Cambridge Flower Journal

Spiky January frost

Quite a different effect to the frost on 11 December – this time it’s spiky and covering everything:

☀ K

Next month I’m facilitating a mindfulness session which will focus on fascination with Winter. Here’s how the garden appeared today – viburnum budding; sarcococca confusa berries; weather-worn geranium leaves; rose hips; spring bulbs emerging; and other interesting forms:

🌱 K

Frosty fascination

I’ve never seen our garden so thick with frost. The cobwebs and leaf patterns are incredibly beautiful:

🕸 K

Quiet autumn magic

From this morning – faded chive seed heads, verbena, strange teasel greenery, and other tangled, rain-washed things…

✨ K

P.S. Over the past few weeks I’ve been running short mindfulness sessions in my workplace, and included ‘mindful looking’, in which we each chose a natural object and looked carefully at it, then drew and/or wrote about it. Every element on the table came from this garden:

P.P.S. and a few more, from 4/12/22:

September overflow

I’ve very much left our garden to do its own thing this past few weeks, following the intense heat. It looks to have appreciated a little rain and a few cooler days, and is now a tangle of purple flowers, dandelions and towering brown teasels ready for autumn.

Elsewhere, verbena with other aster behind

Pretty ‘Scepter’d Isle’ enjoys its (I suspect) last bloom of the year

☀K

Late summer roses, asters and a mystery flower

The past couple of months have been very busy and warm.

The below photographs capture a third flush of roses, pretty asters, a giant himalayan honeysuckle, dried-out teasels, and my dad’s favourites (yellow hellenium).

Cosmos, verbena and a self-sown hairy willowherb have been allowed to go as wild as they like as September approaches.

Mystery flower…later identified as hairy wilowherb

I’m listening to Aukai today and have updated my writing/art page, Breathing into bloom, with new entries. Perhaps see you there.

Am I looking forward to autumn? Yes – for cooler days, autumn colour and new beginnings.

☀ K

Sunny honeys

I was planning on seeing my family today, and made the below bunch for them.

…Covid got in the way of that meet-up, so the flowers will come into our kitchen instead.

Meanwhile, teasels are beginning to bloom:

And clouds of ammi majus:

Here’s to more sunny days ahead.

🌞 K

Soft focus

I’m enjoying looking at our garden in soft focus this week – spending a little time gazing into the distance and noticing the patterns, movement and light rather than sharply looking at (or criticising) one area. It’s relaxing for the mind and helps you soak in the atmosphere instead of listing all the things that could/should change!

This afternoon I took some photographs of the back garden in an effort to document how it looks in early June.

**Rosa** **Mundi** is flowering, and the bees love her 💝

The row of roses is looking fuller this year. Here are some of them up-close:

**Rosa ‘Scepter’d Isle’** is nestled in another bed – such a beautiful rose.

Further back, this **teasel** has taken over…! And the **poppies** are still going strong.

The **geranium** I bought from Shirley at Clover Cottage last year is doing well, too.

I hope you enjoy the bank holiday weekend if you’re in the UK.

🌞 K

‘If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…

…I could walk through my garden forever.’

Placing a big pot of salvia by your window or door is a wonderful means of being able to watch bees come and go from indoors.

A geum getting to the light (it will be relocated this autumn so it sees more sunlight throughout the day).

I’ve been enjoying watching the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week. Having caught a glimpse of the gardens on-screen, my favourites seem to be Andy Sturgeon’s Mind garden, Pollyanna Wilkinson’s Mothers for Mothers garden, and the Morris & Co garden designed by Ruth Willmott. The planting in all three gardens looks just beautiful and I love the way they have used walls, benches and metalwork to frame the trees and flowers. Have you tuned in, and if so, what are your favourite designs?

Wishing you lovely weekends,

🌞 K

Very superstitious

Today I was invited to become a wellbeing advocate at work, which took me by surprise and I was delighted. This will involve completing mental health first aid training and learning about wellbeing practices. I am also planning a ‘wellbeing wander’ for a festival that’s coming up in our organisation, which is inspired by one I followed at Anglesey Abbey a couple of years ago 🌸

Besides this, it’s a stunning afternoon here in Cambridge – breezy, sunny and quiet. An iris has bloomed for the first time in our little garden, and the roses are not far behind.