I get like this. You see I have looked after these babies since March. I remember when they were just a twinkle in a Chiltern Seeds Spring catalogue. I scattered their tiny shuttlecock seeds, and made sure I didn’t sneeze at the wrong moment. I pricked them out so carefully, holding them by a leaf…
The Elusive Benjamin Britten
‘Benjamin Britten’ is an intriguing rose. Even David Austin himself says he finds the colour almost impossible to describe. I would call it a warm coral-red, which is quite bright and orangey on opening, but becomes a warm coral pink. I might call it ‘watermelon’. The outer petals then fade unevenly, like vintage silk, being…
Stained Glass
I just thought I would write a little mini post on the wonderful Erodium manescavii, or Heron’s Bill. At first glance this flower looks very like a Hardy Geranium. But the petals are not all the same. Two of them have stained-glass window markings. They are like spidery ink across white paper. The other three petals just…
Many Faces
A couple of days ago I posted about our visit to The Salutation garden, in Mischief Managed. I took so many photos that there were far too many for one post. I have saved the dahlias for today. The Salutation is the best garden I know for dahlias. That is not to say there aren’t others…
Mischief Managed
We just had a lovely day out. I can persuade our daughters to enjoy a garden visit if there is a) cake or b) the beach at the end of it. Today it was b). We visited The Salutation in Sandwich, and ended up in Broadstairs, much as we did in A Grand Day Out a couple…
Lazy Days of Summer
This has been a good summer. The hot days have stretched on and on and on. I’ve been wishing we had a porch and a rocking chair. On the weekends I have been getting my gardening jobs done before about 10am, and then it is time for a Sat Cap (Saturday Cappuccino) with Stevie. Then…
What’s your plastic footprint?
Watching My Family and The Galapagos this week renewed my obsession with plastic. We produce over 280 million tonnes of plastic per year. Every bit of plastic that has ever been produced is still on the planet. Even though we can now see miles of plastic floating in the ocean, we are still producing plastic at…
Reach out and touch me
I have been talking recently about sensory aspects of gardening, with colour and form. Today it is the turn of texture. Specifically, flower texture. When I was a child, I liked fluff. I remember staying in a hotel one night and having an incredibly fluffy blanket. I kept pulling off bits of wool all night and in…
Shelter
I wrote a post last Sunday called From Screen to Green which was all about ways to entice children away from their devices into the garden. My two daughters had just returned from Australia that morning. I always encourage them to spend time outdoors on the day they return, as daylight can help to re-set the…
Supersonic
I am mixing my senses here, but I do tend to a degree of synaesthesia when describing colour and its intensity. Whilst supersonic really relates to speed, it is the word that keeps coming to me when I look at these pictures of the bright border and need a word to describe the intensity of…
From Screen to Green
We’re halfway through the summer holidays in the UK and I wonder how many households are having arguments over screens? If left to their own devices my children would spend hours in front of a screen. As I would have done at their age. And did, in fact, with the telly. Screen-time can be creative…
