Bits of a day.

Blogger has changed my format to the new one, which was a bit of a surprise. So far there have been no major problems, but I'm sure, reading some of your posts, that there may well be.

Here's the first one....

I tried to upload a photo of Alexa, but it has disappeared.

So has she, sadly, as she died this week. Well, more a drowning actually , as she received a dose of orange juice when a mug fell over. She didn't recover.

We now have a new one.....with an American accent!

Here's a photo of Cafe au Lait, measuring nine inches across.

Amazing.

I saw a beautiful Peacock butterfly in the garden yesterday.

I have so many bees and feel very happy that wildlife thrives here.

Sweet peas have been a little disappointing this year. It could be that I used a free packet of seeds. There aren't as many flowers on the stems as usual, but the scent is still amazing. They are planted just by the sunroom door so the perfume drifts in.

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You can maybe just see the little bench outside the door, where I sit with a morning cup of coffee. Just a moment for me while the Carers are busy with my husband.

I think that's all my ramblings for today.

Dahlia delights

I am so enjoying my newish relationship with Dahlias.

I've only grown them in the last couple of years and don't know why I hadn't taken the plunge earlier.

This amazing lady is called Labyrinth,

and Sarah Raven compares her to the Queen Mother's hats!

I rather agree with her.

Because I'm so new at this I put her in the wrong position at the back tof the bed, but next year she will move forward.

Here she is next to Roxy, an old favourite, in fact the first Dahlia I tried.

I am hoping for interesting things from this one, called Cafe au Lait and apparently having flowers the size of a tea plate.

We'll see what happens as she grows. She is much taller than the average Dahlia.

I have such pleasure from this lovely rose, a French one called Pierre de Ronsard.

It grew over an arch in my garden in France and I'm so happy to have it here.

So, just a few pictures from my garden, which seems to be approaching Autumn rapidly.

A bit of Cornish history

You may have heard of Perranporth, a popular small beach resort in West Cornwall. It's an ideal family beach, with a restaurant, rock pools to play in and lots of sandy beach.

A little further along the coast is a place that many of the beach goers don't know about. The lost church of St Piran, in the sand dunes, slightly north of Perranporth, is one of the oldest Christian sites. The oratory was established by in the 6th century AD by St Piran, an Irish saint who landed on the beach after being exiled from his homeland.
He built a chapel on the beach and it is said that his first converts to Christianity were a badger and a fox. People soon began to hear of his powerful preaching and came from long distances to hear him.

Shifting sands eventually made the oratory unusable and in the 10th century it was abandoned, and another church built in a more sheltered location. However, this church too was eventually overwhelmed by sand and was abandoned in 1804.
In 1910 the oratory was dug out and surrounded by an ugly concrete wall to protect it, later removed in 1980, when it was buried in sand.

In 2015 The St Pirans trust excavated the church, digging out 250 tonnes of sand. 

 Then it was opened to the public.

 It's amazing to think that these ruins have survived for so many hundreds of years. Every year there is a procession on St Piran's day, 5th March, to celebrate the  patron saint of the tin miners.

For more information visit.....
https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cornwall/churches/st-pirans-oratory.htm

Just five minutes.....

I spent some time this morning looking out of the kitchen window whilst doing all the 'chores'.

Wishing for 'just five minutes' in the sun on that chair.

And after the ironing, the lunch preparation, the Care elements of my day....I got there!

A cup of tea in one hand, phone in the other (just in case).

A blackbird was chittering away in the apple tree above. Two little goldfinch argued over the feeders.

Traffic went by, not noisily except for the agricultural machines.

I can't see them as our fence is high, but I do hear them, and of course the noise levels have changed in the past couple of weeks. 

Best of all was the huge furry Bumble bee, and of course my camera was no where near me. He was working hard pushing his way in and out of the snapdragons. His fluffy bottom wriggled its way back out again. It reminded me of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit's front door.

I wish I remembered the name of this exotic Clematis.

It's doing rather well on the back fence.

And this is the sky overhead at 9.30 pm the other night. A ribbon of crimson.

A surprise plant.

Some years ago, maybe four or five, I was given a rather sad Clematis plant, bought from a garden/diy shop. I really didnt thank it would live, but planted it under the apple tree next to the lovely lilac one. (which I think is Perle d'Azur and comes up year after year)

The years went by,

I was convinced that it hadnt survived.

What a surprise then, to look out of my kitchen window yesterday and see this lone pink flower making its way shyly through the tangle of branches.

Today there is another smaller flower.

I have no memory of the name of the Clematis. It looks a little like Nellie Moser, but I'm not sure.

I wonder where it's been these past few years?

My garden always has a few surprises for me!

Hydrangeas, mostly.

I never know quite what my hydrangeas are going to look like from year to year.

It's hard to believe that these are all on the same bush.

Pale pink nestles against soft blues, while further up the bush are blooms of a lilac shade.

This is their best time of year, just as they come into flower. Later in the season they will darken.

With garden centres closed I had to use what I could find for my big pots this year. 

I managed to source some pretty mauve petunias from Sarah Raven, and mixed with my white geraniums (now in their 6th year) 

they look pretty and delicate. A friend brought me some purple verbena to mix with them.

Just a quick look at dahlia Waltzing Matilda.

I have a feeling that at night she drifts round the garden in waltz time, swishing her fiery petals.

Do you think so?