Tuesday 26 August 2014

August snapshots






So it's the end of August already! I've been a bit slack with my blogging... it's that time of year when I'm sick of winter, drained of motivation and just waiting for the extra daylight hours to kick in again. There's still a month to go till daylight savings (I'm counting down) but today when I got home from work there was enough daylight for me to go out to the garden and harvest a leek and some broccoli. It's such a relief to be able to do that! That and other small things, like emptying the rubbish bin or fetching something from the garage, are just so much easier when it's daylight. So bring it on.

Here are some of my recent pictures from Instagram. (At first I thought Instagram was just another trend but now I'm really appreciating it as a quick and easy way to document daily moments...If you want to look me up on Instagram I'm here!)

Hellebores are still the flower of the moment but their time is nearly up. My favourite this year has been the picotee - white with a dark purple edge - which looks gorgeous glowing in the garden, in a vase, and floating in a teacup so you can better see its pretty little face. I also got a new hellebore - Tutu - and it was so potbound that the first thing I did was soak it in water, then slice down the middle to create two plants. They didn't flower much after that but I planted them out in the garden and they'll be away next year.

On the crochet front, I made a couple of dishcloths. I'll do a full post about them soon as they turned out well. The pink one above made a pretty scalloped pattern.

And last weekend I assembled a flat pack bookcase for my reading corner. I ended up with 20 dowels left over, which I eventually realised were supposed to help anchor the shelves to the walls, but I couldn't be bothered redoing the whole thing to put them in. They were completely missed out of the instructions which were hard to follow anyway - you know those line drawings which make it look like the whole thing assembles itself! Anyway, it feels very sturdy so I happily filled it with all my books. There is a little room for expansion but not very much, so I'll either have to have a purge or buy another bookcase. The book stack above is my latest library haul, this should be just enough to last me a month as long as none of them turn out to be duds (they haven't so far).

That's about it for the last week in winter! I probably shouldn't be in such a hurry to wish it gone, as there are plenty of jobs to get done, like cleaning the glasshouse, before the busyness of spring arrives. But actually I can't wait!

Saturday 16 August 2014

August flowers

Welcome to my garden for a small taste of what's blooming this August! I did wonder if I would find anything new to photograph at all, as it's definitely feeling like the tail end of the season now and anything still flowering is looking a bit tired. However there were a few surprises, like the jasmine I found trespassing over the fence into the neighbour's yard. When I pulled it back that particular part of the vine was covered with flowers! I am not sure why my flowering vines do this - no matter which side of the fence is sunniest, they always seem to push their way to the neighbour's side and flower there. Of course the neighbours don't mind at all, but I feel a bit put out. Plant - you flower for me, got it?

There are also small buds now to be seen on dormant plants like clematis, fruit trees and spring flowering shrubs. It won't be long now before everything bursts forth.

Clockwise from top left: snowdrop, a new hellebore called Tutu (see the frilly petals inside? And it was on sale so it's all right!), the first blossom on my almond tree (I hope the rest of them hold off till spring is a bit closer), polyanthus, ipheion uniflorum, camellia fairy blush (looking blossom-like in this picture, but it's been flowering since May), earlicheer daffodils, paper daisy, an opening bud of hellebore Pink Lady, the surprise jasmine, daphne (still smelling gorgeous), picotee hellebore.

Special mention goes to this picotee hellebore, mainly because I really like this photo. How is your garden blooming this month?

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