THEN THEY HAD ME

Lawns mown, logs moved up to wood shed, A and J came and redid drain by shed - they are marvellous. I only rang them in the morning and they were there at 6 pm and did the job.

Good news - swallows have started sticking mud to the wall at the top of the west gable end - nest on the way. (We hope).

It stays so cold, 10C today and nearly June. Fortunately it does not stop the asparagus growing. I have checked the fruit trees and we will have plums and damsons - not all lost to the frost at blossoming.

And then I met my old - well not quite as old as moi - friend who escaped to Noo Zeyland many a song ago who is back in the home country again. He admits to reading this blog, poor fella!

I have resown broad beans and french beans as the first sowing never came up! 

Also J has given us 4 Brussels sprout and 5 broccoli plants so these are also in under a temporary net to keep the cabbage white butterflies away. The potatoes are through and have been covered by  bottomless plastic tubs. As the plants grow they will be earthed up inside the tub - the idea being that when they are ready I will lift the pot and Voila!

Two more garden visit pics - the top from Hampton Court Garden in Herefordshire and the bottom on is The Skating Pond at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales. A bit of a feeble pond!

And what about the Federation Internationale Fraud Association. We all knew it was happening but no one in a place of authority did anything. Beth Splatter should go but has not. And now Putin is all indignant because all his supposed backhanders might come to nothing. 
"The laddie doth protest too much, methinks."
And many officials have caught a cold - Qatar (catarrh?). I suspect much football is a little dodgy - too much money sloshing around.
If suspicion falls on Vlad watch the increased activity elsewhere (like Ukraine) to divert attention.

The bruiser of finches is the greenfinch - bullies the rest including the bullfinches and chases them away.

 







We have had a cockchafer in the kitchen and the butterflies have arrived. In the garden the queen wasps are about hunting for a place to start a nest. This brings back memories of last year -

THEN THEY HAD ME

First the wasps had the plums, then they had me.

Out of the jungle they came, predators,

drunk on fermented juice, seeking victims.

I was scything and sweeping campion

from the top banking, scattering its seed

for next year, removing the brittle stems.

The reach and rhythmic swing numbed my senses,

The blade sang as it arced across the slope,

slid over and through the tough tangled thatch.

I saw a dark maw and thought of wood mice 

or voles. I was stung into swift action

and scurried into the house, slammed the door.

Vinegar came out for the pain. She said,

‘Winegar for wasps and bicarb for bees’.

and patted the stings with kitchen paper.

They acted by instinct - I had a choice.

I killed the nest with poisonous powder

puffed into the entrance, and felt remorse.

I was death visiting with a curved blade, 

I was a threat. I raked off the banking,

carted the debris to the compost heap

and walked back by the fruit trees. On the plum

overripe fruit hummed - a haze of tigers.

First the wasps had the plums, then they had me.

SPANISH INVADERS, GARDEN VISITS

Some of the bluebells on the top banking are looking suspiciously like crosses between the Spanish and common bluebell. The previous owner did have a clump near the gate. I will have to go a digging but hope that it is not too late.
Common bluebells have the smaller delicate scented flowers up one side of the stem, the others are more robust and the flower spread around the central stem.
To make things worse there are some very attractive white Spanish bluebells that will have to go.
These are good old bluebell flowers mixing well with the red campion in the wood.

We go away and come back to hear bird tapping on one of the back windows - again - that B. blackbird. I creep up and open the door to find - not a blackbird, not a chaffinch but a red-legged partridge on the window sill!

Weeds have grown well after a week or so away (minding the grandchildren) especially the bindweed and ground elder. The white campanula had been smothered by common vetch. I have some elsewhere (the campanula) so a mass removal is probably the only solution.

Most of the drainage done - well all we asked - and somehow we have a huge length of pipe left over - will come in useful one day. The only failure is by the Wendy House where I will need to extend the existing drain - but nothing unsolvable.
R has hand weeded the asparagus and I have weeded the strawberries and put down the straw. I was wondering what to do for a hand hoe as I do not have one and found that a small mason's trowel works well.

One of the joys of going away is to visit other gardens. In Wales we visited the magnificent gardens at Bodnant in the Conwy Valley with the azaleas in full bloom. Unfortunately we were a week or two early for the laburnum tunnel.

We also visited Hampton Court Gardens in Herefordshire and after getting lost in the maze came across this magnificent Exocorda macrantha, The Bride.

The garden also had wonderful tulip trees and a walled area that had undergone transformation since our last visit some years ago. Then there are the real tulips planted here in a colourful swathe around the edge of a lawn.

Not everything in a garden has to be plants to work. The stark geometry of this rill with pots, presumably planted but not yet showing growth, is very effective - again at Hampton Court Gardens. They have quite a lot of hard structure in the more formal areas.

 At home the "Easter" cactus - as my mother called it - and this is the same plant, well an offspring of it - is flowering abundantly.
We have another in the other room that has no flowers and badly needs repotting as it is shedding leaves.

Down at the pond trouble is brewing with increasing algae so I have cast two bundles of straw into the water. How it works is complicated and not completely understood so if you want to find out search on the web for - algae straw pond - and you will find a site that will give you the details far better than I can.

So not far, a few weeks, to the longest day and we still have the heating on, the ash trees are struggling into leaf - oak first so a splash this summer. (Oak before ash - splash, ash before oak - soak).
And swallows and martins are finally here but not in great numbers and NOT HERE, just in the locality.

Finally something that has nothing to do with gardening. Went to Liverpool to see Don MacLean at the Phil. and took this picky of Paddy's Wigwam - a bit of proper architecture.