Colour craving

Postbox-red tulips are dazzling in the spring sunshine this morning, together with hints of colour elsewhere.

The leaves of epimedium fascinate me, with their heart shape, veined surface and range of tones from crimson to chartreuse…then up pops a delicate gathering of yellow flowers.

Forget-me-nots have seeded themselves across our garden, for which I’m grateful. The more the merrier, especially in the gravel path.

Peonies are rising out of the soil now, with leaves glossy and bronze.

The odd Spanish bluebell is appearing in our first bed. The white in particular sings out against green.

A new wave of tulips…gorgeous orange-yellow marble.

And we’re just letting the dandelions do their thing, as bumblebees, solitary bees and honeybees all visit them for food, together with hoverflies, beetles, and butterflies.

🌞 K

Much promise

There is hope in the promise of new life and colour in springtime. Looking out of the window even on a grey, rainy day, I revel in the sight of green shoots and leaves, and of bulbs peering from pots, getting ready to bloom.

Today, yellow is aplenty here…

The pink of this cercis is bold and glorious…

Wandering around the paths, splashes of blue appear…

We’re halfway through cutting back old growth. A few plants were lost to frost over winter, including a hosta, hebe and geraniums. A phormium is looking in poor shape too.

Roses are pruned and taking on new leaves.

I’ve moved tulips as close to the back door as possible, so we can enjoy them each morning as they unfurl.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

🌞 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.

Verbena and dandelion
A mess of things
Cosmos, dandelion and other plants
Himalayan honeysuckle
Verbena with aster in the background
Cosmos ‘Xsenia’ – lovely
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.

Scepter’d Isle has opened up
Asters and verbena
Himalayan honeysuckle
Teasels
Mystery flower…later identified as hairy wilowherb
Hellenium
Huge white cosmos, verbena and fennel
Asters and verbena
Eustacia Vye
Timothy

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:

Achillea ‘Moonshine’ and sea daisies.
Honeysuckle.
Thalictrum.

Here’s to more sunny days ahead.

🌞 K