FIRST ROSES

We have roses, summer is a coming in even if it is not very warm. - but we have had rain and the garden is bursting with growth. R's favourite rose is the Albertine - wonderful scent but just one flush of flowers. The other roses are a bit hidden in the new rose bed by all sorts of other stuff - aquilegias, hesperis, foxgloves etc etc.

We still have the odd camellia flower too - yes, odd.

Down at the pond I think the ducks may have consumed all the tadpoles but plant-wise the water crowfoot is doing well - a white aquatic buttercup - and we have our usual damselflies and chasers, whirligigs and water boatmen.

The golden sedge lights up a dark corner.

We went out to Langholme Mill at Lowick, a garden in a small valley around a stream - an interesting microclimate where the azaleas and rhododendrons thrive.

It was the garden of Dr Walter Gill who succeeded my father a GP in Penny Bridge in, I think, about 1950.

We have tree bumblebees nesting in the roof of the borehole shed. They are not inside the shed and not a problem. They first arrived in the UK in 2001 in Wiltshire and have rapidly spread north. We have several species of bumblebee in the garden which is good for pollination. Unfortunately we are plagued again by grey squirrels who are demolishing the squirrel proof bird feeders. One has even learned how to lift the lid and get at the seed.

In the house the canna lily is flowering again - dramatic.

Back to the garden - I have reduced the fence at the end of the long path by a third (wide) and dug up the three gooseberry bushes and dumped them on the bonfire heap. They are heavy with mildew again and also have sawfly. I give up - anyway we do not eat large quantities.

The rest of the fence has been left as it supports a wonderful yellow rose.

Three white lavender and two osteospermums have been put in, what I call, the builders rubble bed. I have dug in two trailer loads of horse manure but it still looks impoverished.

The ex gooseberry bed has been dug over lightly and sown with carrots and parsnips (the third attempt at germination this year) and dill.

In the veg beds I have put three butternut squash and a marrow. The asparagus bed has been weeded and R is busy deadheading and pulling up forgetmenots that are over. The chard is trying to flower. We can still eat the leaves and are using chopped stems in stir fries.

That leaves trouble at t' blog - Blogger changing font sizes and it takes two tries to see a preview. Took their online advice and lost the whole of this blog which I have had to rewrite.