Blossom snow...

No chance of cherries for me again this year. While there is one parakeet on the feeder ...

... his friends are all waiting in the cherry tree.

Slowly eating all the tiny fruit that are at the base of the blossom, which they destructively toss aside to carpet this corner of the garden in blossom snow. Each flower perfect, not a sign of dying off naturally before being discarded.

(The pigeons are too fat to get to the feeders so they waddle about below hoping for some stray seed to fall.)

The other garden birds are getting in on the act too!

I can understand why there has been talk of culling these exotic visitors as they are a destructive force and it must be a nightmare if you were commercially growing fruit.

And talking of parrots, these ones are in full bloom today.

Flower Power...

It is of great comfort that in the midst of turmoil and change, the seasons provide a gentle backdrop of continuity and familiarity.

April is possibly my favourite month of the year in my flowery world as my beloved tulips begin their show.

In November I planted some new ones on my deck, in a colour that I would only possibly ever consider for tulips - apricot. These are Apricot Beauty,  a single early variety. On grey days, they are at their prettiest.

And these are possibly the stars of this year's show - Apricot Parrot. Modestly green while in bud ...

... only to astonish when fully open. Heaven in a tulip.

I could almost believe a garden imp has been out there with his paintbrushes fully loaded with colour.

Welcome pockets of colour that make me smile every time I look at them.

October gardening...

Still full of inspiration from the cutting garden course, I got planning for my spring bulbs a few weeks ago.

This weekend was perfect for pottering and planting in the garden. It felt so good to be out there in a fleece and wellies. I ordered bulbs from here, here and here. Tulips, muscari, ranunculus for the garden and amaryllis and paperwhites for indoors.

They don't look very attractive at the moment on the windowsill, but hopefully will start producing some green leaves soon. My amaryllis last year were a great success and this year I went for something a little less obvious -- Lima.

Photo credit Parkers Wholesale

Helping me out in the garden are my three pretty new hens. I bought them last weekend and for the last couple of days they have been slowly exploring the garden. 

I lost my two new girls to a fox in the summer, which was a bit traumatic and I vowed not to get another white chicken for gory reasons that I won't elaborate on here. However, I was convinced otherwise by the very knowledgable chicken man at Thornes that I would love having a bowl of pinky white eggs laid by the Coral hen on the left there, who I have named Daphne. When they all start to lay, I should have eggs of different colours from each of them. Things like that make me very happy indeed!

Anyway, back to the bulb planting.  Protective measures have been implemented to stop all my promise of a colourful spring being ruined. Again, not particularly attractive...

... but necessary because if it's not squirrels stashing acorns, it's the ever curious new girls on the block.

Still a couple of hundred bulbs still to plant in my raised beds that will purely be for cutting, along with the seedlings I have got from the course. Just a bit of leaf raking and a bonfire or two to put the garden to bed for the winter and I'm done for the year I reckon. 

Hot flush…

After the delicate, pale first flush comes the hot, zingy second act.

 

 

 

Now I need to find some zing and get up to make hot cross buns for my guests.  I went out to dinner last night and it was such a treat to be cooked for.  Perfect timing too as I have a busy weekend of cooking and entertaining ahead of me.

Spring…

What a difference a bit of sunshine makes.

 

 

All of a sudden, there is colour to be found in the garden.

 

 

I am so glad I planted more tulips last autumn.  The first ones to flower in the front garden are Christmas Exotic and they are putting on quite a show.

 

 

 

 

Other things that have been making me happy over the last couple of days:

Baby great tits cheeping from the nesting boxes.

 

 

Finding a clump of wild garlic at the bottom of the border. A mystery as I did try to grow some last year in the greenhouse but nothing came of it…

 

 

And, of course, white blossom against beautiful blue sky.

 

 

Yes, we like sitting in the garden.  It is easy to find contentment out there, in the warmth of the sun, and try to take on board the way life is taking us.

 

 

 

 

 

My creative space...

Has, at last, been all about the garden.  I have been planting bulbs in the hope that come the spring I am blessed with glorious colour again.

