two failed attempts to grow radishes before giving up, even when I used netting the hungry creatures got in - I hope you have better netting and better luck!
Me too - we shall see!
Pesky pigeons. Good luck with your 2nd attempt Sue 🤞
pigeons are the bane of my life
Thanks Debra!
A tall angelica stalk was snapped aacidentally during window cleaning. Rescued, in a bottle on the kitchen table, it filled the house with perfume in the night, the familiar angelica fragrance but with underlying spice - an unexpected gift.
A moment of calm watching Scarce Chaser dragonflies, repeatedly returning to the same perch as dragonflies do. The abdomens gently expanding and contracting as they breathe.
Oh that’s fascinating! I’ll look out for that.
I’ve got the bedding plants in, so while my sweet peas are still green and yet to flower, I’ve got busy lizzies, petunias, lobelia and geraniums giving me happiness every time I look out into the rain.
Making elderflower cordial. Summer in a bottle.
From my bedroom window I can see the cherries are just starting to turn red... and no sign of any houses, they have all disappeared behind the trees for the summer, hooray!
A lovely week when driving after the rain smelling the petrichor and celebrating the verdant life in nature . Enjoying swifts and open skies and open air markets buying herbs and attempting to plant out and dodge those munching snails that explode after rainfall . The Wheel of the Year is turning and Summer is here 🌞🌿🌱