Six on Saturday – Wet and Dry

My week panned out as follows: wet, dry, wet, slightly soggy, sunny.  It could have been worse.  I might have had a leak in both my boots and my waterproof trousers.   Luckily it was only one of the two.  Gardening has been done, but unfortunately none in my own garden.  Which possibly will not come as a surprise.  Still, it soldiers on.   And we have arrived, as is inevitable as all roads lead here, to Six on Saturday.   Undoubtedly other Six on Saturdayers are more in control of their own destiny.  To confirm this fact, The Propping Maestro’s site will reveal what a zillion other participants (fair and true without exception) have been up to.

Shall we begin with a humble beauty?  Humble is far from a bad thing.  We would benefit from much more.  I describe it as such as it is neither a rare exotic or challenging to grow.  It is a cosmos.  I was expecting another Seashell Mix but someone else turned up.  I don’t care.  I love it.

Next are a couple of canoodling New Guinea Impatiens.  These are favourites of mine, and although the flowers are prone to disfigurement, they make fine summer bedding for tricky places.

We have been battling a mystery climber, ensconced long before our arrival.  Its wicked tendrils swamping and strangling in a manner not conducive to friendly play.  Today, it revealed its true self.  Hops.  Strangely, I am now warming to it.

Now a single flower from the spike of Hedychium ‘Pradhanii’.  I will tell you it is an artistic shot.  The truth is the spike is rather haphazard and unimpressive.  This is its most photogenic side.  A diva must be placated.

Now Tithonia rotundiflora ‘Torch’ that has managed to push through the mob to show its lovely head.  Thank goodness for that.  I had wondered what had become of it.  Only in a slightly detached way, I never sent out a search party.

Finally Alyogyne huegelli.  Anyone got a clue how to say that?  Not me.  Grown from seed this year, it is rather lovely.

’til next time, my friends!

 

Leaving Home

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Survived

We have just returned from the Edinburgh Fringe.   We survived.   Not the festival, I had every faith we would return tired but relatively unscathed.  It was everything I thought it would be and more – crazy crowded, cosmopolitan, chaotic and great fun.  We had a wonderful few days with some of my family and did everything on the virtual list we had in our heads.  And we survived.

I am talking about the flights.   I would like to say that the reason that we have only flown twice in the last 15 years is for ecological reasons, but it would be untrue, although that is an added bonus.  It is because I have a mortal fear of flying.  More accurately, not flying.

For me, the prelude and actual event goes something like this:

a)  Sleepless nights for a week before, along with daymare re-enactments,

b) Go to the toilet at least 6 times an hour at the airport,

c)  Sit rigid with eyes closed during take-off, silently weeping,

d)  Relax slightly (only slightly) until we begin to descend,

e)  Sit rigid with eyes closed, make a little yelp as we touch the ground, brake furiously.

f)  Become euphoric that I have survived.

Repeat on return trip.

I know the statistics, I know it isn’t logical, but that is the way it is.

On the homeward journey we arrived safe and sound at Exeter airport, and naturally I was euphoric.  We drove home.  The car was acting a little peculiar for the last 5 or 6 miles and we resolved to take it to the garage soon.  Then we stopped off at the local supermarket, approximately half a mile from our house, to get some essentials (bread and beer).  Fully stocked up, and pleased to eventually nearing home,  I drove off to exit the car park.   Reaching a corner I put my foot on the brake, which rather bizarrely kept going, as did the car.  Luckily we were still in the car park, so glided to a halt and waited for the nice man from Green Flag to tell us that the brake on the left hand side had seized up completely (I glazed over when he began with the technicalities).  He took our car away to be fixed and us and all our bags to our front door.

This could have happened on the M5 motorway.  Or the busy Link Road.  Or on the very steep hill that we were just about to drive down.   Therefore today I am feeling very lucky, and I have thanked my guardian angel, he was certainly looking over us.   We survived.