Scarecrows and Showers

A mixed week of weather. There has been some heavy rainfalls which is just what the gardens needed so I have been gardening in between the showers.
The fruit and vegetables are all growing well and I have just netted the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes as the birds were taking a fancy to the fruit.

The cardoon looks dramatic.

Al this growth this season

This rose is growing against the barn wall.

Ladened with booms

We had a trip to Kirkby Lonsdale a very pretty town.
The Royal Hotel.

I love the Romeo Romeo where art thou

Interesting architecture.

What time is it?

A lone fox caught my eye.

The Snooty Fox pub

I love the jelly man in the baker's window.

Oh dear I'm baking in here

What a wonderful name for a road.

A lady used to make hot salted mutton pies for the cattle traders

We had a walk along the river. 

Interesting rock strata

Can you see the fish's head within this gatepost.

Look at the lichen

The farmers are shearing their sheep.

Keeping cool

The scarecrows have been to a health farm and travelled back to the Artful Garden in my car. Most of them left their hats behind so had to travel bareheaded.

"I need the front seat for my sombrero" 

"Stop pushing"

Football hooligan

Bobby Barley.

It's nice to be back in the orchard

Boozy Floosie.

Does anyone have any blackcurrant wine?

Crazy Maisie.

Feeling fabulous

Looby Loo.

Raa raa 

Charlie Barley is still looking for a new pair of overalls so he did not want to appear in the photo shoot.

Wiped Out With Weeding

It has been a dry week with some very hot days reaching 26C. I have been rotating between my three gardens weeding mainly flower beds borders and paths as the weeds seem to grow at a faster rate than the flowers.  Elderflower and wild rose dominate the hedgerows. It is time now to make my elderflower cordial.

On Monday I made some Seville orange marmalade.

Tangy and delicious

The grass is growing at a vast rate and the farmers are making silage.

Field grass cut and left to dry

Baled silage

The white daisies and the calendula are looking at their best.

A sign of summer

Foxgloves come in many different shades. There are plenty self seeded young plants from last year in the Artful Garden that will mature next year.

Foxgloves around the summer house

The Victorian plum tree has a bountiful supply of unripe plums. Last year we had no plums.

Looking good

The gooseberries are almost ripe.

To celebrate the European Championships there is bunting in the Artful Garden.

Patriotic bunting

Bobby Barley has a new football.

Guess which team I am supporting?

I have decorated some large cans and used them as planters.

It's amazing what you Can do

A little wooden music man has appeared in the stone sink near the gate.

Toot, toot

Wool bombing is surrounding the large apple tree in the orchard.

Pom pom bomb bomb

My first vegetable harvest.

A Greyhound cabbage

Bonny Blooms

I have had a few days away in Yorkshire. We went to Flamborough Head where there were two lighthouses.
The chalk tower designed by John Clayton in 1670.

A fire was built on the top 

The newer lighthouse built in 1806 automated 1996.

Taken on a foggy day with the fog horn booming across Bridlington bay

We visited Scampston Walled Gardens. A beautiful blue display.

Blue hues

Bonny geraniums in the greenhouse.

I love the tonal shades

A stunning hibiscus.

Very exotic

The bathing house.

Ladies entered by a door at the side

Cereal crops.
Wheat.

Look the shapes of the ears

Barley.

Floating heads

One of the many varieties of poppies in the gardens.

A stunning colour

An amazing field of poppies and rape.

Rare and beautiful

The white horse at Kilburn.

Horsing around

A local field of buttercups.

Bonny buttercups

One of my favourite views from Hartside.

Looking towards the Solway

The lupins are looking at their best.

Violet lupins and yellow day lilies

Sizzling Sun

Another red hot week of intensive gardening.I have had long days in all my gardens weeding and planting bedding plants. Everything is growing very fast the weeds faster than the plants.
I had a day trip to Wallington in Northumberland on Tuesday.

I saw this amazing deer on route.

Made from backen

There is a lot of wild garlic which has a strong smell.

Inhale deeply

I love this den in the woods.

So organic

Wallington has some huge greenhouses.

The geraniums were over 8 metres

I love wisteria.

Delicate

Gunnera always fascinates me. It is so transparent.

Rose type thorns

This mural of Grace Darling was in the Great Hall.

You can feel the motion of the water

As were a series of flower murals.

Painted during the Pre Raphaelite period

This attendant wasn't very helpful.

I only speak Geordie 

I love this bath.

Full size not a miniature

If only it would snow.

A dragon sleigh

The Bottle Heads have had a makeover.

Hello

Three little Bottle Babes.

Hi Boys

Oh Boy.

Anyone for a snifter

The chicken is celebrating the Queen's birthday.

Happy and glorious

Babarra also is celebrating.

Baapy Birthday