Magnificent Magnolia

Home again after our celebratory weekend to a little bit of sunshine - letting us out into the garden, where the grass got cut, and some general garden tidying commenced.

The garden was looking lovely with daffodils and primroses in full bloom - and the magnolia at its very best!

I Said There'd Be Tulips

 

Slow News Week

Despite evidence to the contrary - it's been a cold start to the month, with snowfall across the country (although not where we are) - Spring is on its way. 

We now have snowdrops, daffodils, crocus and even primroses out, and any day now the tulips should hopefully flower too.

Elsewhere in the garden the rhubarb is on its way up, and we may even need to cut the grass before long.

Looking forward to some warmer weather, but today the sun has at least shone (and I've got my washing dry 😎).

More 'actual' news (hopefully) next week!

Back to Winter

After a spell of warm and sunny Spring weather (welcoming the start of British Summer Time), it seems like winter has returned with a vengeance - with snow and overnight frosts. 

Time to dig out some old decorating sheets - trying to provide the budding azaleas with some form of protection - and switch the rayburn back on.

Hopefully the sun will be back with us before too much longer!

Not Quite Christmas Cactus

At one point it was covered in flowers, but I somehow managed to fail to take the necessary picture - so here's a close-up of one of the remaining flowers on the 'not quite' Christmas cactus:

(Yes, I'm desperate for things to blog!)

Cat on a Hot Thatched Roof

Weekend with family, and a day out in Huntingdonshire.

First stop Hinchingbrooke Country Park, walking round the lakes - admiring the wild flowers, and the local wildlife . . .






We then moved on to Houghton Mill for a return visit . . .



. . . taking a walk out from there to Hemingford Abbots - a very pretty (and probably very expensive) village, with lots of thatched cottages, with their own brand of interesting wildlife!

The day was enlivened further when a badger ran across the road straight in front of us - not something you usually see in the heat of the day, although it soon disappeared under a garden hedge!

Didn't have time today for a longer walk, but there were other routes to follow, and a nice country pub for lunch - may well be back.

Spring Sunshine

Celebrating a warm and sunny weekend and a garden full of Spring flowers - with the clematis looking particularly lovely.

Still got primroses and tulips too, and the cowslips are now out:






It's also been a productive weekend in the garden - cleaning down the greenhouses, weeding the fruit cage, trimming some of the wilder sections of hedge - but taking time to enjoy the sunshine too.

Flower Show Reunion

From the Lake District we moved on to Yorkshire to meet up with some old schoolfriends for the weekend - a bit of a reunion, and a celebration of the first set of our 50th birthdays.  Meandered our way across the Dales, taking in Settle and Skipton, before arriving late afternoon in the village of Bramhope where we had booked a barn conversion for the weekend.

On the Saturday we'd all got tickets for a Flower Show (well except for Martin and one of the other chaps who headed off for a day's mountain biking instead!).

It proved to be a good day - wandered round the outside stalls in the sunshine (some lovely things) - visited craft and food tents, and the competition tents, including an amazing range of giant vegetables:






Of course there were lots of flowers too  . . .

All in all a great weekend - finished the day back at the barn, meeting up with the muddy mountain bikers - with a meal out at a local pub in the evening.

Unfortunately we couldn't hang around for long on the Sunday as it was a long drive back to Wales - more 50th birthdays though in 2017!

Gloriosa

I think it's a Yucca gloriosa . . .

. . . it's certainly a glorious bloom while it lasts.

Bloomin' Marvellous!

The relatively warm winter weather we've been having has produced some rather unexpected sights in the garden.  The following were all pictured blooming today . . .

Not sure if the kaffir lily is early or late - we normally see them blooming in the autumn (late September / October).









A stray azalea flower - normally to be seen  in May / June.

Then we have the geranium that has been blooming pretty much throughout the winter!

The snowdrops however have barely made a showing, although the first daffodils are well and truly up now, if not blooming just yet - the primroses are a little early too:

Blooming June

 Don't think I've ever blogged the summer flowers, so here we go . . . here's what is currently in bloom:


Starting with the last of the azaleas (the others are all long over) and the view down the garden.  Then we have the white irises . . .










something I can't remember the name of (but it is extremely pretty) . . .

and some incredibly flashy peonies (or they would be if they weren't hiding behind a rhododendron bush) . . .

Finally, out in the front garden we have a border of yellow loosestrife . . .


. . .  and a really rather gorgeous delicate pink foxglove (pictured against the porch window reflecting back a view of the hills):

Spring Gardens in Summer Sunshine

April is providing us with some distinctly summery days, and we've been out and about in the sunshine, catching up with some of Wales' best Gardens in all their Springtime glory.

Powis Castle (earlier this month) gave us magnolias, camellias, tulips, fields of daffodils, and dandelion interlopers among the spring bulbs:

 

 

Bodnant Garden (earlier today) was rich in azaleas, rhododendrons, tulips, and fields of bluebells:

        

   

 

And of course, our own garden has been ablaze with colour - the daffodils and tulips are over now, and the  last of the magnolia and camelia petals are falling - but the rhododendrons and azaleas are coming into full bloom already.

Spring Days Away

Spring seems to have finally arrived - the snowdrops are in full bloom and a succession of daffodils are making their debut.  We had a few days away this week and managed to enjoy some Spring sunshine (inbetween the clouds!).


Activities included visiting family in Cambridgeshire and a trip out to a National Trust property we'd not been to before - Belton House.




Belton has its own Deer Park (some of the deer had been corralled conveniently close to the house, providing some good photo opportunities!).



Will have to return to get a better look at the extensive gardens, but did enjoy the house which was presented around the theme of the Edward VIII abdication crisis - the then owner (the 6th Baron Brownlow) having been a close fried and Lord-in-Waiting to Edward.

Belton House (c. 1720 and in 2011):

On the way home, fitted in a quick return visit to Attingham Park.  No deer here, but the parkland does host an extensive range of grazing cattle (as many of these had rather scary looking horns, decided not to risk getting out of the car to take photos - the trees seemed much the safer option!).

The Month of May

Got a bit of updating to do, but let's start with the monthly weather report . . .

May was actually a really rather nice month on the whole - not particularly hot, but very sunny and mostly dry:

While the veg had a bit of a slow start, it was certainly a lovely month for flowers - the azaleas and rhododendrons put on a particularly good show:

From Spring Flowers to Snow Showers

As we leave March behind it feels like winter is back with us. Woke up today to gales and horizontal rain. Over the course of the day we've even seen sleet and hail as well as the odd sunny spell - and there's snow on them there hills.

Before today there was definitely a feeling of Spring in the air - lambs doing there lamb racing bouncy things in the fields - things coming into bloom (one of the camellia bushes is in full flower, there are primroses out, the daffodils and crocus of course, and the promise of tulips).

The pieris in particular was attracting large numbers of bumble bees of all things:

Hopefully this is winter's final fling, and there is better weather to come . . .