Feast week garden competition

This week is feast week in the village, it started on Sunday with Cream teas and the fete held in the garden opposite. We have other events going on all week including the Scarecrow competition (yet to be photographed) and the village garden competition.


This is split into 3 sections Best Front garden, Back garden and Containers. As we don't have a front garden due to the previous owner dumping several tons of pebbles into it and the back garden is still in development I entered the container section.


I have tried to keep the containers fairly simple and symetrical across the front of the house. I have also included one feature item my old wheelbarrow which I have planted with a marrow and a lettuce.


The results aren't announced until the hog roast and Barn dance on Saturday night which sadly I will miss as I will be at Wimbledon.

Poppies and a Tawny owl.

Yes I know I have done poppies before but I just love them. This one is called 'Fluffy ruffles' can't think why? These have self seeded all around the garden and the veg patch I can't bring myself to weed them out.


I love the splash of red that suddenly appears in the middle of the flower bed which just draws the eye to it.

About a week ago my friend Sally found this young Tawny owl hopping around her flower bed. After speaking to a local expert she placed the chick in a box and put it in a dark garage ready to release it that evening when the parents would return to look for it.


I haven't seen her since but as far as I am aware all went well.

Yesterday was not a good day

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment at my local hospital eye department to assess the progress of my eye condition. The outcome was that the damage it has caused in the left eye will be permanent with little chance of any improvement. My right eye has improved slightly but has still got problems.

As you can imagine this was not what I wanted to hear. Regular readers of this blog will know one of my passions is photography. One of the results of this condition is that I cannot focus through the viewfinder of my Nikon SLR and I have to rely on the autofocus function in the camera, I actually don't know if I have taken an in focus photo until I see it on my computer.

I am sorry if this is a bit self indulgent and I do realise that it could be an awful lot worse, my distance vision still seems OK so I can still drive, but it is so frustrating not being able to do things you used to take for granted and enjoyed doing.

Our first egg

Ok it's not very big, but it did taste nice with my toast this morning.

Not sure which of the three hens laid it, but hopefully the first of many.

Friday roundup

I bought this poppy 'Louve' at a rare plant fair a few weeks ago. It is always nice when the flower actual matches the picture you saw when you bought it! I will be saving seeds from this one, mind you with all the other poppies in the garden I am sure it won't come true.

My wild flower area is coming on nicely this year, this hogweed has appeared in the middle of the patch. Like most of the umbrelliferae these attract insects such as hoverflies into the garden these in turn predate aphids and other pests.



My Artichokes are doing well, I have always grown these to gice structure in the flower beds rayher than for the kitchen. This year I have so many we are going to eat a few, so we have been looking up recipes.

We have had a really nice suprise this week, we have a couple (maybe 3) tawny owl chicks calling from a tree near the house every night. It is too dark to get a photograph but you can see them sitting along a branch whilst the adults are off hunting.

Wordless Wednesday

Lupin

Phew, it's hot out there!

What a lovely few days, although you do wonder if this is the entire summer over in a weekend!
On Sunday we went to the Cambridgeshire show at Wimpole hall, great fun with lots to see. It was a great mix of rural crafts, livestock and ultra modern farming kit all thrown together in a great amateurish way.

Anyway out in the garden everything is starting to flower, here are a few examples.

This is probably my favourite grass, Briza maxima I love the way the panicles dance in the lightest breeze.



I have a small collection of pinks and carnations, this one called Elizabethan dates from the 1700's. Pinks get their name not from the colour but from the ragged edges to the petals that look as if they have been trimmed using pinking shears* (* younger readers may needed to consult Google!).


This dog rose came with the garden and it is one of the earliest to flower. Sadly it's flowering season only lasts a couple of weeks.


I moved it last year to grow through the fence around the veg patch. In it's original place behind a shed it wasn't doing a lot but now given it's head it is growing in the rampant way only a dog rose can.