london1952 | Entries tagged with garden

These little brown birds must have known something on Monday, as there was plenty of frollicking around the bird bath, with at one point four in the water, and one impatiently hovering, and another four in a tree close by.... they never stay still long enough, but I did catch three of them with my camera....... The temperature has dropped since then, so they have only called by for a little drink yesterday and today.

Another visitor was this green "Lovely" walking across our bedroom ceiling on Sunday evening, caught in our "insect catcher" I released him back into the wild, hoping he doesn't eat half the garden ! LOL

Our Oleander has struggled this year, but with the last blast of heat a few weeks ago it produced some flower-buds...however, they are a little reticent opening up.... even though it was sunny this morning, it was only 9 degrees ! Brrrrrr...... here comes Autumn !

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home

The weekend before last Franco and I were in Leeds to celebrate my mother's 86th birthday. On the Saturday we motored into North Yorkshire and the small and very picturesque market town of Helmsley to visit the Walled Garden. Originally the garden had been the kitchen garden to the nearby Duncombe Park, and is very close to the ruins of the medieval Helmsley Castle. The castle was partly destroyed in 1644 and the remains became the property of the Duncombe estate.

Of course, our first stop was at the cafe for tea and scones........

After years of neglect and dereliction the gardens were taken over in the mid-1990's and the hard work of restoration began to return it to its original Victorian beauty and productivity. You now really get an idea of what it would have been like and how much fruit, vegetables and flowers would have been grown to supply the large household and estate. It is now also used as a centre for restorative therapy for those recovering from or dealing with long time illnesses of all kinds, as well as addressing the needs of the disadvantaged in the community.

On the way home we called in at a country pub, now "gastro-pub", in another picturesque village on the banks of the River Ouse that flows through the Vale of York. My mother have been here a number of times through the years.... it has been excellent, then not-so, and even closed-down, but has now returned to excellent in a slightly new guise ....... a large mirror in an alcove reflected mother, son and son-in-law !

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: home
Current Music: radio

Last week I had the treat of a rare chance to visit Lambeth Palace Gardens. Arrangements were made some time ago for the visit by volunteers from the Garden Museum, we're right next door to the Palace. Visits to the Palace in general are fairly difficult to organise as it's the London residence for the Archbishop of Canterbury and largely closed to the public. I thought we were having a tour of the building, but was delighted to find out it was the garden, and that the rain stopped minutes before the tour commenced.

We were lead by the head-gardener, Alistair, who has been there since 1994 and been involved in much of the restoration of recent years, particularly lead by Lady Runcie, wife of a previous Archbishop of Canterbury, and his great narrative was peppered snippets of historical information. This has been a private garden since the 12th century and was much bigger, in 1901 a large part of it was "given" to the people of London, and called Archbishop's Park, to give them the chance to enjoy some green space amongst the heavily populated and very industrial area of Lambeth of the period.

Morton's Tower, the Tudor gatehouse to the Palace leads to the main courtyard which includes the main Palace building, the Library and the Guard Room.

The cross on top of the Davidson Memorial, largely hidden by the leaves of the four Magnolias that surround it. The Magnolia "Elizabeth" (which has yellow flowers in Spring) against the wall was planted by the Queen to commemorate her Golden Jubilee visit to the Palace.

The fig trees below were originally planted in 1556 and are "White Marseilles" variety and has two crops of fruit a year.

The recent very wet weather certainly made everywhere very green !

A rather unusual "Tulip Tree" bloom, even the leaves look like a tulip profile........ the Houses of Parliament across the river is a reminder we are in central London

I'm guessing the Archbishop likes honey ! Three bee-keepers were busy checking the hives in amongst the trees behind this "themed" bench.

Symbols of the Archbishops pop up every so often, including the frames for the fruit trees, and on the terracotta rhubarb-forcers......

A lovely pergola is the centrepiece of the very newly restored Terrace of roses.

There are about 10 acres of garden, and it's amazing that there are only two full-time and one part-time gardeners, though there are also a number of volunteers who work for a few hours a week. The Archbishop does make the grounds available in the summer months to as many of the charities he supports as possible, and of course the garden is enjoyed by the many official visitors he entertains, as well as family and staff.

Could this be the Archbishop's preferred choice of transport ?? LOL ...an old machine in lovely condition.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: home

Stephen and I enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast in the gazebo on Monday morning before his long drive back "up north"

...and with this warm and sunny weather there are new blooms every day.....

...and three white Lupins, looking like "The Three Graces" !

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: home

The snow that started falling on Thursday evening (last week) has at last melted due to the slightly raised temperature today, but it's still chilly..... and a riot of small garden birds are enjoying all the food we put out for them, and that the ice in the bird-bath is now liquid !

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: home

We spent the weekend "pottering" in the garden, planting bulbs in all our big pots and putting the dahlias to bed for the winter. In spite of it being partially sunny, we also had showers and a chill breeze both days, so we didn't overdo it......... so there are still more bulbs from last year to plant ! It's been vile weaher today, with more of the same forecast for the rest of the week..... oh, well...... maybe I should catch up with some chores around the house !

..... and a very "spotty" Iceberg rose......

And just for a bit of cheering up, here is the "Nigella" fruit tart I made last week, and a traditional Sherry Trifle made by our neighbour friend Peter for Dinner last weekend....................

Mmmmmm I feel better already !

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: hme
Current Music: radio

Well, it sure has been a gloomy week !...... with grey skies and some torrential rain, although we had about 8 minutes of sunshine (from goodness knows where!) late this afternoon. I suppose in some ways it's good, as the greenery has sprung back.... and so have some snails and slugs ! (yeuw!) which is not so good. It does save on time watering the garden however.

In our small side garden, which is mostly a parterre, we planted some annal cosmos plants that Franco (

london1967 ) grew from seed. Normally the ones on offer as summer bedding plants from most nurseries are plain pink (or white) but it has been interesting to see what has bloomed for us... almost every one is different............

... just a few of the variations, and they are such a simple but lovely flowers......

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: home
Current Music: gaydar radio

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: home
Current Music: gaydar radio

It's much cooler and damp today after a long period of hot (for the UK) and sunny weather. You can almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief for the change.

Our roses have been beautiful this year, and we are really hoping they will have a second flush of blooms........

Friends of

london1967 will know of our recent shock of winning 1st prize in the Beautiful Bromley competition this year...... it's really all the plants that are the stars-of-the-show !! (the roses were still in bud on the day of judging)

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: home
Current Music: katy perry

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting reading emails when I heard a persistent chirping close by.... On looking out of the window I saw an adult Dunnock disappearing up the garden path, and then I spotted a small ball of feathers in one of the flower pots near our french doors. The little baby was obviously trying its first few steps into bird-life. "He" spent a good half hour hopping round, all the time I was on edge, dreading a cat turning up, or one of the thug magpies spying their live lunch. In the end I had to leave the house and hope for the best. On my return there was no sign of little birdie, but a few days later two adults with two of their young turned up on the bird-bath for lessons in drinking and bathing....... so sweet.

As I type there is one of them hopping amongst the plants in the garden feeding on insects .........