Flowers in the house

In the dining room there are peonies, campanula and the sweet pea 'Elizabeth Taylor' together with some shop bought lilies.

African violets in the kitchen.

I started out with one small plant but it is such a 'good doer' that it has been divided several times. 

In the sitting room there are red  peonies  and the rose 'Charles de Mills'.

And on the mantelpiece, just missing the evening sunlight, a few dried red roses.

For Jane at smallbutcharming

Mells Open Gardens

On Saturday we went to Mells to visit seventeen open gardens.

In the Rectory Walled Garden they were doing a roaring trade in afternoon teas.

All the proceeds of the open garden day are to support the post office, which is the only shop in the village and is run by the community. 

 

Mells Manor is a handsome old house that I have previously only peeped at from the churchyard next door whilst putting flowers on Seigfried Sassoon's  grave. The open garden gave a wonderful opportunity to be nosey!
Himself pretending to be lord of the manor.

At 'Old Prospect Farm' we saw this small carved stone Annunciation set into the porch wall. The owner had no knowledge of its history. So many of the houses in Mells are very old and very beautiful.

Brook Cottage, as its name suggests, is a steep garden of terraced beds, with seats and narrow steps that lead down to Mells Brook. 

An ideal spot for keeping bees.

The walled garden of 'Hathersleigh' was immaculate

and Kerry Cottage was quite rightly described as "a picture book cottage garden", complete with chicken pen.

Claveys farm was described in the open gardens leaflet as having 'herbaceous borders full of lupins, fox-gloves, delphiniums, poppies, lavender, rosemary, salvia, pinks and lilies, thirty shrub roses and twenty fruit trees, hazel tunnel. Sheep, chickens and chicks geese and goslings."

It did not disappoint!


It was a wonderful garden and the owner gave us the warmest of welcomes, standing here next to a fine specimen of the rose, 'Great Maiden's Blush' with her Agatha Christie mug of tea. 


Gardens to see, gardeners to talk to, plants to buy, tea with home-made scones and clotted cream to devour. 

What's not to like!

Birds

Last weekend we called in on our friends Janet and Steve. Their house is in a wonderful position overlooking the Bristol Channel.


The garden is dotted with some of Janet's decorative enamel work; exotic leaves, faux topiary and hangings.






Inside the house we had a poke around Steve's studio and took a look at the work in progress.


Himself and Steve can discuss art for hours!

painting by Stephen Jacobson

I was amused to see that Steve had got a cast of assorted birds waiting in the wings. I think that they will be reappearing in another painting any day now!









He said that he sticks them on his painting and moves them about until he is happy with their relationship,then he removes the paper silhouette and paints the final placing.

At home we went for a walk in the woods, where, at this time of year, most of the birds have flown, or more correctly have been shot.

As well as the broader paths used by horse riders and the gamekeeper's vehicle there are many small pathways crossing the woods where we walk. The lower area of woodland is often muddy, making for difficult walking conditions, but not this year, even some heavy rainfall overnight has made no difference to the woodland floor.



There are a number of pheasant rearing pens in the wood, empty now of birds but with just the last remnants of bluebell flowers. When new stock is put in the pens in August the electric trip wire will be switched on to deter foxes, not to mention fox-terriers!

There are some impressive old trees in the wood, sadly this one
has lost half its limbs.















But this yew tree is a healthy specimen. Judging by its girth it must be several hundred years old.
Himself is obligingly hugging it to give you a good idea of its size.

A drop of rain

After weeks of dry weather we have at last had some rainfall. Not enough to please the farmers, but at least it has washed the dust from the leaves. The lake is looking an unhealthy green and the fishermen have been trying to aerate the water for weeks now with an electric pump. Years ago the lake was a solid mass of water lilies but the fishermen have cut back the plants to create as much open water as possible.

The wild flag iris are in bloom around the lake edge

and flowers are also colouring my garden.

But to dispel any ideas that I have the garden under control, here is an image of one of my beautiful iris being threatened with choking from that miserable and all too healthy weed, convolvulus. It rampages about my garden along with that other great nuisance, ground elder.

And don't get me started on the state of my lawn. A green sward is supposed to be every English gardener's pride and joy. 

Take a look at mine, green and lush only in curious little circular patches. I'll tell you the secret - dog pee.

My lawn is beyond all hope!