EUCRYPHIA, I'VE FOUND IT!

First and foremost, the Eucryphia, seven feet high and slender as a model, has its first flowers.

We did not expect it to flower for a year or two more so this is a welcome surprise. Admittedly there are only a handful of flowers and the tree is famous for an abundance of blossom but this is a beginning.

Before I say more I have to mention the Victoria plum which is a victim of its fecundity - it has found a way to relieve itself of the burden of its offspring. I went down the garden yesterday, we had been weeding and trimming and so on, and the tree was literally on its knees resting its fruiting branches on the ground.. At least none of them had snapped off. Clearly I will need to be much more ruthless with the early thinning than I have been.

Last blog I mentioned pots from Viet Nam - well here is a smallish one which, I think,

resembles a piece of sculpture. It sits on an access manhole cover for the septic tank - if you cannot hide them . . .?

Inside the pot is a small ash tree grown from a seed for our grandson J.

I also bought a larger pot and this is by the back door full of herbs so R does not have to keep asking where I have put this and that. It has sage, rosemary, bay, thyme, marjoram (2 sorts) and a basil (which will not last the winter). Mint can go rampant elsewhere.

All the plants are from cuttings except the bay - see Saturday 9th April Blog.

I have been around the garden marking shrubs and trees hidden in the jungle with white topped sticks. PM was coming Thursday to strim but all was too wet (it still is) and is to try again next week. (With 'PM' and 'wet' why does 'Thatcher' spring to mind?)

So, R has wanted topiary in the garden for some time and she has had a go at the variegated pittosporum outside the kitchen, (she broke the shears). Ignore the glad' to the right - it was a freebie and keeps coming back year on year.

Our bedroom has dual aspect - out across Morecambe Bay and up the garden. Recently house martins have been making feeble attempts to build nests at the top of the gable above the window and, in the morning, we can sit in bed and watch them flying up and down past the window. They have a slightly higher pitched chatter than the swallows.

R has gone to church so, now onto my knees and pray for a dry day so the grass can be cut.

ps. We though the rabbits had gone elsewhere but the sight of no broccoli and stumps of french beans tells otherwise.

pps. My dwarf (Doc) has fallen over so must hurry out and restore him to verticality.