I have spent many hours scouring catalogues and websites and put together three schemes for some tulip beds.  I bought all my bulbs from here, for the first time and it comes highly recommended.

No2 did the digging (and copious amounts of moaning about it, I might add) and so, for the first time, I have planted my tulips in trenches.

If my garden looked anywhere near as beautiful as this one, I will be in green-fingered heaven next year.


I had some very enthusiastic helpers as well as the more begrudging one too.  Ignore the tin can, if you don't mind.  I have unearthed all manner of debris from party of the year outside...

Right, I'm off for a soak in the bath.  My fingernails are disgusting and my shoulders are aching from the bending and digging.

More creative spaces here.

In my head...

This Sunday morning finds me still in bed, with my laptop and notes and other books strewn across my blanket, trying to get down on paper What happens when we grieve.  My head is full of things I want to get down coupled with other thoughts and ideas that insist on barging in on my concentration.  So, in another act of procrastination, I thought why not give them their own space...

• it seems that unlike when I was writing assignments for my abandoned course 2 years ago, I am not happy sitting at the kitchen table writing.  Perhaps it is the nature of what I am writing that requires a much more comfortable environment.  Read the sofa or, as is today, bed! 

• I am obsessed with the word count function when I really needn't be!

• I keep thinking back to a game we played on holiday when we had to go round the table and tell everyone one thing that you liked about them and one thing that you didn't like about them.  No2 said that he liked me because I was safe.  I am still basking in this compliment!

• I watched him having his haircut on Thursday and I was suddenly struck by the fact that there he was, having what seemed to be a fun conversation with the hairdresser, growing up before my very eyes.

• there is a large box of tulip bulbs in my garage to be planted.  I will leave it til November at least, partly because there are other things that I should be concentrating on at the moment but mainly because that is the best time to plant them.  I got them from here but I will be giving the shout, as promised, when the bulbs go on special offer in M & S!

• I am still marvelling at the young divers I watched yesterday at the diving competition in Southampton that my nephew took part in.  It was his first one and we were so proud of him.  I am completely useless in the swimming department and I think that I could no more dive (or fall!) off a diving board than chop my own leg off!  But, oh, how I'd love to fall gracefully through the air...

• 
  
  I am deciding if tomorrow should be the day that I get my act together and get back to walking Pippin first thing in the morning rather than put it off all day...  It certainly used to energise me and set me up for the day.

• 
  
  I am cross because it seems that the left-click on my laptop is running out of steam.  No amount of a bashing it makes it work sometimes... Hmmm, that may explain things...

• 
  
  Right, one more cup of coffee and I'll get back to the job in hand.  Happy Sunday!

Dark and dramatic...

This will probably be my last tulip post of the year.  I just wanted to show the pots I planted outside my front door.  You may remember them from this post when they were in bud.

They are flowering spectacularly.

This deep, dark red is anthracite.

And this is Paul Schrer.

Velvety and almost black.

The last tulips in the back garden are coming to an end... the sweet-smelling Angelique...

...and a much, much less than before carnaval de Nice.

'til next year, my lovelies.

My garden #6...

After the summer, when the shops are full of Christmas (sorry!), look out for the bulb collections in Marks and Spencer.  They conveniently pack them together in collections to take the umm-ing and ahh-ing out of bulb buying.  I did last year and am now reaping the rewards of my last-minute planting.

I planted this dark tulip collection in 2 pots outside my front door.  They are all in bud and are about to look fantastic.  Of all tulips, I love dark ones.

I also bought this fragrant collection and stuffed them all in one wooden tub.  I don't ever pay attention to the spacing suggestions! 

Already flowering are these wonderful bright pink tulips, Christmas marvel.

And these delicate, pale narcissi, tresamble.

I hope the alliums flower while the others are still out.

The muscari in this post came from this collection, which I planted in the window-box outside my kitchen.

The crocus flowered in February, so the picture on the box is a bit misleading, but  I'm enjoying seeing the tulips everytime I stand at my sink.  Which is quite often...

I'm hoping to tackle the border that shall not be named this weekend...

...and finally sow some seeds...