Melee and manic milieu

I am fortified with porridge and a mug of tea so I am back!



Yesterday was frazzled amid me trying to bake a wedding cake (had to give in till today but I note the weighed out ingredients- especially cherries- are diminishing!!!).



We had worked out when we were going to at last decorate that small bedroom (which discussion H1 promptly forgot about and went into 'drift' mode again- drift mode can last a minimum of 7 years!) but threatened with no golf he remembered again but we have lost the carpet put aside at the showroom for us! thus H1 was emulsioning like the devil incarnate yesterday and was in associated mood.



Mayhem......In between moving furniture, moving house, reorganising the garage in order that we could store furniture there for the next house move, standing on upturned paintpot lid in dark, busy garage,myriads of phonecalls, lining cake tin, hairdresser visits, arranging hen party and- the best bit- visiting B in hospital (I could have done that the night before couldn't I when I paid my visit to Casualty but maybe 10.30pm wasn't such a good idea!).....



...oh!and a young folks party behind us which spilled out onto their lawn so their flashing 'interrogation' lights were on & off like yoyos lighting up the interior of our house at regular and scarey intervals. We couldn't even bribe the window cleaner to alter the angle down slightly to miss us!




But the room looks lovely even with bare floor boards!



Last weekend was the Late Spring Bank Holiday whereupon we visited-



the Grand Melee at Belsay. Introduced by the storyteller came knights , their Ladies, their squires, musicians and the jester who was hilarious.



Meanwhile in the calm of the rest of the gardens, the handkerchief tree and rhododendrons were resplendent in flower.



The laburnum and allium bed hummed and the croquet lawn cracked with the whack of mallet to ball.



England , my England; I should have hung out with John Betjeman who loved Edwardian England too


At Cragside we looked down on Rothbury through banks of rhododendrons (out much earlier this year perhaps because of the exceptionally dry, two months) and enjoyed the fragrance drifting from the last azaleas


before foolishly inspecting the Trim Trail.

NHS

H1 is 'popping' and I am unable to get back to sleep so may as well get up and write; apparently lots of writers put pen to paper with the dawn.....

Did I say gardens don't argue back? Thank the Lord for the NHS on Friday night! After watering my pots in the evening (& I got bitten twice so my leg is itchy and swollen) I noticed a weed ( when does a weed become a desirable plant?) and (unusually ungloved) pulled it but the feverfew? fought back; within minutes I was itchy, swelling , urticariaed, and ill! Yes I took my usual allergy tablet but various symptoms caused a rush to A&E (so where is it in the being rebuilt RVI?); the triage nurse took one look & rushed me into a flashing, beeping cubicle and ECG, oxygen monitor, questions......Eventually I deflated, stabilised, medicated and departed with instructions!



Did I show you the beehouse Rainbow K sent me from the Eden Project in Cornwall (a brilliant conversion of an disused claymine into biospheres which are so eco interesting)?

Talking environment...... we've been several times to 'Goats on the Roof'-(purely in the interests of supporting rural economy of course); the food is good,rare breeds fascinating, the views across Fontburn Reservoir are smashing and the new kid is climbing!



I think I will go eat breakfast; I shall return with a cuppa!

Here, there and everywhere

Durham- Land of the Prince Bishops- is a magnificent city. The meander of the river Wear houses the cathedral and across the Green from the sanctuary knocker on the Cathedral door lies Durham Castle; what a defensive site!



Durham's collegiate University occupies the Castle on the neck of the meander- which is probably how the Scottish army were kept securely imprisoned in the ecclesiastical stronghold- check out the fire marks on the cathedral floor! That is what they got for siding with Cromwell's Parliamentarians against the King!



We walked through the cloister which was 'snowed in' so Harry Potter & friends could attend lessons at Hogwarts in winter.



Out the back is another green with an old, tower bakery and lots of symmetrically built, Georgian houses. Such a shame that many Georgian multi fenstrated houses had to fill their windows in to avoid the 'daylight robbery' of the Window Tax.


Round the corner lie the monastic alms houses near the renowned Durham choir school.



Cut through a ginnel (tiny arched alleyway-we still speak Anglo Saxon and Viking up here!) and along past the city walls;



cross Prebends Bridge to look back at the river and the spires of the Cathedral above the treetops; listen out for the splash of students' skulling- preparing for the Durham Regatta.



One of the spires was replaced but the original has been resurrected as a monument on the bank. The ancient churchyard site above leads on to more monastic lands and a superb tythe barn (up near the prison!)


Ooh! Before I forget- I recommend to you a visit to the Hearth- a craft centre (& tearoom of course!)in Horsley; try the pea and ham broth! We went to the Hearth again for an evening at the Hexham Gathering- so much musical folk talent- and the cloggy was brilliant; I have a notion to try learning clogging- it's like hard shoe Irish dancing and infectious. Do I have to admit that for tea we had the best wrap there I have ever had?!
I need my beauty sleep so Good Night all.

