Sunday afternoon

It’s Sunday afternoon!  I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I suspect it’s something to do with me spending most of the last two days in the garden because the weather was good.  Sometimes, you just need to abandon all else and get outside so that’s what I did!

Before I get going with what I’ve been up to this week, I must say thank you to you all for your comments on last week’s post about your experiences with mammograms.  I didn’t expect so many of you to get in touch but I really appreciated it – so many positive experiences and further encouragement for anyone who might be feeling nervous about going for their own scan.  I know lots of people read the blog posts and the comments without commenting themselves, so if you are one of those people and have been hesitating about keeping your appointment for any kind of health scan, please go!  You can see how much support you have not just from me but others as well, and I hope this makes you feel more confident about it all.  I’m just going to leave this link here too – it’s to the Coppafeel website because regular self-checks are important too xx

Oh – and thank you to everyone who bought a copy of the Ryegrass pattern after reading that post as well – they did look good in the different colourways, didn’t they?

 

Back to today’s post … I’ve had busy week this week but it’s been really lovely.  I met up with my friend Lucy in Harrogate for an overnight stay and we combined cocktails in the afternoon, dinner in a restaurant that someone else had cooked (someone else cooks and I’m on holiday!) and LOTS of chatting with a visit to RHS Harlow Carr on the way home.  I was away from home about 24 hours but it felt like ages!

Not so small daughter has developed a taste for Aperol spritz and I’m not a fan of those but there were others on the menu that we thought we would try out.  This is a Hugo spritz with elderflower liqueur and it was very drinkable – we also had a Limoncello spritz but I think I liked this one best, and I thought that I took to being Someone Who Drinks Cocktails on a Wednesday Afternoon very well! 🤣

I’ve only got one photo from RHS Harlow Carr to show you because I’ve realised I was too busy taking photos of individual flowers and name tags with a view to adding them to my own garden, but this one gives you a flavour of how the Harlow Carr borders were looking.

Lots of Heleniums, Echinacea, Sidalcea and Rudbeckia giving such a vibrant display – all the plants that the snails LOVE in my garden so I have to avoid – typical!  I’m not completely without colour though.  I do have a couple of brave Rudbeckia that are just coming into flower but to my absolute joy, this year I have Agapanthus flowering in my garden!  Not many (I’m sure I planted a lot more) but even one is enough to bring me a ridiculous amount of happiness as I have tried to grow these for years without success.

I’m pretty sure this one is supposed to be white, but it’s beautiful as it is and very welcome in my flower border!

Also for the first time in a long time … passion flowers!

Well, there’s just one in this photo as this was the first one, but more have opened since and I am very excited!  I love the exotic beauty of these flowers (not to mention that they’re purple) and I am always amazed that they choose to grow and flower in not-so-exotic Winwick.  I’ve had a few of these plants that haven’t survived the winter – this one did (I must have finally found the right sheltered spot!) and it is obviously very happy as it’s grown steadily over the spring and summer and now is bursting with flowers.

My back garden border doesn’t quite compare to the Harlow Carr border but it makes me so happy!

More purples than pinks in my garden, but at least I know that these are all flowers and plants that are snail-proof, and one of the biggest pleasures which you can’t see in a photograph is the number of pollinating insects that have been visiting this summer.  The border has been alive with winged insects buzzing from one flower to the next – I spent a good half hour the other evening trying to photograph the bumble bees and I got some good photos.  If you’re someone who doesn’t like looking at bees, this is your heads up that photos are coming, but I’ll give you a link to jump you past them – that’s coming up soon.

These are my snail-proof plants – furry silver-leaved Stacys byzantina, Heuchera  “Marmalade” and lavender.  Lots of lavender!

Teasels, which the goldfinches are going love in a couple of weeks when they set seed.  I’ve seen a few of them in the garden already checking out the forthcoming menu!

Oh, and another first for a long time – my Tulbaghia.  I first saw this tiny beauty about 10 years ago at a gardening show and fell in love with it.  They’re originally from South Africa so wet British winters don’t suit them very well, but I’ve got these living in pots of well-drained compost and whilst they may not be the most attractive pots tucked away behind the leaves, the plants are doing really well and I have been rewarded with flowers!

Nature can make us so happy, can’t it?  Whether it’s flowers in the garden or flowers in a vase from a shop, trees in the fields or by a road that you pass every day, and wildlife both furry and buzzy … my husband often tells me to “go out in the garden and come back nice” if I’m having one of “those” days, and it never fails to do the trick for me.

OK, last garden photos – here come the bees.

JUMP PAST THE BEE PHOTOS

 

Honestly, I could have sat for hours watching the bees.  There were a few varieties of bumble bee and a couple of domestic bees, and one or two hoverflies as well, just working their way around the lavender flowers.  One of the reasons I sat for so long was because the bees were so fast and it amused me that I would just get them into focus – and they’d be gone!  In the end, I started to play with the camera settings to see if I could get any better images, and these are taken with the macro function.  I’m particularly pleased with the second one, you never get to see a bee quite so close up normally!

I thought that two images would be about enough, but I do have plenty more … 🙂

 

All done!

 

OK, let’s change the subject and I’ll show you my daft cats.  Here’s Astrid, never knowingly defeated by the size of a box …

and here’s Hattie, who has a thing about carrots in plastic bags …

The carrots didn’t come in the Groobox* delivery, I hasten to add – they send carrots picked from the fields with the green tops attached, whereas this bag is straight from the shelves of the supermarket.  I really love carrots and hummus and go through more in a week than come in the Groobox delivery.  I don’t want to adjust the settings so that all my delivery is carrots, so I need to replenish my supplies!  (*This is my referral link – you might as well have a discount if you want to sign up!)

We probably don’t need a TV in our house, we could just leave small boxes and bags of veg out and the cats would entertain us!

When she’s not been schmoozing with the root vegetables, Hattie has been self-appointed Sock Design Supervisor this week.

This is not so small daughter’s trekking sock for her trip to Mount Kilimanjaro which is approaching more rapidly than my pattern was working out!  Fortunately, everything is back on track and I’m down to the toes with the design, which looks completely different now to what you can see in the photo and I’ll have something more to show you very soon.  There’s been so much unravelling with this sock that all I could have shown you for weeks was a pile of yarn and that’s not very photogenic at all!  What I can tell you is that it’s a double knit (DK) sock and I’m experimenting with both DK yarn and 4ply held together, and I’m very happy now with how it’s turning out.

I’m slowly getting on with the polo t-shirt that I decided to knit for myself – I mentioned it the other week but didn’t have a photo at the time and here’s my progress so far.

I’ve finished the back (this piece here) and I’ve started the front – goodness, this sort of knitting takes a long time compared to socks!  Anyway, there’s a chance it’ll be finished in time for me to wear this year, but it’s currently on the back burner as I need to finish a certain person’s trekking socks before she gets on a plane.

Just before I go, something to make you smile (because it amused me no end) – whilst we were out in Harrogate, Lucy and I were walking in the Valley Gardens and we passed this giant Gunnera plant.  I always think that it’s dinosaur-sized rhubarb and the plants are certainly not native to Harrogate or even the UK, but Harrogate is a Victorian spa town and the Victorians were very keen on collecting all sorts of things from around the world and bringing them back here – and this is one of the plants they brought.  There is a ban on buying Gunnera now in the UK as the original plant has been hybridised into a more invasive species, but existing plants are being left in situ.

Here’s the plant …

and here’s me for context …

Look out for dinosaurs!  Roarrrr!