Category: The Natural World
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Embarrassed by the busy bees
We didn’t think the lovely orange ball tree (Buddleja globosa) was in quite such a flurry of blossom last year, but the intense cold, for these parts, seemed to have prevented lots of floribundance. The plants are making up for it this summer. And the bees were as busy on this tree as I’ve ever…
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Waiting for the rain
After a prolonged wet spell, when we yearned for the simple protection of a veranda over our heads, so that we could enjoy the outdoors in relative comfort, May turned dry and the friendly builders installed both frame and glass panels of the Simplicity 6 system. Plants in their outdoor pots began to wither before…
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A walk in the bluebell woods is like a dip in a tranquil sea
It’s been a long time since we took ourselves out for a walk in the woods just two doors down from us. Blame health issues and renovation challenges, or just inertia, but we finally shook off these vicissitudes and ambled forth. Just in time to catch the dwindling bluebell display, to hear the birdsong deep…
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Almost unfeasible delights
The incredible floribundance of the mallow in the front garden, pruned last autumn with what felt like devastating ruthlessness, has given way in our amazement to the solitary, somehow unfeasible blossom of a giant decorative onion in the back. How can it possibly sustain itself? I feel that way about life, sometimes. How has this…
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Intensity, and passion
I’ve been doing a small, daily gesture for our neighbour, which involves opening a dodgy greenhouse door in the morning as the sun begins to heat the air inside, and then closing it again, with gentle care, as the cool of late afternoon returns. One plant in full blossom, must be an azalea, has been…
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On a clear day . . . you can see
Forever is a long way, but early yesterday afternoon we stood on the western seashore of mainland Scotland and looked across the Irish Sea, beyond the granite island of Ailsa Craig where all good curling stones come from, to see Northern Ireland beyond on its left, and the Mull of Kintyre a bit closer behind…
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Sunset glows after torrential rain . . .
Work has commenced here in our Holmview garden, in a fair few places. The gate that was a barrier has been taken down, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier entry here on my pursuit of joys. The carving out of a place for our new greenhouse is now ongoing (to the left of the decorative pots, in…
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Windmills in the clouds . . .
It was a misty morning, and there were icy patches on the tarmac as I hopped it down to the Men’s Coffee Morning. I thought, as I passed this scene, that it was quite remarkable, and then I realised that I’d better extract my iPhone and take a quick snap. Far across the valley of…
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The ineffable wonder of water . . .
I’m to mow the lawn this morning, with our lovely rechargeable battery- powered Bosch mower. When I looked out of the kitchen window, the delight of the glistening droplets caught my eye, sparkling as they were in the sunshine across the grass. Not because I should have to delay my mowing chore until the sun’s…
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Growth, more abundant
The huge poppies lining our front path have in a few cases grown taller than me! Apparently, were we to be assiduous gardeners, we should be culling rather a few of these rampant plants, but on the whole I love a wild and woolly approach. Okay, I may have to tackle that over-growing Mahonia plant,…
Roads to Joy 