Abundance

Everything in the garden is not rosy but the borders are certainly full- everything has burst into flower. Aubretia and saxifrage are over; please don't laugh at my attempts at an alpine garden- this recently planted sink housed D3's pumpkin plant last year so it is a productive micro garden! I have harped on for eons- well since losing the tiny drop down onto the patio- for a curtain of pink 'Tumbling Ted' and aubretia again so here it is in its infancy....



Being a largely shaded garden there are geraniums of all varieties and colours.



The paeonies are drooping with heavy, blushing scarlet heads.



Fences are abuzz courtesy of pyracantha which I had not realised the bees seem to love.



Chelsea Flower Show (press your red button- I didn't know we had one!I am such a technosaur) is pushing the need for pollinators- Huh! D3, Rainbow K and I all recognised this a LONG time ago- what kept you Alan Titchmarsh? There is to be a new symbol put on bee-loving plants for sale in marketgardens so do buy some for your patch on God's earth- imagine what would happen to our food supplies if all the buzzy bees died!



We also have purpled Granny's Bonnets (aquilegia or more usually known as columbine) by the score; in front of the laurel hedge I have successfully grown a couple of varieties of iris- a yellow-brownish bearded one and a group of flags erupted bearing blue flowers- blue seems a more appropriate colour for an iris somehow.



To match the bonnets I have Ladies Mantle- alchemilla is a bit blandly green but is good for use in a flower display when you have refreshed & thrown out some of the cut flowers but want to give the last few heads a few more vase days.



In a spot where nothing grows I have planted a number of things apparently to no avail but...... my domestic trek through our abode to dump hand dishwashing water has not been wasted! My clematis is wonderful if I say it myself! Purples and blues don't seem to photograph to their true blue on my diddy camera but no one can ask more of you than one does one's best.



The smaller flowered ceanothus has survived the brown burn of winter cold whereas I have had to saw down the large more treelike ceanothus which got hit two bad winters running and didn't make it!



Though badly frosted and delayed by the snow, the weigela has started to flower too.



The welsh poppies are going to be accompanied by the big red poppies which are wrongly placed at the front of the border where they are too tall for the Chelsea style 'banking' effect!!!!!!!! as if you really believed I planned it! I thought the Chelsea garden for the British Heart Foundation was memorable and effective.



We went with the Newcastle and Northumberland bunch to St James Church on Condercum Road in the west end (Benwell) of Newcastle; Richard Grainger, builder, with John Dobson, of much of central Newcastle, is buried in this graveyard. (Sir John Betjeman thought Grey Street the most beautiful street in the world).



The church needs much restoration but is architecturally very valuable and is connected to so many famous names eg Shafto, Riddell, Scot (as in Scotswood), Buddle and the childrens' tv programme 'Byker Grove!

Twittering? Get a life

I don't know how much time I have to blog today. I suppose blogging is as bad as Facebooking constantly -or twittering all the time- on your mobile........

Throwing a cat among the pigeons I have to say I am fed up hearing about injunctions and super injunctions! Will footballers, politicians, bank CEOs and others who think they have 'celebrity' status (but have picked up money from the public) stop bleating about their private lives/affairs etc; if you take cash from the public, are a role model to children, or are part of the somewhat peabrained group who think they have 'image', then realise your celeb status and money cannot buy you out of morality; people who want their children protected should take some personal responsibility themselves and keep their anatomical bits in their trousers.

Do you like margarine or butter? The grass verges are full of buttercups to stick under chins to check out whether the bearer of the chin is telling the truth!!!! Remember when we all used to do that?



My beautiful red, white and blue bouquet for working on the Eurovision party food is still looking great!

What time is it, Mr Wolf?

Woodland and vale are flower-filled.



The hawthorn is laden with may blossom; this and the forgetmenots seem to have lasted for so long- they must have liked our long, dry period of weather in April & May.



I don't really know the difference between Ramson's garlic and wild garlic but they are both going over now ; dandelions are clocking to tell the time with every childish puff.



Old Man's Baccy laces the verges too



At Humford Mill the stones are stepping over a low River Blyth. In Bedlington's Woods bluebells dance in the shadow of the last tree to leaf -the ashtree so graceful........



In meadow clearings along our path pink campion vied for sunlight below bright, coconut fragranced broom.



Between Riverside Park, Hexham and Warden we walked along the banks of the Tyne



to the meeting of the waters and the Boatside Inn.



In gardens alongside the track, owners have thrown Welsh poppy seeds which now thrive among centaurea and aquilegia (columbine). I was surprised at how early the roses are in bloom.


The last few lambs of the year are still finding their feet at St Oswald's farm at Heavenfield.



Walking from Wallington we climbed to Rothley Castle;



spongy sphagnum squelched and cottontailed eriophorum blew us up to the folly (built by the Blacketts- or was it by the teetotal Trevelyans?)



and bluebells rang us down to Rothley Mill and back through Wallington's beautiful walled garden to the Clocktower coffee and cake!


What a beautiful month!