Am having another little blog holiday (lucky me, I know!)

I leave you with the most beautiful blue....

..like washing drying on a line on a sunny day....and the sea smell of it when you bring it in.

I dry washing on the line or on a rack, and don't use fabric conditioners as I'm only too conscious that they end up out there in the beautiful loch.

Simpler.

The Welsh poppy, meconopsis cambrica, is the earliest to flower and is yellow or orange - I grow the orange one with the forget me nots - a lively combination which is very welcome in late spring. They seed themselves around nicely, and grow well in light shade.

This is the longest flowering of the poppies in the garden - papaver rupifragum. A chance seedling, it sows itself in the gravel and produces endless flowers of a soft orange on tall wiry stems from late June to October. By chance it is growing next to a bronze carex, and looks very good beside it. It sowed itself right by our seats, but seems to stand up well to a bit of trampling....

Have you succeeded with these two other lovely poppies? Meconopsis Sheldonii, the famous blue poppy lasts two years at most with me, and although I had a whole border of Californian poppy, eschscholzia, in a previous garden, I just cannot get it to grow here - so, since I like to use my own photos on the blog - sorry, no photos!

..I think I'll simply be content with the 7 others that do well....

Four of my favourite poppies are annuals :

These are the Shirley poppies and can be sown direct into the ground, though in my sluggy garden I start them off in cells in the greenhouse and plant them out while still quite small, before the long tap root has formed. Literally hundreds  of flowers from a dozen or so plants, in a delicious array of colours. (See also photos a few days ago)

Cedric Morris poppies are another annual - there is also an oriental poppy of the same name - and Mother of Pearl is a very similar mixture.

They are of such quiet and subtle colours they are hard to describe - exquisite, and perhaps best appreciated grown in a different area than the dazzling Shirleys. (more photos 1 July 2010)

Papaver somniferum is another annual which I hope will self seed for me, as it does in my friend Maggie's garden. I bought one this summer of a lovely lilac/plum colour, but no photo yet.

I sometimes sow a few common poppies, papaver rhoeas, in plugs to pop into the mini meadow, along with a few cornflowers for a bit of zing. (It doesn't work to scatter poppy seeds onto grassed areas - they need bare soil....)



..next two more perennial poppies....

Just as we were about to eat outside in the garden!!

All the more reason to bring bits of garden inside.....I love  picking flowers for the house, and having a garden just big enough to be able to pick generous bunches without leaving obvious gaps is wonderful. (In my first house I had two window boxes...)

I hadn't realised I grow so many different poppies until I began to list them here.

Welsh, oriental, Shirley and Cedric Morris, somniferum, rupifragum and sometimes the common red poppy all make their appearances here.

So why do I love them? Well they're easy and look after themselves, they seed around generously but not so much as to be a problem (here in my garden anyway), the colours are wonderful, and I love the way they move in the slightest breeze. Also they are so ephemeral - the individual flowers don't last long, so you have  to go out and see them every day, which is fun.

The oriental poppies, papaver orientale, flower in early summer and their sumptous colours are a joy.

As I sat looking at the buds on the 42 young delphiniums (buy 36 plugs, get 6 free!), wondering what colours they will be, the postman handed me this card from Jill. Wow!

Thank you Jill, your timing was perfect!

I wonder if mine can possibly look like this..it tempts me to keep all 42....

After nearly a year and a half of thinking about and blogging about simplifying my life, I find that this time round clearing the loft is easier - so much easier!

I remember trying to do it a while ago, and giving up before the job was done. My frantic imagination used to go into overdrive. What if I really need that....one day? I imagined apocalyptic scenes of war, and tsunami visions where I am desperate for another old electric fire - it would save my life and I've thrown it away! Did I once say I didn't think I had any stories in me? My head can easily become full of stories like this one. Emergencies and disasters....

I've taken charge of my head! No longer fantasising about desperate scenarios, I am calmer, and relaxed about getting rid of the stuff I no longer need, or really want.

I am distilling, or crystallising as someone put it. Looking through all the nice things and picking out the best to keep - those which still have real meaning for me. (Some things were meaningful in the past, but I just think 'Well, that was then, and this is now' and smile as I let them go. A quick photo perhaps....as a reminder, should I ever feel the need to remember.)

Between times I go out for another look at today's fabulous Shirley poppies....

I eat too much sugar, try as I might to cut down.

I have to find an alternative source of sweetness in my life!

Sweet memories, sweet affection, sweet music and the laughter of children, and the sun on my back - these are all sweet and very health giving.

(They say revenge is sweet....no, I won't go there..)


This is one of those tiny tiny single serving jam jars - sooo sweet!

Sitting in a cafe in Central Station in Glasgow, with a poster on the window obscuring most of my view, I became mesmerised by the pattern of legs and feet on the bright ground....

Simply passing the time, I guess!


(also - think I've fixed the glitch in yesterday's post....)