So This was Summer!

We spent our summer in the UK mostly at home or on the Isle of Wight with the odd day trip. The exception to this was a trip to Norway with my 94 year old mother-in-law to visit family.

I should like to share my favourite photos with you.

Dorset

“Rime Intrinsica, Fontmell Magna, Sturminster Newton and Melbury Bubb,
Whist upon whist upon whist upon whist drive, in Institute, Legion and Social Club.
Horny hands that hold the aces which this morning held the plough
While Tranter Reuben, T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells and Edith Sitwell lie in Mellstock Churchyard now.

Lord’s Day bells from Bingham’s Melcombe, Iwerne Minster, Shroton, Plush,
Down the grass between the beeches, mellow in the evening hush.
Gloved the hands that hold the hymn-book, which this morning milked the cow
While Tranter Reuben, Mary Borden, Brian Howard and Harold Acton lie in Mellstock Churchyard now.

Light’s abode, celestial Salem! Lamps of evening, smelling strong,
Gleaming on the pitch-pine, waiting, almost empty even- song
From the aisles each window smiles on grave and grass and yew-tree bough
While Tranter Reuben, Gordon Selfridge, Edna Best and Thomas Hardy lie in Mellstock Churchyard now.”

— John Betjemin

The first three images and the title image are Corfe Castle, the others are Lyme Regis

Oslo

“Until the Eighties, Oslo was a rather boring town, but it’s changed a lot, and is now much more cosmopolitan. If I go downtown, I visit the harbour to see the tall ships and the ferries, and to admire the modern architecture such as the Opera House or the new Astrup Fearnley Museum on the water’s edge.”

— Jo Nesbo

Åsgårdstrand

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul”

— Edvard Munch

Isle of Wight

““Any man from America or Australia might take one glance at the Island as something on a map, and then decide to give it a couple of hours.

But you can spend days and days exploring the Isle of Wight, which, if you are really interested, begins magically enlarging itself for you.””

— JB Priestly

East Lambrook

“‘Nowhere in the world is there anything like the English cottage garden. In every village and hamlet in the land there are these little gardens, always gay and never garish, and so obviously loved. There are not so many now, alas, as those cottages of cob or brick, with their thatched roofs and tiny crooked windows, are disappearing to make way for council houses and modern bungalows, but the flowers remain, flowers that have come to be known as ‘cottage flowers’ because of their simple, steadfast qualities.’”

— Margery Fish

Once upon a Time on Lake Maggiore .................

Once upon a time there was a scotsman called Neil McEacharn who spotted an advert in The Times for the Villa Taranto. He bought it in 1931 and spent the next 30 or so years creating a rich a varied garden with plants from around the world, the most surprising feature of which was, in my view, the dahlia maze

Dahlias have never been one of my favourite flowers but this display caused me to think twice! Alongside the Dahlias were many more exotic plants such as these giant amazonian lilies

and an amazing field of lotus blossom - one of my favourites

There were also beautiful vistas

and some other visitors

McEacharn died at the Villa Taranto in 1964 and is buried in a mausoleum in the grounds decorated with his beloved flowers

close to these spectacular views

In the Summertime

“Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon”

— Cecil Day Lewis

You may have noticed I have been missing from the blogging world for a couple of weeks, several reasons for this. Firstly we have had lots of visitors, secondly the weather really has been too nice to spend much time sitting indoors at the computer, and thirdly we are in the process of trying to sell out home of thirty plus years and move to the city for our retirement, which, as many you will know, is an extremely stressful and time consuming activity!

this week I did manage to get ten minutes with my camera between meetings at the beautiful Hilliers Gardens in near Romsey - the English Country Garden, what better way to celebrate summer?

There was plenty of variety to choose from, I loved the soft greens and gold here

and I loved the grandeur of this artichoke flower

There were insects aplenty

butterflies and bees

Plants with defined structure

Plants that blended and melded with each other and the 'art in the garden'

and finally my absolute favourite, the burning pink heart of summer ( no idea what it is!)

Hope you are all enjoying your summer wherever you are!

Photo Heart Connection April

My Photo Heart Connection for this month is this picture of a Pasque flower from our garden

Early in April I went into the garden and took pictures of the flowers that were out. One of the reasons for doing this is that we are about to put our house on the market and move from the country into the city. This will be a big adventure for us, we have lived here in this beautiful, quiet, spot for over thirty years and have been lucky to have a large garden that has presented many photographic opportunities.

We will almost certainly have a small courtyard garden in the city which I will like, but which will be very different, so I am savouring my garden and its flowers while I still have it.

Oo see the other Photo Heart connections for April or to join in click on the badge below

Spring is Sprung

“De spring is sprung, de grass is riz.

I wonder where dem boidies is?

They say the boid is on the wing.

But that’s absoid. The wing is on the bird.”

— Anon

Spring has definitely sprung in my garden and yesterday I went for a walk round to see what I could capture - these are not the only flowers in the garden, but rather the one's whose pictures I liked best.

Pasque flowers are one of my favourite spring flowers. They represent such good value, looking great at every stage of their life cycle from the first feathery leaves that push through the bare earth, to the spectacular seed heads. They're even self seeding and I now have three plants instead of two.

Further on down the garden the first clematis is out, a macropelia of some kind I think; the label is long gone

Surprise flower of the day was this marigold. Self-seeded from two years ago I wouldn't expect to see it before June or possibly May at a push. It certainly makes a splash of bright colour now the daffs are over.

