Category:

Simply..seasonal scents....

4/2/2025

The wonderful scented candle from The White Company has come to it's end though there is still a faint smell from it which I love. It's called Fireside and was quite ecpensive but I think I have enjoyed it every day since about mid November.

A Christmas gift of Paperwhite narcissus are providing the scent of spring now and moving me on.

Spring is coming and tomorrow I am going hunting for some hyacinths.

I enjoy listening to Sarah Raven's podcasts and this one with Tim Smidt was very interestng.

Recommentdations for podcasts most welcome..

8 Comments

Simply..a little cheer....

22/1/2025

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Not fully open yet but the snowdrops bring a little cheer to an otherwise grey day.

Hopefully my workshop will also bring a little cheer! Details here.

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Simply..fifty white crocus....

13/12/2024

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..planted in pots because the conditions were never right to put them in the ground. I've just remembered th!ere are still some tulips to be planted. Still time..

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Simply..a brilliant morning....

9/12/2024

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..in the garden today. Well wrapped up against the cold we got some serious tree pruning and clearing up done. So satisfying!

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Simply..Novemberish....

4/11/2024

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A little garden therapy.

I can't help making patterns!

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Simply..getting decisive....

25/10/2024

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..in the garden.! Time for change and some radical action.

Since my post Deciding to Decide I have made a point of just being more decisive and I think it has improved my life! It is also going to improve the garden.

Out with the honeysuckle which grew like crazy but rarely flowered, out with the self sown alchemilla mollis which quickly made enormous clumps, away with alstromeria which crocheted its way over vast expanses.

What willl you get decisive about?

The drive s much wider than I rememberd!

Weebly is a bit glitchy right now. I hope you managed to listen to yesterday's music - sometimes it plays, sometimes it doesn't, and last night it told me my photographs for this post were too big. They are the seme size as every other photograph I have uploaded here....

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Smply..this and that....

19/10/2024

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Simply..all at once....

8/10/2024

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My daughter's garden . The most amazing colours on a black-stemmed cornus.

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Simply..grow tulips....

6/10/2024

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..From the supermarket these are such a bargain. I grew Flourish and Grow tulips last year and they were excellent.

Should you be troubled by deer, remember that cubes of cheap perfumed soap will keep them off your flowers.

I didn't buy these ones. I am just curious to know if 'Yellow' is the name of a variety?

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Simply..a young oak tree....

5/10/2024

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..half way down the path to the shore has more acorns than ever before. (Last year it had none.)

I have only recently discovered that jays as well as squirrels bury acorns. Has anyone tried growing one in an acorn vase? I mihgt give this a try.

11 Comments

Simply..in the garden....

15/9/2024

5 Comments

On a recent podcast by Sarah Raven and Arthur Parkinson, Arthur talked about 'climate chaos' and winners and losers in the garden this year. His very sensible attitude is that we must get used to it and be grateful for whatever thrives.

He has a nice turn of phrase - Medusa vases of sweet peas. (I wish! Mine were almost a total failure this year.)

I have sown a tray of cornflowers for next year...

5 Comments

Simply..as the season turns....

12/8/2024

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I do still enjoy the podcast of this name.

A couple of wrm days and a huge thuderstorm this morning. Tbe brambles are ripeniing, the meadow areas are cut, the Rose of Sharon is berrying and the Perseid meteor shower may be visible tonight.

10 Comments

Simply..waiting....

3/8/2024

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..for butterflies.

Perhaps they are all in your gardens?

There's a fine line between wild and completely out of control, and I think I may have crossed that line!

It's been too wet to strim the long grass but I will wait until the cormflowers have gone anyway.

The birds are very happy.

The evening light is lovely and I am on a roll with clearing the 'identity clutter' now that I have got some moomentum going. It's proving to be rather ineresting...

16 Comments

Simply..late meadows....

17/7/2024

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The meadow area in the back garden is grassier than the one at the front and this year has lots of bird's foot trefoil as well as orchids, fox and cubs and some delicate pretty thistles. As the grasses go to seed there is a soft hazy effect that is really beautiful.

This was taken in the evening light.

This seat faces the rising sun when the light on the meadow is particularly lovely.

Sometimes when I open the window a little flock of surprised finches fliy up out of the long grass. So much pleasure and interest by just letting the grass grow.

12 Comments

Simply..as I often say....

11/7/2024

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..beauty sustains me. The rose Timeless Purple is looking amazing just now, and the scent is divine.

6 Comments

Simply..falling in love again....

