Today’s guest picture is something Dropscone saw in the moat when he was visiting Hever Castle last week. He is pretty sure that it is a bird.
It was a miserable soggy, grey and windy day in the morning and I wisely found things to do indoors. With seven songs to have off by heart for our Carlisle concert, any time spent going through them is valuable so it wasn’t a wasted morning.
I even shifted more old photos off my computer onto an external drive which is good in two ways. It makes my computer run a bit faster and it puts them in a safe place in case of computer disaster.
It wasn’t raining in the afternoon so I went out into the garden. There is a lot to see there even on a rotten day.
The Icelandic poppies were able to hold up their heads today but I had to hold on to the stalk of this one to stop it swaying in the wind for long enough to get a picture of it.
The vegetable garden is coming on a bit each day.
Blackcurrants, strawberries and gooseberry all look as though they will be fruitful.
Chives….
…and potatoes are progressing well too.
Mrs Tootlepedal is busy constructing a pea fortress against the marauding sparrows and I hope to have a picture of that when she has completed the edifice.
From the vegetable garden, I walked along the back path and found plenty to enjoy there too.
I read in an informative blog that trilliums have three of everything and when I looked, this turned out to be true…..
…although our two little plants are sadly quite a bit worse for wear.
Moving onto the front lawn, I was surrounded by azaleas. We transplanted this yellow one last autumn and Mrs Tootlepedal cut it back quite severely. As it is an old plant, we wondered whether the move and the haircut might be too much for it but we need not have worried. It is thriving in its new place.
Another one was moved and placed beside it and it too is doing well.
If I can find a sunny day, I will try to get a pretty picture of the lawn surrounded by azaleas. This is the third development of spring after the daffodils and tulips.
I went onward, out of the front gate and round the back of the house where I could enjoy the first of the potentillas along the back wall.
There are more to come out and they will last for months.
I went back into the garden and took a picture of two of the remaining tulips.
The wind and the rain have knocked a lot of petals to the ground and there was quite a bit of tulip dead heading to do.
I had to leave the garden then and go off up to the health centre where I had a very minor operation on the side of my neck . This left me with a few stitches covered in a theatrical sticking plaster so I look not unlike Frankenstein’s monster but in a modest way.
The whole affair was quick and painless and I was quite able to mow the greenhouse grass when I got back. The weather had improved a bit by this time but I thought it was sensible not to go for a pedal or a walk so I contented myself with a few more flower pictures.
Mrs Tootlepedal pointed out a striking blue flower in the back border I had noticed it before but I had passed it by, thinking that it was just another bluebell. It was in fact a camassia…
…and well worth a proper look.
There are Welsh poppies popping up all over the place…
…and I have put one beside a white potentilla in the frame below.
The last flower of the day is a nectaroscordum, another flower that blushes unseen…
…unless you lie on your back and look up.
Or hold your camera facing upwards and hope for the best.
The rhubarb was badly affected by the lack of rain but I managed to find enough stems to pull to have rhubarb and custard for pudding at our evening meal and that made a dull day end on a brighter note.
The flower of the day is one of our neighbour Liz’s plants, a really stunning azalea on the banks of the dam…
…and a singing blackbird on our front hedge is the bird of the day.
I never cease to marvel at the variety and colour of the flowers and shrubs you two have in your garden. I particularly enjoyed the azaleas.
It’s hard to beat deciduous azaleas, but the camassia gives them a good run for the money.
I’m guessing you must have an animal problem if you have to cover the potatoes with chicken wire. Here we have woodchucks, which can eat their way through a garden in one night.
I often hold my camera in odd positions and hope for the best. It worked for you.
Cats are our perennial problem. They are more mess makers than plant eaters but still a big nuisance.
Your azaleas are very beautiful, as is the camassia. They are called Camas here,and grow wild, although I have never found any on the farm..
We were given that one by a friend.
A pea fortress? Yikes! Thankfully the birds here seem to spare the peas – our big challenge is deer who, without an electric fence (ours is solar), treat every rural garden as a salad bar.
Lovely flowers – both the colours and the shapes are striking.
Pheasants are the real pest for gardeners in the country round Langholm but sparrows are the worst we have to put up with.
A wonderful variety of colours, and clever shot of the nectaroscordum.
Your garden gives me serious envy. I hope one day to have a space as lovely as that. I can’t keep a house plant alive so I’d probably make a rubbish gardener but I will still give it a go. Lovely photos, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for commenting. It is much appreciated.
love the colours today TP. I have bought myself a camera and it is plugged in charging up . Its a Panasonic TX70 so I will have a whole new learning curve ahead of me. it has a 30x zoom in a point and shoot camera. wish me luck
That sounds much like the Lumix I have got. The zoom is a great help in a camera so light. It will ruin your cycling though as you will keep wanting to stop to take another picture. I do wish you luck and lots of fun.
Thanks TP. I am a bit scared if it as yet but have managed a few photos. The zoom is amazing
I find it hard to have a steady enough hand to even find what I am looking for when I have the zoom full out let alone take a picture. A fence post is a handy thing!
The azaleas are a real picture!
They are very good value.
I hope you are not downplaying your little operation and that all is well.
Gorgeous flowers today and your blackbird is a charming character!
I am not downplaying, it was very little.
Very glad!