TIME FOR A LITTLE MAN?

The Kaffir lily (Clivia miniata) (aka boslelie, forest lily, kaffre lily, thong lily) on the stairs has just finished flowering for the second time this year. There are offspring scattered about the house (they need potting on) and always remind me of a patient called Lizzie  Ainscow who gave me a plant many years ago.
In the same way I have my mother's Easter cactus in front of me now and on the banking is the tree peony she loved.

The cheap gladioli are flowering and have been cut for the house - trouble is rather a lot of them are brown! Well, reddish brown and R is not amused.
We have had our first white chard and though R loves the leaves, the stems got a bit of a thumbs down - texture interesting, flavour zero.

The apples are doing well and we have a few pears, we have our first greengages from the tree our daughter and son-in-law gave us. 











Whilst recently basking in the cloudy skies of Wales (not all the time)(but not the 44C of the Med.)(more like 18 to 20C) there was time for mucking about balancing stones, stacking stones in towers and making headstones.

Various hydrangeas are doing well and heavy with flowers, the Annabelle on the right best by the house door.

The variegated horseradish has been splendid, lighting up and area by the veg and fruit where all seems very green. In a way it is getting too big but I don't mind - let it thrive.

Having said that there are plants that I wish would not thrive. I can tolerate the wild angelica which pops up all over the place but the big hogweed has nasty sap that blisters so is low down on my list of loved wild plants. (I have been got by it in the past). One curiosity is that we do not have duckweed in our pond but in the big green dustbin I keep full of water by the veg beds (don't tell the council) it has appeared. Now how did it get in there, shut, lid down? 

A vote for the red clambering rose, name forgotten, going up the holly in the bottom hedge - given to us by PJR when we moved in it is now giving a great show.

There are some colour combinations in the garden that I do not think work and here is a classic combination of white and orange - something will have to move (one day).

R weeds on, chops back and so on. I mow and prune and stuff and the list of things-to-do gets ever longer. 
Pressure is building to get in a little man to do work, resistance is almost faltering, but not quite yet.