Leaving Home

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Tomorrow my next door neighbour’s daughter is leaving for university.  She is a lovely lass and I am sure she will do well.

We caught the train from St Ives to London, me and my Dad, and stayed overnight with my Aunty Joy.  In the morning we drove down to Kent in her purple mini.  I remember telling him to go, because more than anything I didn’t want him to leave me.  The anticipation of the parting pain was too much.  I sat on the institutional bed in my hall of residence room, all alone in the world and beside myself with terror and sorrow.  Then a tap at my door, and the smiling face of someone who was to become a friend for life.  An ally when I most needed it.  A threshold had been crossed.

I made Meg a bouquet of dried lavender flowers to take with her.   It may help.

Six on Saturday – I’m Back

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After a couple of weeks absent from Six on Saturday-ing (what do you mean you didn’t notice?), I am back in the loving arms of the SoS family.   You might imagine that whilst away I was undertaking exciting and adventurous exploits, about which you would be only half right.  Half of the time, not half of me.   For the uninitiated pop over to The Propagator’s blog where you will be able to find out exactly what you are missing.  You can then choose to either run for the hills or join in.   ps escape while you still are in control of your own destiny.  Let’s get on, there is fish curry to prepare!

First we have a marigold, Calendula ‘Neon’.   The garden has taken on a life of its own and I am just letting it get on with it.  I have relaxed into the anarchy.  This was planted at the base of the Forest Pansy and was nibbled and struggled through drought.  Still it give pleasures.  Respect.

Next we have Cosmos ‘Seashells Mix’, that has eventually got a move on and bothered to flower.  The seeds were either a freebie or in the bargain bin, as I wouldn’t normally have chosen this make and model.  However, I must admit I rather like its flounces.  Another plant is yet to open, but the buds suggest that it will be a dark pink – watch this space for the outcome!

The pack of assorted sempervivum’s I bought a few weeks ago, have eventually been potted up and just to prove that I didn’t copy Jim completely, I put them in a square seed pan.  Oh yes, and a round one which admittedly is the same …….  Never mind, as they say, immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Now the glorious Salvia involucrata ‘Hadspen’.  And friend.   The flower looks rather random in its form, which is in part due to the angle of photography but also because it is a curiously beautiful creature.

Next a little tomato, hiding so a big gardener doesn’t eat it.  Failed!

Finally we have Salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’ which has rampaged through the border, terrorising all the other occupants.  It is forgiven because it has furry flowers.

That is it, all done, I’ll see you in the gloamin’!

 

Rescue

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I rescued this bee today.  Or perhaps not.  She was stumbling drunk through the unmown grass, on a road to nowhere.   I picked her up, asking kindly that she did not sting me, and put her on the ginger lily, Hedychium aurantiacum.  If I was a bee it is where I would like to be.  She had a few sups then tumbled down to the soil below, stumbling into the undergrowth.  Which is where I left her, hopefully to find what she was looking for or a place to lay her head.

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

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Any day that starts with a rainbow has got to be considered lucky.  And that wasn’t the last of the omens of good fortune.

Next we found a lucky newt, especially lucky for him as he managed to avoid the tines of my fork.

Then a mushroom portent, along with a lawn full of puff balls that Lord Mantle systematically popped as he mowed.

Finally there was a heart shaped golden raspberry, which legend tells us is only lucky if eaten.

When I got home I ran into the front room, demanding to see the Premium Bond top prize winning letter.  Not quite that lucky it seems.

Walking

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Due to the fact that my Mean Machine is still at the menders, I have had to walk to work for the last couple of days.  Luckily these jobs have been relatively local and the sun was shining or I might not have been quite so nonchalent.

This morning, on my trek to work, I dipped down to photograph this Kniphofia rooperi in the park.  Not a bad start to the day.

 

Precis

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Ginger lilies, hummingbird hawk moth, Canna ‘Panache’, four lovely cats, chocolate biscuits, ginger rosemary cuttings, Helianthus salicifolius, brugmansia, horti-chat, sunshine, Colocasia ‘Black Magic’, road trip, Passiflora exoniensis, fine folk, school day, Ensete montbeliardii, plant aquisitions, dragonfly, Bidens ‘Hannay’s Lemon Drop’ and friends, fabulous visit  – Devon Subtropical Garden.