SUCKERS AND STUFF

 

There are times when one's inability to do anything is a surprise - Came back from Scotland with an old fashioned cold and am still shattered - NO it is not Covid.

First walk up the garden and I notice the rabbit has reopened the burrow on the upper banking. So I have stuck a big stone in the opening and we wait.

The one of three large rhododendrons we bought at Stonefield Castle and looked dead - all its leaves shed - has come back to life - fingers crossed.

There is also considerable bark damage on two or three of our white birches. I could blame the deer but actually think this is grey squirrels getting at the phloem. If the bark loss encircles the trunk we will have a dead tree. 

Anyway it is a way for infection and fungi to get in. 

Not good

I wandered down past the osiers that are the remains of the willow tunnel we once had and they have sprouted +++. Do I want to make baskets? Should I just prune all the new shoots. They could be tied in bundles for the woodburner?

Elsewhere we are suffering from suckers! The grey poplar in the lawn, the damson and greengage all over the place, even in the middle of the veg beds and rhubarb.

Up under the shade of the Guelder Rose I noticed a familiar leaf. The yellow tree peony had sown itself. I may need to dig that one up and pop elsewhere.

Sometimes when one delves into a shrub there is a surprise. Never noticed these before as they were well hidden.

This is the growing end of a fatsia branch - fascinating.

We do still have colour here and there - apart from the dahlias - 

Buddleia and day lily.

Hilary's Rose and cyclamen.

I was discussing the bountiful crop of acorns everywhere last night and we got onto elderberries too. Some things have done well - was swapping pears for apple juice.

The leaves are starting to fall - I am waiting for the cercidiphyllums to smell of caramel (or chocolate)(or toffee). They are also called katsura.

And we have other leaf colour like the Choisya ternata sundance or Mexican Orange, the Hypericums and even the water lilies.

The Sedum or stonecrop has come out to feed the bees now autumn.

And the Cosmos Purity goes on and on - no frost yet.

BACK HOME

Here is a stone carving of me reclining in undergrowth. It is a bit like looking at clouds and seeing shapes. This was on the walk from Rocklcliffe to Kippford. If you cannot see the head do not worry, it is a bit Easter Islandish.

And we were surrounded by swallows, R almost trod on a slow worm, we followed a hare along the road, a red squirrel scuttled up a tree and two roe deer skipped into the woodland brush.

No, not here at The Nook, we were away for three nights in southern Scotland and no sign of a swallow or martin here. In fact all the trail camera saw in the last ten days was grey squirrels, pheasants and RABBITS!

And we are home and R has been weeding the veg beds whilst I am slowly dying of manflu - however I think I have now given it to R.

The gardener has been and strimmed the top banking - to come back to do the bottom one.

I am debating as to whether I should have the Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, dug up because of the war.

On the other hand it is not its fault Russia has a madman as its President. The war is only because of his failings at home and trying to distract his people from his mismanagement. 

Thinking about that - when are we going to Invade Europe Liz?

Forget the mess- the roses are still blooming.

The Conference pears are coming ripe - lift the fruit and if comes away easily it is ready. The only trouble with these pears is that they have a rather tough gritty skin but they are self-fertile trees so only need one.

Perhaps I should dig up the potatoes - perhaps not, I cannot face seeing all the slug damage and scab and so on.

It will be time soon to lift the cannas and store them for the winter. I should do the same for the dahlias but with a good compost covering they have survived last winter and are flowering well so the same again I think.

Occasionally things that flower in the spring do so now - like this Clematis armandii -

Elsewhere the Hydrangea Annabelle is getting too big? - right by the backdoor it has now moved on from white to green, more or less, but is overgrowing the sarcococcus next to it.

I can sit in my study and look up into the magnificent old ash tree outside (hope it does not fall on us) and think what a disaster dieback is. I hope the tree is a tough old thing.

And there are definite signs of autumn around, not least with the Acer Sango-kaku which is already turning.

In the spring I put in half a dozen Cosmos Purity, not all in one mass but here and there to lighten up corners. Now all I have to do is the same as with the dahlias - deadhead. Then we get more flowers.

Son came round last night - I have the get a new iPad as on my old one (R's old one) the glass is broken. I took it to a repairer and he said it was too damaged. Then I though I should replace my thick phone (a Nokia) with a iPhone - Aaaaagh!  Oh! For the old days when our telephone number was 329.

The sun is out, perhaps I will just check the trail camera first and see if there any damsons left.

