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Tag Archives: clematis

Six on Saturday – Foliage in Winter

Inspired by a couple of blogging pals, I have decided to join in on Six on Saturday.which looks like fun, especially for those of us who love our gardens.  My six are all foliage in our garden today, some especially for Piglet in Portugal as they are relevant to her post  where she talks about Agapanthus.

1. We grown most of ours in pots as we read that they like crowded roots but the ones in the ground do well too. They grow in profusion all around Cornwall but not as wildly as in South Africa.

Agapanthus with one left-over flower head

2  Piglet was also asking about hedges. We have two of Pittosporum Tenufolium – in the back, a lovely light hedge of the variegated version. I love the speckle effect and the pink/cream borders to the crinkly leaves. It has tiny red/brown flowers too in late Spring/ early Summer but they are so small they are easily missed. You can see a flower here taken in 2016.

Pittosporum Tenuifolium variegatum

3. Mixed in with this we have a few of the ordinary green one.

Pittosporum Tenuifolium

4. In the front garden, behind the Himalayan Birch, we grow the Tom Thumb version which has the same delightful wavy leaves but they are dark purple and come from black stems – very dramatic. The light has made it look quite pink. It is much darker than it appears here.

Pittosporum Tenuifolium Tom Thumb

5. One of the Clematis that grows up the trellis has turned a glorious bronze colour not unlike Copper Beech.

Clematis

6. The last in today’s six is in my shade garden along with lots of ferns. Sadly, I have lost the label and forgotten its name……..

Can anyone help me remember the name of this one?

 

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Daily Stuff, Clematis and Red Leaves

Storm Callum has been beating its way across Cornwall today and we have mostly stayed indoors doing the everyday stuff. This poem by Naomi Shibab Nye, Daily,  seems the right one for today though no washing was hung outside!

Daily - Naomi Shihab Nye
These shriveled seeds we plant,
corn kernel, dried bean,
poke into loosened soil,
cover over with measured fingertips
 
These T-shirts we fold into
perfect white squares
 
These tortillas we slice and fry to crisp strips
This rich egg scrambled in a gray clay bowl
 
This bed whose covers I straighten
smoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanket
and nothing hangs out
 
This envelope I address
so the name balances like a cloud
in the center of sky
 
This page I type and retype
This table I dust till the scarred wood shines
This bundle of clothes I wash and hang and wash again
like flags we share, a country so close
no one needs to name it
 
The days are nouns: touch them
The hands are churches that worship the world

 

The Clematis over the arch is hanging very low making it hard to get through – but I love how it looks this late into the season. Even after the storm, it is still looking good though blown about all day. We still have dangerous winds to come…….

Clematis taking over

Yesterday in Penryn, these richly coloured leaves caught my attention.

Red

 

 

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Bullfinch, Buds and Oak Tree

The Bullfinch came really close to the kitchen window today and seemed to be keeping an eye on us!

Bullfinch, photo taken through kitchen window

I’ve been out tidying up the garden this afternoon and was very happy to discover some buds on the Aquebia.

Aquebia buds

My walk took me down the lane again today. I love this Oak Tree and am watching it closely to see when the buds appear. I have in mind the old saying, “Oak before Ash, we are in for a splash. Ash before Oak, we are in for a soak,” so I am watching the Ash in next door’s garden too.

Oak tree over the lane

 

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Boat Yard, Shaggy and Windows 

Singing in the Zed Shed in Penryn this morning with The Suitcase Singers, I was able to zoom in on the lovely Mr S who was working on our boat in nearby  Freeman’s Wharf  while I was having fun!

Just look at this shaggy hairdo! In fact it is a Clematis seed head outside our kitchen window and I love it!

In Truro this afternoon I looked up and saw this beautiful architectural detail around these windows.

 
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Posted by on November 3, 2016 in Beauty, environment

 

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A Quiet Day in the Garden with my Macro Lens

If you have been following my blog for the past ten days or so, you will realise that we have been here, there and everywhere! We have been showing my Brother-in-law the beauties of Cornwall and  its culture and today just needed  a catch up day and a rest!

 

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Nelly Moser, Thrift Buy and Peggy Seeger

The weather has changed but just look how beautiful these Nelly Moser Clematis flowers are on the small terrace trellis.

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In Floyd in North Carolina,  in a thrift store, I bought a beautiful cockerel carved from one piece of wood by Brad Smith and it throws lovely shadows in the sitting room as the sun sets.by Brad Smith

We are learning a beautiful new song, Love Call Me Home by Peggy Seeger, at choir. Tonight we got all four harmonies for the first verse and it is just lovely.

 
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Posted by on June 6, 2016 in art, Beauty, nature, Photography, sculpture

 

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Lunch Out, Frog and Stamens

It has been just the most beautiful Autumn day with little wind, bright sunshine and temperatures in the 20s. We went out for lunch and this was the view from The Blue Bar at Porthtowan.

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We walked a little way up the cliff path and met some choir friends which was lovely.

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Sitting and soaking up some more sunshine in the garden,I heard a strange noise and caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. A Common Frog had just landed in our little walled garden.

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The Lady Betty Balfour Clematis is almost over and its stamens are very beautiful.

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Goldfinches and White Flowers

The white flowers in the garden look their best in early and evening light. There are Cosmos, Japanese Anemones and Clematis with a flash of Fuchsia. The Goldfinches are eating the sunflower hearts rather than the Niger seeds at the moment, just two here but we have had eight or nine at once which is lovely to see.

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Posted by on September 14, 2015 in Beauty, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

 

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October 2010

The Clematis just kept on flowering that Autumn.

30th Oct 2010

30th Oct 2010

 
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Posted by on October 19, 2014 in Beauty, garden, nature, photography, Uncategorized

 

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Clematis, Dahlia and Othello

1   There is just one flower on the clematis, a final fling before the winter comes along.

Just one Elizabeth Clematis

Just one Elizabeth Clematis

2   The dahlias are coming into their best right now.

Another white dahlia

Another white dahlia

3   The National Theatre occasionally sends live feeds of stage plays to cinemas all over the country and tonight we have been privileged to be in the audience for one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, Othello, just down the road at our local cinema. It was brilliant – the whole audience left the theatre still with bated breath.  It was a truly thrilling production – so like being right there in the theatre that the cinema audience applauded along with those actually at The National! Set in modern dress and with the war in the desert, the timelessness of the themes (and the words) of Shakespeare’s plays strikes the audience anew.

Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear

Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear

The following is taken from the publicity material.

“The National Theatre presents a major new production of William Shakespeare’s celebrated play about the destructive power of jealousy.Olivier Award-winning actor Adrian Lester (Henry V at the National Theatre, BBC’sHustle) takes the title role.Playing opposite him as the duplicitous Iago is fellow Olivier Award-winner Rory Kinnear (The Last of the Haussmans, James Bond: Skyfall), who is reunited with director Nicholas Hytner (Timon of AthensOne ManTwo Guvnors) following their acclaimed collaboration on the National Theatre’s recent production of Hamlet. Othello, newly married to Desdemona – who is half his age – is appointed leader of a major military operation. Iago, passed over for promotion by Othello in favour of the young Cassio, persuades Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair.”

 

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