Prickly

As far as prickly days go, and there is no doubt that is exactly what today was, it was a good one.   At Bill and Benjamina’s, a month or so ago, men with machines carved through brambles at irregular heights before dashing off in their white van to some other garden needy of petrol and posing.  This left a vacancy for some fool (sans machine but with a Ford Focus to make a juddering getaway) to untangle these spiny constrictors from their unfortunate supports and dig up the already shooting and determined roots.  The lucky gal who won the contract was little old me!

Still the sun shone and I made headway on a job that will take weeks to complete.  At the end of the day I admired the pile of cruel brambles, ivy, self-seeded trees and a proportion of a rampant ornamental salix.   Halfway through the afternoon I made a small diversion, attempting to rescue a hacked at hydrangea (hedge trimmer I am guessing), half dead but with potential to be something special.  Long before B&B took residence, the garden was planted by a woman, now in her 90’s, who obviously was a keen dabbler in the green arts.   Who knows what beauty this sickly hydrangea might turn out to be?  While there is life there is definitely hope and while there is hope I will continue to dig up those darned brambles.

The shot above caught my eye just as I was leaving.  This garden has many hellebores, most I imagine are seedlings, they form carpets beneath the trees in a range of colours and sizes.  The narcissus positioned perfectly in the foreground.  I believe there are horticultural treasures waiting to be found here, beneath the detritus.

Six on Saturday – Time Travel

Today, Saturday 24 March 2018, I am on a secret mission with several other SoS-ers.  It is thanks to the magic of time travel and WordPress scheduling I am able to bring you my contribution this week.  Take a look at our leader The Propmeister‘s blog and all will be revealed about what Six on Saturday is all about.  When you find out will you please let me know.  I must get on, I have to polish my boots.

My first photo is entitled “How the Mighty Have Fallen”.  Now I regret my cursing and chopping back of this exuberant Euryops chrysanthemoides  wishing it was a little less vigourous.  I also rue my cockiness about its safety.  As the Beast from the East seems to be a pack of wolves rather than a lone traveller, with another attack due next weekend, I am feeling rather nervous about its fate.

A parcel arriving is always an exciting thing.  When it comes from de Jager and has bulbs inside it, even more so.  Rest assured, no lessons about growing tender plants have been learnt.

Fritillaria uva vulpis

A stop off on the way home from Cardiff as couple of weeks ago resulted in a few purchases.  Some went to a client, some came home with me.  This Fritillaria uva vulpis, Fox’s Grape Fritillary, was one that has now joined the happy throng at my house.  Or perhaps the cold and slightly miserable throng.  Looks jolly enough though.

Another purchase on the same expedition (it is illegal to buy just one plant and equally unlawful not to have a bleeding heart in your garden) was Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’.  Although unplanted as yet, it is looking surprisingly chipper, even after languishing under several inches of snow for a few days.

Primula sieboldii 'Essie'

In all the slush and rotting vegetation we have more positivity in the emerging furry shoots of  Primula sieboldii  ‘Essie’.  This was purchased from Penny’s Primulas as couple of years ago, whose spectacular cultivars are named after their beloved cats.  You will have to wait and see what this moggy looks like.  Liking the dramatic build up?

spider

Lastly we have a little chap who was basking in the sunshine this morning.  He must have hunkered down in the Osteo that Refuses to Die with his new caterpillar best friend, now known as H R Puffin Stuff thanks to Tony.  Seems like he has a leg in the wrong place, who knows what was going on underneath that horticultural fleece.  Perhaps it is an optical illusion.

That’s all folks!  Thanks again to The Propagator for hosting this meme.   I am loving this time travel lark.  Have they appointed a new Doctor yet? I’ve got a brilliant idea, they could have a woman as the next Doctor and it could be me.  What do you think?  Sorry, what was that?  I’ve missed the boat?  It was worth a crack.

 

 

 

Mode d’Emploi

From this day forward there is to be an alteration to clause 3.7(a) of my constitution, my contract of business, my mode d’emploi.  Amendments are in bold.

3.7 (a)  All prospective employers must have at least one of the following items in order to entertain the gardener: a daft but adorable dog, good jokes, an affectionate cat, egg laying chickens, great conversation, or delicious cake or small well-behaved children who are hard-working, obedient, don’t whinge and gaze at me in awe.

Another fun day at Nancy Nightingale’s.

Thief

I haven’t had many job interviews, and not one single proper PowerPoint presentation/isometric testing/raft building/tap dancing interrogation.  But I have heard tales.  Scary tales.  Mostly I have stumbled upon jobs, my prospective employers were either desperate or didn’t care who they employed as they were off to South America on the next boat.  A bit of a chat whilst they looked out the window and voilà (for Fred) I was just what they were looking for.

This means that I am not really conversant in what happens during a real interview.  Do they really ask “what do you consider your worst personality trait to be?” or is that confined to comedy sketches?  Today, whilst pondering awhile, I decided that if I ever had the misfortune to have an interview again and they asked me that particular question I would answer “procrastination”.  On reflection I probably I wouldn’t as I would undoubtedly be rejected, they would have “found a better candidate” one “more suited to the job”.  However, if they dropped some truth serum into my coffee (that could possibly happen, I’ve been told that some of these interviewers are ruthless) that is what I would have to say. And of course it would be quite true.  You cannot fight the truth serum.

There was something I should have been doing today, some writing that is due by the end of the week.  But I was faffing.  Why couldn’t I just get on with it?  I had the time, there was no need to rush, I enjoy it, I feel wonderful when its done, so why the silly diversions and distractions?  So I went for a walk to clear my head.  It was warm in the sun, birds were making up for lost time and the tree peony was unfolding in anticipation of spring.  I felt healed.  My head was clear.

I came home and made roasted garlic and butternut squash soup.  Then I finished my article.  Now onto the next one …..

Hope

Not today’s photo, in fact it is ancient history, taken at the beginning of last week.  I spotted this little monster happily scoffing the flowers of one of my ever-flowering osteospermums.  Potential for Six on Saturday, I thought, if I ever get around to taking any more pictures.  Which I didn’t.

Since then all has changed.  You may have heard about it.  It has turned a little nippy again.  In an attempt to rescue at least some of my plants, the osteo and its neighbours have been wrapped in horticultural fleece.  This time I actually managed to protect them before the weather turned for the worse.  Earlier today I removed the snow that was weighing down their cosy blanket.  But it was too soon to release them from their corsets, another threat had emerged.  At irregular intervals globs of thawing snow were falling from the roof above.  These were unceremoniously splatting atop the already irritated plants below.  I believe it is called, adding insult to injury.

I wonder if Katrina the Caterpillar has hunkered down, snuggling up between the various pelargonium, tibouchina and salvias.  If there is hope for her, then there is hope for the poor unfortunate plants.  And I do tend to live in hope.

Happy Ending

I am no bumble bee expert.  In fact I am no expert at all.  If I had to pick a specialist subject it would possibly be cheese scones (consumption of), but even then I wouldn’t bet on me to pick up the trophy.  When I examined this photo closely, a bumble resting on the handle of Max’s conservatory door, I was concerned to see some mites clustered around the front of her body.  There has been much publicity about Varroa mites who have spread disease and devastation amongst the honey bee population.  It seemed likely that a positive story about the first bumble of the year was just about to turn into a tale of horror and pestilence.  A quick Google later and my mind was put at ease.  Most of the mites found on bumbles are harmless, in fact they are just hitchhiking to the bee’s nest where they feed on such delicacies as general detritus and even smaller insects.  A cosy symbiotic relationship.  Apparently this arrangement only becomes a problem when there are so many passengers the plane can’t take off.  Hopefully that doesn’t happen too often.

All things considered, it was happy ending after all.  Another school day.