..for the Carol Bruce treatment (ie the disciplined approach) is another seating area, under the study window.

I have read many gardening books, and followed many gardening gurus .There is a spectrum  between Carol Bruce's disciplined and methodical ways and Mirabel Osler (author of A Gentle Plea For Chaos). I vary along that spectrum from year to year and even at times, from day to day! Carol Bruce's approach inspired me when I was feeling a bit downhearted at the state my garden had got into. 'Roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty  and see what you can do.' Garden design is an art and a brilliant subject and I nevver tire of it. There is always something to learn.

I ha've decided the more disciplined approach is what is required here, though I am starting as Carol Bruce does with 'What feelings do I want this bit of the garden to evoke?' This is the seat I stretch out on after a good lunch on a warm sunny day. Deep relaxation is key. Heady scent a must.

The bench and chair are now stained a lovely grey (Cuprinl Silver Birch) and the magenta geranium Ann Folkard looks wonderful beside it (sorry I can't find the photograph), and I have just bought some roses called Timeless Purple which I think will look sumptuous and smell divine. I also plan to bring on two Chocolate Cosmos for their rich colour and amazing perfume.

That's the dream, meanwhile the reality is that there are currenly at least 11 different plants growing in the space around the bench, and as you can see above, the chair is drowning in alchemilla mollis. The clematis is sagging and the pots are broken....

Sleeves rollled up and getting hands dirty!

I have just sent this card to my sister. I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you!

..about writing a log/diary is being able to look back and remind myyself just how different the garden will look quite soon. The feelings I want to evvoke in the main sitting area of the garden (see yesterday's post) are pretty much what I have achieved in the last few years...It can seat about  12 and we have had sme wonderful family clebrations around that table.

The cane wigwams provide just enough screening. This year I am growing sweet pea 'Matucana' up them for their strong scent and vibrant colour.. I plann to have magenta with maybe a dash of lime green or even orange.

The black chair in phot two collapsed under someone last year! Thakfully she was not hurt but new chairs are on order.

Apart from that feeding the wisteeria in the corner to see if it will flower better is the only change required for this area. It's a very happy part of the garden. Do you have a happy spot? Or plans to make one?

I watched with interest a feature on Gardeners' World about Old Blenbean Stud Garden, created by Cariol Bruce. A gorgeous garden though what interested me most (and they didn't elaborate on it) was that she is the only gardener. She said that with the right tools and methods it wasn't difficult to do all the gardening herself. I wanted to know more!

On her quite extensive website I  especially liked this piece Making The Garden Step By Step

Also worth reading are the FAQ's which give insights into her rather unusual approach.

She begins by asking herself what kind feeling she wants the garden to evoke, so I am going around the garden asking myself that questin  of each different area. In the main sitting area I want to feel relaxed, at home, at ease. I want scent and abundance and am willing to take a relaxed attitude to a few weeds in the gravel, and to be happy about self sown this and that...I want plenty of seating (safe seating - must replace some very old chairs) for family and friends...

I like this approach and several other ideas from Carol Bruce. I hope she is writing a book.

We may not all be mothers but we all had one and we are thinking of them today as it is Mothering Sunday here in uk.

I am spending mine isolating instead of with my wonderful daughters, but in my warm sunny garden that is no hardship. I can't help thinking of all the mothers who died of Covid and of the mothers who are suffering in Yemen and Ukraine.


Bless all mothers everywhere.

I was curious to see 'The Walnut Whip', a new hotel in Edinburgh's St James's Quarter.

I like the juxstaposition of old and new in architecture - a real design challenge which when it does come off can be very exciting.

To my eye this nearly works...

I liked this view - the bold strong curve against the geometry of the old buiildings makes an intersting contrast.

The deep steps for sitting on, the normal size ones to walk up and down on - this works well. Very user friendly.

This strange shape interested me. I wondered if it was a staircase? (At the time I did not know that one of the names for the buidling is the golden ribbon.) I went for  a closser look and grasped the concept.

..where the 'golden ribbon' shoots up from the ground to wrap around the building, though a quite beaurifully executed bit of sculpture, it looks as if it is considered such a hazard that safety barriers have had to be put around it, totally spoiling the effect! If I was the designer I would be weeping into my drink if I saw this!

I thought about the building over a cup of coffee in the adjacent Black Sheep Coffee Shop at an outdoor table and concluded that it would take a builder of consumate skill, a genious of a builder to create this design almost completly made of curves, with the confident panache it needed..Instead it is a bit wibbly wobbly and ponderous and sadly, in my view, doesn't quite come off.

Better to have tried and failed? Better to have given it to Frank Gehry...

Second live concert (one of the things I missed most during the pandemic). I think there is a very special atmosphere at these first concerts - both the nusicians and the audience are so especially delighted to be there - it's palpable.

The RSNO concert at the Usher Hall was stunningly good. Lise de la Salle played Rachmaninov 2. The programme began with Walton and ended with Elgar. We loved it.