18/6/2024

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Just one warm sunny June day and I fall in love with my garden again.. It's rough around the edges, there is lots undone but it is lush and abundant and full of life and birds and bees and butterflies and today it felt like a little bit of heaven.

Wildly pretty and romantic on a day like today!

Sometmes rose-tinted spectacles are the only thing to wear.

Whyever not if they make you happy?

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Simply..lit from within....

8/6/2024

2 Comments

What looks like a little light within the buttercup is actually the reflection of the candle flame on the table, such is the brilliant gloss on the flower petal. Fields of buttercups are one of my favourite sights in the countryside just now. You will have to imagine thick buttercups with some very handsome jet black cows feeding on them as, laden with shopping, I couldn't get off the bus to photograph them..

I hope you are lucky enough to have fields of buttercups mear you or that you can make a trip into the countryside to see them. There are quite a lot in my back garden meadow this year.

2 Comments

Simply..if you are a gardener....

30/5/2024

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..here in uk is your garden growing like crazy? Are you keeping up?

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Simply..harbinger of summer....

19/5/2024

6 Comments

We have had an amazing run of hot sunny days and today the first of my summer border flowers opened.

I love the hardy geraniums and grow four main ones - Patricia, Ann Folkard, Roxanne and this one psilostemnon, of which I have about ten plants. Totally trouble free, they make a wonderful show.

Wishing yu some summery weather and back in a week!

6 Comments

Simply..scents and stings....

12/5/2024

10 Comments

.
The shed is dripping with deliciously vanilla-scented clematis Elizabeth which thrives on no attention whatsoever.

The lovely warm weather also brings out the wasps and I got stung on the tip of my finger last night. I was told ice cubes on it was the thing to do but I had just used up the last of the ice cubes in a gin and tonic! I spent ten minutes sitting holding a piece of (wrapped) frozen chicken.

Still working hard in the garden as the man who usually helps me (he can do in a couple of hours jobs which take me a week) is unwell.

A huge loud thunderstorm today after which all the scents in the garden were intensified, and I am going out to pick some lily of the valley to put by my bedside. Another no maintenance plant..

Mid May is a lovely time of year here, and I am very happy in my garden.

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Simply..bliss....

10/5/2024

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..to lie in the hammoock on a hot day.

Half an hour work and half an hour in the hammock. A long day but a productive one, though I have to confess by evening I was almost on my knees!

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Simply..last tulips....

8/5/2024

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You may remember I mixed one Sarah Raven collection of tulips with three cheaper Morrisons shades of pink ones. They have been fabulous.

I'be been doing tulips in the big black pots for many years now but inspired by this display in Copenhagen I think I will go for a mixed planting next spring.

There are fritillaria imperialis and persica, tulips and narcissus, wallflowers, ranunculus, violas - stunning for a public display and maybe needs a parks department to achive it! And would I be able to get them all to flower at the same time? Food for thought..

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Simply..next up....

7/5/2024

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..in the garden are the Welsh poppies. These ones have seeded themselves in the greenhouse.
The cuckoo has arrived, there are a few butterflies around and there are swallows up the glen but not here yet. Hints of summer..

4 Comments

Simply..the lengths we go to....

15/4/2024

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..to save our treasures!

I was trying to protect the dark parrot tulip which had filled with rain and was bent over, but it was too windy to work so I cut the flower and put it under the lamp in the sitting room where I can watch it develop. Tulips do contintue to gow in the vase as I am sure you have noticed. They also drink lots of water and I will keep an eye on that.

There was snow on the tops today.

7 Comments

Simply..resilient....

13/4/2024

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The tulips are standing up very well to the wind and the rain. They are big flowers on sturdy stems and are also packed close together which may help.

I'm very interested in the idea of reilience in people as well as plants. The programme Dan Cruickshank's Warsaw, a History Ressurected is on iPlayer for just a couple more days. It is both a touching memoir and a story of incredible resilience. I thought it was beautifully made and inspiring. Have any of you seen it?

6 Comments

<<Previous

Simply..seasonal scents....

Simply..a little cheer....

Simply..fifty white crocus....

Simply..a brilliant morning....

Simply..Novemberish....

Simply..getting decisive....

Smply..this and that....

Simply..all at once....

Simply..grow tulips....

Simply..a young oak tree....

Simply..in the garden....

Simply..as the season turns....

Simply..waiting....

Simply..late meadows....

Simply..as I often say....

Simply..falling in love again....

Simply..lit from within....

Simply..if you are a gardener....

Simply..harbinger of summer....

Simply..scents and stings....

Simply..bliss....

Simply..last tulips....

Simply..next up....

Simply..the lengths we go to....

Simply..resilient....

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