Summer nights



allium

The blue tits have flown. Sounds like James I 's comment on the Houses of Parliament.....

I love living in the North where the evenings are light till 11p.m. - to be truthful, nights don't really get completely dark in June; but the Solstice is past on June 21st , our longest day, so now the days will start slowly to get shorter.



Iris

 I was settling in some new plants yesterday evening- I heaved the watering can over the Michaelmas daisies to water in another sedum (after more autumn colour!) when something came at me from under the choiysia- after recovering from fright and the excitement of thinking my hedgehogs were back and loving my hodgepod.... I spotted a fluffed up, blackbird fledgling. With an apology for giving her a fright, I beat a hasty retreat and kept an eye open for the malevolent white cat which marauds in from over the street.

Eeh! The Ladies have had such fun - simple pleasures! We played crazy (Crazy was definitely the description!) golf in Tynemouth amid dinosaurs and pterodactyls; we admit to having to wield nets to fish our golfballs out of the water (not quite the North Sea but almost). I recommend the food in the little cafe- tasty and reasonably priced too.

To go back to the garden, it has looked real 'cottage garden' as the borders have been filled with columbine of every shade of pink/purple.

The carmine red paeonies have gone over but the pink ( a gift from M) buds have yet to open. Everyone is commenting on the vibrant, huge poppies which have burst open; the violent thunderstorms of Sunday have weighed heavy on the massive flowers so I think I need a supporting frame for next year.

The shades in the garden made me realise just how much my vocabulary of shades of colours have deteriorated.... Remember the paintboxes we used to have with the names of all the shades and hues of each colour? Red was not just red but .......

crimson
burgundy
cardinal
carmine
chestnut
coral
dark pink
fire engine red

fuchsia
magenta
maroon
persian red

pink
rose
ruby
terra cotta
vermillion
sangria

 and so on.....

Ceanothus buzzing blue... bees move on to crawl out of weigela (a pink and a magenta?)

then fly around me threateningly as I fill at the water butt- close to a clematis plastered in enormous flowers.

I have filled the troughs with geraniums and the hanging baskets (on a north facing wall only receiving sun in the late afternoon/evening) with begonias but as yet all the yellow and orange pansies are still flowering so I am loathe to take the baskets down and discard their contents.

We reckon this year's wet Spring has caused fields bright with masses of buttercups like we have never seen before. Our Welsh poppies fill tucked away corners.

I am wading my way through Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall'; a magnificent tome about Thomas Cromwell- I can see why it won... was it the Booker Prize?

I think I may head downstairs and indulge myself in a piece of birthday cake- the gang have been for the day, D2 caught up on sleep (while M stood outside with birthday cake waiting for secret rescue) and retreated south again!

I'm off to see how Thomas is managing to keep Wolsey in Henry VIII's favour..... The problem is- I know what happens!