A NEW FUTURE

 We are being swept away by the charge of years. So much to do and so little inclination to do it!

As soon as it is time to mow the grass it rains, everything has grown so much - except the fruit and veg - weeds and my waistline proliferates and we have lost our wonderful Queen. 

I know that some would rather have a republic but President Johnson? Truss? Cameron? Blair? Trump??? - possibly Rory Stewart? Gary Lineker? Paul Chuckle? etc etc. Good luck to Charles III - a job I would not wish on anyone. Mind you I misread Charles III for Charles ill and thought, "Oh! No."

Managed to slog around the garden with the small mower at last. R doing much clipping and tidying and has done the asparagus bed - full of alchemilla seedlings which she loves!

A rose given to us by our children and it flowers and flowers as does the geranium below and the white Japanese anemone.

Hydrangeas looking good - must take more cuttings this year and the rosehips are glorious.

Perhaps I will go into the . . . but it is raining again.

Many of our potted box plants are showing distress - probably box blight - and one of the big ash trees beyond the far wall is dying. The leaves are turning on the cercidiphyllum so I hope for the smell of toffee in the autumn.

I have been asked to do a chat to the local photographic society - but on what - so they are going to get one about the garden whether they like it or not.

So, here I am, have picked a load of damsons and then we got a new freezer and on emptying the old one found - yes - bags of damsons. So I have boxed them up for a friend who has given us raspberries.

Words are interesting aren't they (well depends on your point of view) I mean who has ever heard of anyone blowing a damson but . . .

We have a gardener for King and I do hope he is given time to sit at Highgrove and escape the endless demands on his time. If he is bored he can come here and weed the rose bed.

This is one petunia plant in a pot, worth every penny and the sweet peas go on and on.

The branches on the Conference Pear are so low with the weight of fruit that I am banging my head on them.

And, to finish never give up hope - despite R not liking it the magnolia grandiflora has decided to flower one more time.

So to the events of the week - thank heavens we have a non political head of state. What other country would have seen a changeover as we have had without cries of vote rigging, violence and riot, and suppression of the minority. I might not agree with those who are anti royal but at least in this country it is not a crime to vocalise ones opinions. - there may be however a time and a place and perhaps as the Queen's coffin passes is not the right one - just bad taste.

There, said my bit - you may now vocally disagree with me - in this country.

JUST A LITTLE LOVAGE

Changes things . .  (Decca F.12553)

So R decided the lovage comes out and I plant a Hydrangea Annabelle in its place - one I have grown from a cutting. 

The lovage was a thug, roots the thickness of small branches and I had to divide it into six with a spade before any luck. It filled a wheelbarrow and that was after cutting it back.

Once out not much soil remaining so I will have to address that before planting.

I have taken two pieces and dug them into rough grass up from the pond. The rest has been dumped in a corner and will survive, or not.

Replanted the nearby crambe and added some wallflowers.

We went to the Lowick Show, The Li''le Royal, back after Covid and one tent I love is the one with the veg and children's concoctions -

beetroot

Mmm, not sure what this animal is.

Then J and D had given us one of their courgettes but we are not sure what sort of duck it is.

We have had a dismal crop of Bramleys, perhaps the frost got the blossom in the spring but we do have some damsons that need picking.

We are still harvesting sweet peas though the stem length is getting less as we move into autumn. Of course they have not been grown a la TV with tendril removal etc - just shoved at the bottom of some sticks and fed and watered. They are not the ones I grew from the autumn just bought in a shop - much easier.

Must mow the lawn - it is pouring - ah! well.

Autumn is decay? Here the cut trunk is already being consumed by fungi - 38 rings I think.

It is the time of the Japanese Anemones, they do tend to spread so I bunged these where that does not matter.

When we think of corvids there are crows and rooks and ravens and even a though but here are two thieves eating our fallen plums - jay and magpie.

We have tawny owls next door and barn owls at the farm -

WAILING IN THE NIGHT

Had I not been awake I would have missed it.

Outside the window a baby was keening.

I was in bed, under the blankets reading by a flickering torch.

And it was after midnight.        

     

    But there it was again.

I crept to my window, gently parted the curtains.

A waning moon lit the roof of the porch.

Three feet away, open mouthed and wailing

sat the baby, 

    but not a baby. 

A barn owl swivelled its head,

    stared at me,

 

blinkless, 

ignored me, 

keened again.

Had I not been awake I would have missed it.