Retirement: week one. The Summer Garden

I've now been retired just over a week and I don't seem to have had time to sit down.

I know there's lots to do around the house and in the garden... I've had to dead head and prune this rose around the door (Paul's Scarlet) so it will produce another flush of blooms later in the Summer.

It's now officially Summertime - poppy time!

We have a number of varieties because we both enjoy them. our favourite is Patty's Plum but we also have small Californian poppies,

and, of course, the garden's full of roses at the moment.

I've forgotten the name of this white rose but it's one of the best and fragrant too.

Just Juliet

Handel

Just Juliet can always be relied on to look wonderful and Handel is exquisite and beautifully scented.

The bottom of the garden where we redesigned it before having the lawn put in has come on quite well and is beginning to look settled. Paul's Himalayan Musk looks wonderful falling over Cleopatra but the laurel hedge will have to be cut hard back in the Autumn and, with it, some of the rose. It's so vigorous it probably won't even pause.

Pleine de Grace is coming into its own where it grows over the shed. It produces good hips in the Autumen so I'll wait until deep Winter to cut it back after the birds have had their fill.

We have a real love of rambling roses. This is one of the best known, Rambling Rector. It can get out of hand if not watched carefully.

 

 

Of course, one of the great things about being retired is having the opportunity to take Molly for a walk whenever I feel like it. I can choose the best part of the day and go and admire the dog roses and say 'Hi' to the rabbits.

 

Summer, of course is not without its hazards; here are just a couple:

This is where the new lawn is lifting at the edge. I wondered what had caused it until I saw a molehill just off to one side. We've never had moles in the garden but it looks like we've got them now. Under this edge, there's a long tunnel. Plainly the disturbed soil made an easy dig for the mole.

And this, much more difficult to decipher as a picture, is where a birds nest is lodged behind our digital TV dish and disrupting our picture. I don't know whether there are young in there, but we're going to have to get up and have a look.

... And when you come home

Of course, at this time of year, the garden is going mad. It seems that while we were away, the weather was fairly dry, so I'm glad I put all the new pots on the irrigation system. I even put a sprayer into the small plastic greenhouse we use as a temporary shelter for tender plants. It seems to work well and everything gets wet.

The Irrigation controller

Nice surprises are that the new clematis (Avalanche) that we thought would only have a small, bell-like flower, has blossomed into a real stunner. Next year, when it's grown a little, it should cover about half the trellis and set off the roses very well.

We also invested quite a lot in Tulips. We're both very fond of Tulips, though I favour the original, simple, elegant, closed cup types; Marea loves the more extravagant parrot types and the brasher colours.

The Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles Japonica) always produces the goods and, this year, is more laden with flowers than ever. It makes a good rear entrance to the garden.

And just under the Quince is our Lily-of-the-Valley. This took such a hammering a few years ago when we had the courtyard paved that it's good to see it recover so well. The scent as you enter the garden is wonderful. It is, of course, the base for Dior's 'Diorissimo' perfume. It always brings back memories of the days when Marea was a perfumery consultant and I was a display artist (window dresser) in all the best department stores in Leicester. I still only wear Dior cologne - 'Fahrenheit' in Winter and 'Eau Sauvage' in Summer.

May 1st is the Fête du Travail in France - see our attempts to buy a replacement tyre over the 1st May period here http://livingvillage.blogspot.com/2010/05/week-in-aveyron.html. The other thing about 1st May is that everyone buys small pots of Lily-of-the-Valley to give to their mothers.

"May 1 is also La Fête du Muguet, and the tradition is to give the ones you love a little bouquet of lily-of-the-valley, for good luck and to celebrate the arrival of spring. Originally the idea was to take the kids into the forest and lose them pick your own muguet together."
Chocolate & Zucchini
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/05/1er_mai_fete_du_muguet.php

The new Magnolia is looking good and will slightly obscure the square corner of the Summerhouse/studio when it grows a bit more.

I really love these 'black and white' tulips. They've really lasted well and look both elegant and slightly wild.


However, out in the fields it is the season to be... a dandelion.

I don't know why, but the village is overrun with pheasants this year; they keep coming into the garden and you can hear them in the fields all around.

And fledglings are everywhere - this one can't quite reach the water in the pond, so is pecking the splashed water off the rim.

As the weather warms up and the northerly winds change to south-westerlies, the air is filled with the heady scent of May blossom (Hawthorn) and, of course, with its pollen!