What things did you miss most during the past two years?

I wonder how many chimneys there are in Edinburgh?

Edinburgh was once known as Auld Reekie (Old Smoky), but it was all cloudless blue skies and sunshine for the four day visit I had with friends meetng up from Washington DC, Paris and Glasgow. A leisurely meal for a catch up on the first evening, and breakfast at The Urban Angel in Hanover Street the next morning, and we were ready to hit the town..

The galleries of Dundas Street are close by and this was a good , if small, exhibition at The Scottish Gallery. Upstairs the work of Claire Harkness is selling well. Beautiful work. On until the 26th if you can get there.

The Botanic Gardens on a perfect spring day.

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A little browsing in George Street shops (this is Anthropologie). A brilliant concert to follow....

I am so glad Covid waited till after our trip!

.. to be picking daffodils from my own garden, but not so thrilled with the positive Covid test this morning!

However I have no symptoms at present and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day working in the garden. I hope you have stayed Covid free..

Never mind Wigtown, we are really lucky to have a great independent bookshop in Dunoon. See Bookpoint's website here.

Stationery, crafts and excellent gifts, and they serve a good cup of coffee. What more could we ask?!

Short blog break now, but back soon.

..that when plans go awry, my thoughts turn immediately to chocolate?

I ate all of them...

You may remember I decorated the litte 8 x 6 greenhouse for Midsummer laast year. See  here. 
I plan to do the same again and some of the gypsophila will be brought on in pots to add to the frothy pretty effect I am after.  I will have schizanthus too , and perhaps gaura lindheimeri, and there is a tender euphorbia called frosted something that would look very dainty along the front edge of the staging. I will have candles and tiny lights and we will drink Bellinis......plans and dreams, I love both!

Do you?

Isn't it amaziing that these fragile things can grow into sturdy plants tht will cover a couple of squarre metres and flower for months?

It's gypsophila Covent Garden, a real favourite. Although it was last year's seed they gerninated in about a week in a small heated propagator.

..more than ever.

Looking after it lovingly, full of gratitude and taaking nothing for granted.

These were courtesy of M&S but it is even better for our spiritts to go out into nature, wrapped up and waterproofed if necessary, to observe nature's gifts with out own eyes and ears, to feel the wind and sun and rain on our skin, a balm for the soul, and a respite from the all too pervasive media.

Be sure to try it this weekend.

..is this picture of beauty, hope, light and pleasure. 

I do love Lia Leenderz' suggestions for marking the seasonal changes.  (See link in yesteday's post.) In February she suggested lighting candles, for the equinox in March  (20th) she suggests sharing seeds.

What a lovely thing to  do. I will be sending some easy to grow annuals - night scented stock and poppy Angels' Choir and Mother of Pearl.

I bought some mmosa yesterday. It reminded me of my bedroom in Venice. The shutters opened onto a courtyard with a mimosa tree in full bloom. Heavenly.

!

I almost forgot to listen to the March episode of The Season Turns.  You can listen to it here.

Sunny and I  sit in the garden just listening. Birdsong including the mew of a far-away buzzard, and a woodpecker is down in Coronation Wood; the rumble of the wonderful machine which is washing my clothes as I sit here with a cup of coffee; several really big bees buzz  by, and a dog is barking somewhere in the village.  The tractor rushes past. A faint tannoy message drifts, distorted, across the water from the military base on the other side of the loch, reminding me...

But the garden needs me and I need the garden. Gardening is one of the few things I do inot thinking of somehting else at the same time.

It's a mess! I get pen and paper and walk round identifying what needs done first under my  formula for not being overwhelmed.  I set a time limit for each of four tasks:

1. An ongoing job. That will be cleaning out the greenhouse. Some progress wil be made.

2 A rescue job. Thee is always a rescue job! That will be to clear away the dead foliage on the hakonechloa before it blows all over the place.

3 A start and finish job. Clean out the wintner rubbish from the water dishes and fill with fresh water. Satisfying to finish somehting.

4 A job I just want to do for the pleasure of it.  That will be tidying around the wine red lupins I grew from seed last year for my daughter's garden, ready for her to lift when she has the ground prepared. Beautiful healthy young plants.


I don't have much influence on the world stage, but I can and will make this garden a haven of peace and beauty.

Surprisingly thick ice on the water dishes in the morning, and surprisingly warm sunshine in the afternoon.

..on my recent trip.

The Book Shop in Wigtown is fun to visit. The owner is the author of The Diary Of A Bookseller which I am about to listen to on Audible.

Have you read it? Or been to the book festival in the town? Or have you been on a trip of your own?

Can yu make it out?

Today was absolutely beautiful and I had lunch outside for the first time in ages.

..in my friend's sunroom. I love that you get the scent of the flowers and the deliciousness of the fruuit at the same time with citrus fruits.