Six on Saturday – Static

Posted byofftheedgegardeningPosted inChez Nous, Six on SaturdayTags:,

It is not as if Storm Brian snuck up on us unannounced.  We have been warned of his imminent arrival for days.  In my heart I know I should have gone out in the garden yesterday to take my photos, when it was warm enough to dry the washing.  But I didn’t.  And today I have paid the price for my bad planning.   Today’s Six on Saturday, run by the our illustrious leader The Propagator, has necessitated a bit of a rethink.  I was tempted to post unrecognisable blurs and try to convince you they were specimens of the extremely rare Amazonian Giant Poodle Grass or even the Tasmanian Snucklewurgle.  However the angel on my right shoulder managed for once to out shout the wicked chap on my left and I opted instead for honesty.  My cunning plan is to concentrate on the more static of the garden community, apart from the first one which is used purely for effect, having fallen in the gale.

Let us begin with my one plant contribution this week, a toppled Phyllostachys aurea, which like its companion from last week the black bamboo, is grown in a pot.  This golden bamboo is occasionally divided, when a saw is definitely needed, and repotted in fresh compost. Generally it is ignored until attention seeking behaviour such as this necessitates some action.  It falls over several times each winter, in fact today I left it where it fell, it will be fine.

ladybird

This chap is the only ladybird I have seen in the garden this year, which is rather sad.  Not just my garden but also the ones I work in.  There has been plenty of aphid, so no lack of food for them.  Has anyone else noticed a dearth in the spotted one?

Next we have our Welsh dragon, he guards the front door and so far has been very successful at keeping intruders at bay.  Long may he continue his vigil.  Do not be fooled by his comical demeanour, he is quite fearless.  Reminds me of someone, can’t quite put my finger on who that might be …….

snail

This mammoth mollusc moves around the garden, filling a space when and where they appear.  Luckily for me he is totally plant friendly, no nibbling going on at all, which is just as well as he is quite large and could do an awful lot of damage if he was that way inclined.  I was hoping that he would scare off the others, but unfortunately not.  Perhaps they worship him as some kind of Venerable Snail God and are actually attracted rather than repulsed.  That didn’t work out as planned.

This is an ornamental key stone.  It came from a reclamation yard in Bristol many years ago.  I loved it then and I love it now.  Hopefully someone didn’t just nick this from the rest of the arch and run!

Finally our sundial.  I was working in a garden just outside Bristol, where a builder was renovating a house.  This was in the garden and he said I could take it if I wanted to.  It was in the back of my car before he finished his sentence.  Around the face is a short saying, I thought it was appropriate for today, “Let others tell of storms and showers, I’ll only count your sunny hours.”

Thank Mr P, who knows what next week will bring.  Hopefully it will involve plenty of sunny hours and very few storms and showers.

 

21 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Static”

  1. Oh envy, I would love a sundial just like that one! And, like you, we have not seen ladybirds, I think there were one or two earlier in the summer but that was it, and there is loads of habitat and food for them. Perhaps we need to pose the question to Autumn Watch so that Chris Packham can get on the case.

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    1. It is very diddy and I think an old stone baluster with a modern top, but still I like it, and for free even better! Could you message Chris Packham then? He is the man for the job “Find our Ladybirds”!

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      1. No need to trouble CP. They are up here!
        Only the other day I had 3 on me while out walking with Scrumpy.
        There are loads in the nooks and crannies around my parents old windows.

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      4. Diddy or not it really looks the part. I have a little statue that Mr TT is not sure about but once it settles in with the planting it will look just fine. He would prefer the sundial but that would be no use to replace the statue as it is in shade most of the day.

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  2. Really nice to read about the ornamental things we have in our gardens. It’s so much a matter of taste of course. I like all yours especially the snail. Made me decide to pop outside and take pics of all the bits I have around the garden for a future post in the depths of winter.

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  4. Not seen many ladybugs here either this year. Though not seen any aphids either. Didn’t see many aphids last year so maybe the ladybugs have gone elsewhere in search of food. Mind you, any ladybugs I have seen have always been sober. Using corks as a mulch is a novel idea though.

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  6. I was just telling someone else how much I dislike garden statuary; but then I noticed the sundial and realized that I put the exact same pedestal in my mother’s garden . . . without a sundial on it. It was from my great grandfather’s garden, so I could not get rid of it, and I never got around to outfitting it with a sundial or a gazing globe or anything of the sort. It used to have a birdbath on it. Oh well.
    If you remember the old commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba with Ricardo Montalban in that round motorcourt with the fountain in the middle, my colleague Brent landscaped that home. (It was actually Ricardo Montalban’s home back then.) Anyway, it has a very nice motorcourt that is now nicely landscaped, but the clients added some really bad statues of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! It is SO tacky!

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  7. What a fun post! Do you really have a Tasmanian snucklewurgle?! I’ve always wanted one! I do have an identical sundial to yours though, quite strange to see a picture of it. I have always loved the little verse. I haven’t found a suitable spot for mine yet though, not where it will actually be in the sun anyway!

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    1. Thank you, and yes I do, would you like me to send you a cutting? 😉 It really is a lovely little sundial, and mine isn’t in the sun at the moment either, but so easy to move about it doesn’t really matter. Nice to see your comment. 🙂

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