Plants a Plenty

There has been some warm days but still cold nights. I have had a busy few weeks planting out bedding plants at home and in the Artful Garden. A friends terrier chased away the two rabbits I had in the Artful Garden so the plants should now grow nibble free.

Many of the summer plants are now in flower with borders a riot of colour. The side border in the Artful Garden planted up with bedding plants and perennials.

Blue hues

A border in my home garden.

Can you see the pottery house?

Iris and lupin, purple perfection.

Blooming lovely

The lupin is a stunning colour and shade.

Lavender blue

Aquilegia comes in many sizes, colours and varieties.

Like purple dandelion clocks

Bells and bonnets

My peonies are hanging pendulous from their stalks.

Striking

Red campion fills the hedgerows and a border in the Artful Garden.

Red buttons

Poppy power.

Look at the detail

Day lillies though short lived always look beautiful.

Yellow trumpets

Acid yellow Dyers Woad.

This adds zing to the flower border

I have planted out the runner beans.

Has anyone seen Jack?

I have only one cucumber plant that has survived in the greenhouse and this is our first cucumber.

Larger than life

I have acquired half an allotment which needs the ground clearing. There are a few strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb plants on the plot and a lot of beautiful buttercups. Also a lot of couch grass which is not a gardener's friend.

The challenge

Beautiful buttercups

Summer colours.

Euphorbia, geum, astrantia and snapdragon

Last week I did a workshop with class 3 children from Kirkoswald school making costumes for their school play a 'Load of Rubbish.' I had to devise a wide variety of costumes including a turnip, ink cartridge, perfume bottle, duster and dessert pot. The performance was in the open air and was brilliant, very well acted by all the children and a credit to the teaching staff. I hope to feature photos on the blog in the next few weeks.

Railway and Rainbows

 I have had a busy week planting out my bedding plants in plant pots of various shapes and sizes and styles.
There are many swallows flying overhead which is lovely to see. This morning I had a group of five swans fly overhead. You can hear them approach as the beat of their wings is very loud.

I travelled along the Settle - Carlisle railway. Unfortunately it was a rainy day so some of the photos are not too clear.

The lamp post at Ribblehead looks like something out of the 'Lion Witch and the Wardrobe.'

An historic light

A view looking down into the valley from the Ribblehead Viaduct.

Bleak and wild

Horton in Ribblesdale which way to go?

How many miles 

A former station wagon now a garden planter.

Everything is painted in maroon, the colour of the former Midland Railway

Wooden planks to act as a snow break.

 The planks look like blunt teeth

Can you see the faint rainbow?

Faded beauty

This statue is at Brougham Hall, Penrith.

Just doing my exercises

Not any old toilet.

Are these medieval toilets?

The candelabras on the horse chestnut trees are in flower.

Decked with blossom

The farmers are making silage. The grass has been cut and is drying in the field.

The grass is cut and dried in rows

Can you see the bleached yellow field after it has been cleared of silage?

On a good year farmers can get several cuts of silage

A field of buttercups.

Golden buttercups

A hydrangea next to the barn wall.

White wonder

My latest creations The Marker Maids.

Pegging out

Amber Maid.

Jolly good show

Bonnie Blue Maid.

Have you photographed my best side?

Wedding Wonders

Again this week we have had rain and some cold nights down to 7C. I have discovered a rabbit in the garden. Despite surrounding the garden with rabbit wire it tunnelled in under the bent wire on the field gate. It is now munching away on my bedding plants in bunny Utopia. I am not a happy bunny. Watch out bunny.

Luckily I had only planted out a few of these bedding plants

These are the flowers I did for a friend's wedding. Using the church window ledges was a new technique and a challenge for me.The bride and her mother were very happy with the final result. I was able to use foliage from the Artful Garden and my home garden.

A display in the church entrance

White, pink roses and stocks, a lovely perfume

I decorated the altar vases with lace

Bracken, ivy, euphorbia just some of the foliage I used

The display compliments the window

The May blossom is just coming into flower such an intense perfume of sunny days and cloudless skies.

Will May flowers bring forth sun not showers?

Cow parsley is now in flower on the verges.

Cow parsley heads nod in the breeze

The dandelions have turned to seed.

Yellow dandelion buttons

Feathery dandelion clocks. Blow the seed heads away to see what time it is.

One o'clock, two o' clock three o' clock four?

The broom is a bright acid yellow splash in the verge.

Yellow beads

Beautiful water buttercups such a rich golden yellow.

Golden stars

Deep maroon cosmos.

Feathery foliage and red jewels

This rhododendron is just smothered with blooms.

Pink personified

Delicate orange welsh poppies.

Fragile and dainty

The farmers are ploughing their fields. 

Plough a straight furrow

This tree trunk looks like a gnarled giant's hand.

Witches fingers 

Look at the variety of edible fungus for sale at the greengrocers.

They look like sea creatures

Home grown rhubarb.

Delicious

I have emptied my plant pots and put the bulbs to dry in the greenhouse. I have labelled the different varieties hoping the labels stay in place for next year's planting.

Daffodil and tulip bulbs

A pottery lady has appeared in the Artful Garden.

It's frightfully cold out here and I've got rather a stiff neck 

At dusk a lone swallow sits on my washing line and chatters like static to it's friends.

Chit, chit, click, click