Friday 21 June 2019

Skywatch Friday

Good morning skywatchers, today dawns bright and dry.  Here's an example for you of English understatement - we've had a bit of rain. Drenching stuff, in fact. The weeds have loved it! But, as you can see from the photo, today promises well.
When the garden furniture dries we may even get to sit out!
There is a regular visitor to the orchard,
nibbling at the roses on the fence, taking a look to see if its worth jumping over. Don't even think it, you beautiful creature, I know you'll create havoc if you get into my veg patch.
One of our neighbours is pursuing a burnt earth approach to his property, cutting and digging away at his hedges and shearing his land hard back. "What about the habitat for wild life?" I keep asking him. He waves his hand dismissively at the adjoining fields and woodland and tells me that there's plenty of that out there. So we are attempting to counteract his actions by doing less mowing on our own patch, just making a few pathways to and fro beneath the fruit trees.


June is usually a glorious time in the garden but this year the weather has given it a bit of a battering. Some of the roses cope far better than others with wet and wind.



Nothing upsets Charles de Mills - he's quite a thug.
     Paul's Himalayan Musk is romping away on the border 
and we are eating new potatoes and plentiful artichokes.
But the climbing French beans are doing NOTHING
and the peas are reaching skywards but with little flower on display. Sunshine is badly needed.


My white flowers, foxgloves, lupins and campanulas are all thriving. 
It's a good year for two of my favourite colours in the garden, white and blue, although, can you see, one or two spears of pink have grown from my seed of 'gallery white' lupins!
Hope the weekend brings you just the weather you want.
Joining Friday Skywatch for skies all around the world.

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful garden with some of my favourites: lupins, foxgloves, delphiniums. June is glorious. That's a pretty little deer, but yes, it's best to keep them out. -Jenn

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    1. I know from experience how much a pretty little deer can eat!

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  2. We are having the same rainy weather as you. The sun is rare and too much rain has caused flooding and all the problems that that brings. My vegetable garden is not doing well but others have bigger problems than me, so I try not to complain too much. The good thing is that everything is very green and that is lovely.

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    1. Dear Maybe, for all that we live in different parts of the world we seem to share very similar experiences.

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  3. Love your mowing!! Straight out of the Speedy Gonzales school of gardening. And lucky you can grow artichokes where you are. So delicious!

    We lived in California for some months in the Olden Days and the deer were a real nuisance. The local garden store sold a Patented Repellent called Not Tonight, Deer!

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  4. Hi Rosemary :) I love visiting your garden! Sad about your neighbour though, being so dismissive. We have folks like that around here too. We like to keep things as natural as possible but most of the people here are into clearing trees and manicured lawns sadly. In the city, that would be different I guess, but we live in the mountains! Quebecers are not known for being kind to wildlife though, kind of pathetic. I'm glad you and your hubby are being more caring! We need some sun too...though the spinach is loving this weather lol! :)

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    1. I'm all for everyone doing the bit they can, in cities or wherever. I keep passing plants over the wall to my neighbour and telling him that I'll make a grower rather than a destroyer of him yet, but little success so far!

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  5. I really like both your cottage and the grounds. Always fun to visit your garden!

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  6. What a lovely garden you have! Victoria has quite an urban deer issue, and yes, they do wreak havoc on the gardens here. I'm always startled to find one in our condo's front lawn.

    Thank you so much for visiting my blog! I appreciate it. :)

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    1. Realized that my comment doesn't tell you that I'm Sheila (of Ephemera). :-)

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