RSS

Monthly Archives: May 2025

Yellow, A Contrast and A Poem

Our Rhododendron, new  last year, is flowering well this year.

We are delighted with the colour of the irises in contrast with the Crinodendron flowers. Last year the irises didnt flower at all and Mr S wanted to take them all out. However, after their rest, they have come back in force!

Each day I get a poem in my inbox from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. thanks to unexpectedincommonhours.

who told me about the opportunity. I love the poems and this one really touched me and took me back to  2004 and the hospice where my lovely Dad spent his last 17 days and I spent every day with him.

Last Days

In the end, my father couldn’t
raise his arm to feed himself.
Couldn’t sit. Could barely ope
his eyes. But damn, could he love.
He still could curl his thick
fingers around my hand.
Could still say my name.
And though I had never known
a moment when I was not sure
this man loved me, in those last days
I knew it more. Somehow, barely
able to speak, he drenched me
in his devotion. In those last days,
all was reduced to love. Or was it
all was expanded to love? Either
way. Somehow I hadn’t known
how love can take over a body.
A life. The purity of it. The gift.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

 

Tags: ,

Iris, Blue Sky and Garden Bouquet

Four flowers

At Roots today

All from the garden

 
2 Comments

Posted by on May 20, 2025 in environment, nature, Postaday2025

 

New Work, Sparrow and Cake

We decided our wall garden needed tidying so the first move was to empty some of it. We’re putting in some summer colour for now and will plant bulbs in the Autumn. I’ll show you it filled tomorrow, I hope.

A Sparrow came to the window feeder and wasn’t disturbed by my taking photos.

I made a Lemon Curd Drizzle Cake for the volunteers at Roots tomorrow.

 

Snail, Iris and Cornflower

There’s a new exhibition of carvings about to open at 89 Fore Street and in the window, as a taster, is a rather lovely snail.

We are delighted with the dark iris and it has three more flowers down the stem ready for later.

The perennial cornflower has spread into two borders and is attracting lots of bees.

 

Jigsaw, Sculpture and Soup

Lovely jigsaw finished this week

Next door’s sculpture

Pea and Pancetta Soup

 

Weeds, Pinks and Purples

We’ve spent several hours weeding at the allotment  today – the first half of the onion/shallot bed this morning and the rest this evening. It’s looking better.

Before

 

Sailing Boat, Clematis and Iris

While the sopranos were learning their part, I stepped out onto the balcony to catch a picture of a very lovely sailing boat.

Our Nelly Moser this year gets better and better.

Nelly Moser Clematis with Libertia Grandiflora

The purple  Irises and perennial Cornflowers are looking wonderful in the cottage garden border along with the pink and purple Granny’s Bonnets.

Centaura Montana with Aquilegia

 
 

Tags: , , , ,

Alium, Wisteria and An Extract

A gift of Alium blooms, so delicate and pretty, a present from Sue-next-door

Wisteria and a bird box in the evening sun

It’s International Dylan Thomas Day so here is one of my favourite pieces, recited by one of my favourite actors.

I was in a conversation a couple of days ago with some ex-pupils (I do love that we are still in touch) and they were telling me which of the literature we studied together they remembered . Several said Under Milk Wood which I was delighted about as  I went out on a limb to study that with them. That of course, was in the days when teachers could choose which texts to study!   🙂

 

Tags: ,

Pink, Purple and Moominmama

Lots of potting on of various brassicas at Community Roots today. The chives are flowering well.

The poppies in one of the poly tunnels are remarkable.

Today, on Facebook,  I saw a delightful  postbox topper honouring Moominmama and I asked the maker, Lewis Delderfield, if I could share it here. Many of you will remember Ti, our dear friend with whom we used to share poetry and who died last year aged 105! She loved the Moomins and as soon as I saw this, I thought of her and how much she would have loved it and probably would have known that it’s the 80th anniversary of the Moomins.  Thank you so much to the maker for allowing me to share Moominmama knitting on here. .

“I have just put Moominmama out on my local postbox. She is knitting herself something nice to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of The Moomins!” Lewis Delderfield

 

Tags: , ,

Chicken, Bee, Bug Hotel and An Extract

After a fabulous choir session this afternoon, there were many things to make me smile at the garden centre, first a quirky pottery chicken hiding among some plants.

The place was full of bees and I loved this one with its back end so laden with nectar as it gathered more from a rhododendron.

In the middle of the plant area was a splendid bug hotel which reminded me of one of the poems in Simon Armitage’s new book, ‘Dwell’. In Insect Hotel, he imagines the insects writing their comments in the visitors’ book. Here are a few lines. It’s worth finding the whole poem as it will make you too  smile.

 

Tags: