Friday 17 July 2015

RAIN, RATS AND WHITE, WHITE, WHITE




Why start with a photo of a multicoloured umbrella?

Because of this -


Speaking of water the pond looked like beaten metal or mercury today with its reflection. The way it can act like a mirror is one of the joys of having it in the garden.

The tree rats are still everywhere, eating and driving me nuts.
The trap - ignored here - is on top of a shed by feeders and tied up in a plastic sack. This is not to give the squirrels shelter but  to stop the nuts falling out through the wire mesh of the trap.
Talking of rats but the feathered variety - picked the first gooseberries and then went to the redcurrants - they are heavily netted. However there were not one but three blackbirds within the netting, one trapped. Managed to salvage half a pound and put them in the freezer for now.

This morning I woke at 6:10 am to the sound of R operating her sewing machine - anoraks we call it - when the children were little she made them orange waterproofs and was doing it right up to the last minute before a holiday. There was also a din from the squirrel trap but it was not a squirrel, not a jay but a wood pigeon!

To move on -
This is Osmunda regalis, the royal fern growing by the stream. Having this is a memory of the one that grew by the wall opposite the front door of the old white farmhouse where I spent my childhood.

On to white stuff - perhaps the most important colour (if it is a colour) in the garden.











Mallow left, crambe right.











White pink right, deutzia left.












Philadelphus belle etoile left achillea right.

White campanula


The feverfew has seeded itself in many places in the garden and is flowering well.
It is an interesting plant used to treat headaches and migraine.


Up on the top banking the white rosebay willow herb is splendid, has spread and this could become a problem so I will watch this plant with care.

The lawn, which is just mown field really and full of weeds - not a bowling green - and tired, could do with a feed and seed. Scratch the surface and cast seed to the ground - but which seed? I shall probably use a hardwearing mixture with rye grass.
Perhaps I should ask the wild rabbits what they would like?

Now sex in the garden?
This image of the rose Emma Hamilton in a vase shows what a blowsy lady she is.



The flower is about 4 inches (10 cm ) across and the scent is supremely heady. I got this from David Austin Roses.

Still falls the rain so time to make some jam with old fruit from last year - to make room for this year's crop - blackcurrant, I think.

R is out and I am sitting in the kitchen, a dark day and rain has flattened the long banking grass so it will be a nightmare to cut. The Aga is hissing softly and the fridge burbling by the door. The sink tap has a drop hanging from the end, never falling, time is suspended. Yet both the clocks are chiming twelve at the same time and as I look out of the window at a pair of bedraggled pigeons I think of summer holidays in Pembrokeshire, the wide expanse of Druidston Haven and sunshine.




Mind you, the way this year's weather has been so far we will be sitting on the shingle in anoraks drinking hot coffee poured from a vacuum flask and wondering why on earth we live in this cold wet country.

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