Next up its the japonica, a huge bush. I love the way it starts flowering on the bare stems before continuing to flower against the dark green leaves. Its in the transitional phase at present.

Finally I'm going to share with you my favourite photo from the shoot although its definitely not my favourite plant!

The humble dandelion, growing as usual somewhere it shouldn't, with those pesky long roots that are so hard to get out. Really worth clicking on this to enlarge the image and see the detail - I really hadn't expected it to look so pretty close up!

Thats all for today, hope your garden ( if you have one) has similar treasures, I'd love to know what they are!

Back to Berlin next time!

The Glory of the Garden

“And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away ! ”

— Rudyard Kiplling

When I arrived back from Yoga on Thursday the sun had just begun to surface after a shower and everything in the garden was sparkling - it looked quite magical!

It was as though this fennel plant was hung with diamonds

And the seeds looked almost as spectacular, as did a late sprig of lavender with this bee on board

I suddenly found the last to lines of Kipling's poem running through my head "and the Glory of the garden shall never pass away" and went to look up the whole thing, which though a tad on the jingoistic side I do rather like, and wonder if it was inspired by his own lovely garden at Batemans in Sussex which I have visited several times. I am going to quote it in full here.

OUR England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dung-pits and the tanks,
The rollers, carts, and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:-" Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.

Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!

And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away !

Rudyard Kipling

All of this then inspired me to do the first piece of art journaling I've done for ages

My sparking moments this week literally were sparkling - hope yours were too

The Last Party

This week has been all about preparing for our son's 21st party. We are very lucky in that we have a garden that is well suited to summer parties, of which we have had many over the years. When we moved to this house over thirty years ago we used to have a big party every summer and invite everyone we knew. Although we always provided food, in those days we used to rely on our guests to bring their favourite tipple with them, and often close friends would bring a salad or a pudding. In addition to that a gang of close friends used to turn up early to help set up.

We had different themes for the food every year including curries and a number of different types of BBQ. One year for example, we went with a Mediterranean theme - there always seemed to be plenty of people to do the cooking - though I do remember that one year Brian's then boss got stuck with it for ages!

As time went on and we had our son, parties grew less frequent and more formal, focussing on major events. Our 25th wedding anniversary in 1998 was the first time we went the whole hog and hired a marquee for our celebration barn dance ( you really can't rely on the english weather in october!) we choose a harvest festival theme as the church was decorated for harvest when we married and spent hours decorating the tent.

The food had a harvest theme too - I got our local catering college to make this harvest loaf

I don't think this photos have come out badly considering they were pre-digital and had to be scanned in!

After our 25th we had big parties for our 50th & 60th birthdays ( mine was a surprise party organised by my wonderful cousin as I had decided I didn't want to do one for myself) and our son had a birthday party every year until he was 13 (we got very good at making themed cakes - the pirate treasure chest was my favourite) but this week it was time for the last party, our son's 21st.

Looking for a marquee ( people were going to need to sleep somewhere!) I found this wonderful local company who supplied beautiful indian tents including furniture - I just couldn't resist!

From then on the party developed an eastern theme with curries for the food (the only time I've ever repeated myself) and lots of lamps and lanterns adorning the garden - we've collected quite a supply over the years and we bought these Chinese lanterns back from our trip to Vietnam in the spring.

The tent came with its own lantern too

i think we bought these lanterns for the barn dance, or maybe it was my husbands 50th?

So why is this the 'last party'? . A number of reasons I think. For one thing we plan to move in a couple of years after we retire, and we are unlikely to ever again have such a perfect party house. Another reason is that I have been there, done that, and got the T-shirt - several T-shirts in fact! time to do something different. I have also realised that party planning has been a major outlet for my creative energy over the years, but possibly one I don't need any more since I discovered art and photography. Also it's really tiring and we haven't got quite as much energy as we once had. So how are we celebrating our Ruby Wedding which (DV) will happen in October? We are going to a Hotel in Cornwall for the weekend, with friends who are also celebrating their Ruby Wedding - Yay!

In the meantime I will leave you with this image of the clearing up after this week's party - see you soon

I Don't Like Pretty!

Well I do really, it's more that it doesn't inspire me, it doesn't make my soul sing. Perhaps to some extent it's a case of familiarity breeding contempt. I am lucky enough to live somewhere where there's lots of pretty, thatched cottages, quaint streets etc. I find I have very little interest in taking photos of them.

Last week I visited Hilliers gardens near Romsey. Sir Harold Hillier was one of those adventurous types who headed for foreign climes to collect new plants and bring them back to the UK. The gardens were looking splendid, absolutely at their spring best, very pretty in fact. The star attraction was the magnolia avenue in glorious full bloom, very pretty indeed, so pretty I took a photo, but I don't like it. The magnolias became a blur of pink and white prettiness and from a distance you can't see the individual blooms (this may just say something about my lack of skill as a photographer of course).

What drew my attention instead was the interaction between the magnolias and the sculptures in the garden, or the white of the magnolia and the intense blue of the sky, the colours, textures and contrasts that capture the essence of the blossom for me. This is what makes my soul sing.

After the gardens I went into Romsey to have a look round. Plenty of pretty to be seen here, houses gardens etc. My eye was drawn to the abbey. Difficult to take a good photo of the outside, couldn't get the perspective, but inside was lovely. So many little details, shafts of sunlight coming through the windows and landing on different objects or parts of the building, but you couldn't call it pretty, glorious is more the word that springs to mind.