I don't know the name of this particular shrub and, indeed, it belongs to our neighbours, but I love the way the flowers are held high off the branch almost like shiitake mushrooms.

Finally, among the herb post, the Angelica (Angelica Archangelica) is living up to the 'Arch' bit of its name and growing like a tree outside the kitchen door. It's very tempting to candy some of it, but it seems very labour intensive, boiling it in sugar syrup for hours, etc. Perhaps that's why it seems to have largely disappeared from the shops?

"From the 10th century on, Angelica was cultivated as a vegetable and medicinal plant,[2] and achieved great popularity in Scandinavia in the 12th century and is still used today, especially in Sami culture. A flute-like instrument with a clarinet-like sound can be made of its hollow stem, probably as a toy for children. Linnaeus reported that Sami peoples used it in reindeer milk, as it is often used as a flavoring agent.

In 1602, angelica was introduced in Niort, which had just been ravaged by the plague, and it has been popular there ever since. It is used to flavour liqueurs or aquavits (e.g. Chartreuse, Bénédictine, Vermouth and Dubonnet), omelettes and trout, and as jam. The long bright green stems are also candied and used as decoration."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Angelica

Half a world away

Today is my elder son’s birthday. Thirty-seven years ago today, in the local hospital, Ben was born. The most remarkable thing about him at first was that he had a mop of dark, curly hair. I’m afraid we were very inexperienced but determined to make our own way.

About a year or so before, I had started my new job at the University Department of Museum Studies, where we had 20 students, 2 lecturing staff, a secretary, and a technician – me. It was like a family in itself and I think the students were almost as excited as we were. And we had moved into our first house (we’d had flats, but never been owner-occupiers; almost like being grown up), a Co-operative movement built terrace in the middle of a short row of 6 with a shared (defunct) water pump in the middle.

The young family - with a rather disgruntled Ben, ready for bed

Marea’s mum and dad bought us a pram – HCB (high carriage built). A beautiful thing, but rather difficult to get up and down the steep steps up to the front door. How we loved that house, and constantly opened it to groups of friends and acquaintances. We weren’t especially well off financially, but had lots of friends - we were rich!

Ben in the HCB pram in the back yard

The Steps up to the front door. This is possibly the worst photo ever taken of the house, but it was the only one I could find in a hurry.

Ben - angelic, or what?

The house came with a long garden. You can only see about two thirds of it here; the lower section was a typical cottage garden crammed with flowers, but the top was my pride and joy – where I grew fresh vegetables and fruit. We bought an extra large freezer for all the produce, salted beans, made bread and, of course, wine. It all seems half a world away. It’s certainly over half a lifetime away.

About a year and a half later Toby came along and we bought a Spaniel puppy (too much having to deal with infantile bodily functions – gluttons for punishment). The boys are seen here (sans dog) on holiday in the Lakes.

This is Ben organising everyone.

And Toby helping with the cooking.

Both sets of parents are now gone and Ben is grown into a (not quite so) young man, and like his younger brother, Toby, a son to be proud of. Both are seen here organising and cooking for Marea’s 60th birthday fusion BBQ. I know they don’t read this blog, so they won’t be embarrassed.

The beauty of the poppies

The poppies have come up trumps this year. It does take a whiloe for them to settle in and build up their strength. I love the original oriental poppy; the way it catches and holds the light.

But we also have other varieties and colours

... including my all-time favourite, 'Patty's Plum'.

The Summer House/Studio is finished and I'm off to take a class in stained and leaded glass in a couple of weeks time in Liverpool, so I can get started.

The bunting, by the way is for Marea's volunteer party (for those who fundraise voluntarily for Marie Curie Cancer Care). They promised rain, but, so far, the weather's holding. My only problem with the bunting (well, no, not my only problem - I'm not really sure I like it at all) but my problem with this bunting is that it hides the lettering.

Last year, I cleared a patch of land that had been totally dominated by our aptly named Stipa Gigantea, divided the stipa, replanted a small bit and then planted alliums and other good stuff around it.

Well, this is how it's turned out. I think that's a success.


The Allium Christophii are spectacular, but the small ones (you can just see the spearhead buds on this shot) produce small deep red balls of colout that last quite a long time. Perhaps more later.

Actually, the whole garden is at its best at the moment. Though I love August (I was born at the end of August) I have to admit that the garden is never quite as beautiful as in June.

This, by the way, is a little rose called 'Eye Paint' from David Austin. It's not done too well in previous years, but it plainly enjoys being among the Alchemilla Mollis.