A weekend away

I have just returned from a lovely long weekend in Devon, staying in Tavistock. This is the fourth anniversary of my husband's death and it makes it easier for me to go away and do something different.

I met with friends and we enjoyed a beautifully sunny day at The Garden House, about ten miles away. This is similar to a National Trust property, but managed by a private Trust. Here, trees are beginning to show their Autumn colours, but there are still Rhododendrons flowering which was surprising

There was so much colour, both in trees and flowering plants. I'm not sure of the name of this one, maybe one of the Verbena family, but the blue really shone out.

Then there were Dahlias, some several feet tall. I've never grown any like these!

Here you can see one of the Rhododendrons in flower. The colours of the shrubs together make for a beautiful arrangement.

We were able to sit outside on the patio of the Cafe, and enjoyed a very nice lunch together.

Opposite my hotel is the Parish church, where I often go to a service if I'm staying in Tavistock. This week it was Harvest festival and it was good to sing some of the old favourite Harvest hymns.

Altogether a relaxing 'getaway' weekend.

In the grounds of the Garden House.

Threads through Revelation

 I've been to Truro Cahedral to visit a wonderful exhibition. 

'Threads through Revelation' is the second of Jacqui Parkinson's enormous works, created in fabrics. She uses silks, metallic thread, gold leaf and paints to make thirteen amazing panels up to three metres tall.

 Created over three years, the panels invite people into a world of powerful symbolism, showing the themes of Revelation, good and evil, heaven and earth and the promise of a New Creation. 

(Taken from the brochure)

This very large one, the final, was one that I found most striking. Showing the Creation, it is a wonderful portrayal of the newly created earth. Angels are surrounding the main figure. The panel glows with promise and excitement.

This is a small detail from the lower part of The Creation. You can see the figures leaping excitedly towards the beauty above.

What an incredible skill Jacqui Parkinson has. It takes me all my time to produce a small tapestry, so looking at these panels brought home to me her workmanship and dedication.

Dahlias

I had no idea that the National Dahlia collection was in Cornwall!

It has recently moved to the edge of a village about ten miles away, so I went to visit last week. It's all very new and work still has to be done with labelling etc.

It's set in a huge field overlooking the water. The sun was shining when I went and the dahlias looked as though they were glowing.

There were so many different varieties, so many colours, and I wanted all of them!

But this one was my favourite. I dont know the name, as the collection has not yet had labels made. But isn't she pretty?

A visit to The Orangery

This is The Orangery at Trelissick Gardens, photo taken from the delightful Cafe in Trelissick House.

 Orangeries first appeared in 17th Century gardens, usually built onto a grand mansion, and designed to protect fragile citrus trees. This one has a lot of palms, and orchids, but I'm not sure if it has orange or lemon trees.

It's a beautiful space, and I have visions of 18th century ladies taking tea, or showing their exotic plants to friends. I believe you can take tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace, which would be interesting!

You can see here that The orangery was added to the right of the main house. This was not until 1933. When the house passed into the Spode Copeland family the orangery was used to grow exotic flowers used as design models for the well known Spode china.

I am so fortunate to have such a lovely National Trust property only a couple of miles away from me. It is a restful place to visit, wander through the gardens and finish with a morning coffee.

Blogger strikes again. My reading list is about three days out of date and is not being brought up to date. Sigh.

Changes of colour

Earlier this year my Hydrangeas were such a beautiful blue colour. Now as the Autumn is beginning to creep in, this same bush has turned a deep pink colour.

 

Same bush, same flowers.

Isn't it odd!

 

Still beautiful though,

A very blustery day

 I just don't know where the time goes. I have neglected my poor lonely blog , mainly because I've had nothing much to write about. Today we had a bit of a weather change.

As Winnie the Pooh would say 'It was a very blustery day'.

 I came back from a morning with a friend and found my lovely Gazebo lying on its back on the lawn, waving its feet in desperation. The wind had been very strong this morning. The photo below isn't mine but it is exactly what mine looked like. I was too busy trying to sort it out to take a photo, as you might imagine.

It's not damaged thankfully, but is now put away till next year.

My friend took me to an interesting place called 'Miss Molly's Tea Rooms', It's part of a larger business dealing with house clearances, and is set in one of the old mine Counting Houses, a large and gracious 200 year old building. There are various tea rooms, and every single one is full of china and furniture, carefully arranged in a higgledy piggledy sort of way. Typewriters nestling next to china, leather cases perched on a piano, room after room of tea sets.

Every piece is for sale. There were some very lovely tea sets, but sadly not many people use tea sets now.

I don't know how many rooms there were, I got slightly lost wandering around! I might go back sometime just to gaze!

Little patches of colour

 Despite the drought and the effect it has had on gardens, there is still some colour around. I have a dry brownish lawn but in the flower beds there are one or two plants still hanging on. I have been watering as much as I can. Every drop of kitchen water is used for my garden.

Look at this lovely Monarda, also known as Bee balm. The bees flock to it.

A few petunias are still flowering. I love their velvety textures.

A few late roses suddenly appeared. I wasn't expecting second blooms as it has been so dry. This one is called Orient Express.

The last few of a pot full of verbenas of different varieties.

Always on my patio there are geraniums. They cheer any corner.

A lovely thing happened to me today. nothing to do with flowers. I had just entered Waitrose (supermarket) when I was stopped by a lady who told me how much she admired my outfit. What a surprise and how kind! I was wearing white jeans with a rather lovely Italian blue flowered shirt. Not smart, but cool in this hot weather.

What a lift it gave me!

Another year

Yesterday was my birthday. Another year has gone by. I'm going to stop counting from now on. So many lovely cards.

It was a beautiful morning, and as I sat in the garden with a cup of coffee I felt an immense gratitude for my 87 years. A wonderful mother who made everything fun, who walked miles with me teaching me wildflower names, who made amazing dresses and was such an encourager.

A childhood by the sea, running free as we could in those days. A school where I was encouraged to develop artistic tendencies. A teaching career, which grew into working with children with very Special needs.

Three amazing children all in interesting careers. Forty three years with the most perfect husband, building houses in France with him, travelling the world together.

Of course all of life isnt perfect. Now on my own, I take time to develop my garden (which is very dry at the moment), meeting up with a little group of friends, some of whom I have known for forty years. 

We had an afternoon tea party in the garden yesterday, and I'm so cross that I forgot to take photos of the lovely group and the 'Mrs. Beeton' tea that we arranged. 

This was a particularly pretty card from a dear friend.

 

Lewis Carroll once said,  'There are three hundred and sixty four days when you might get un-birthday presents and only one for birthday presents, you know'

Words

 I have a feeling that I am very old fashioned when it comes to the use of words. I find it difficult to like the way certain words are used nowadays.

One is 'like' which is often used in place of a comma. 'So, like, I've got this amazing ,like, deal on my insurance.....'

Like was mainly a verb, as in 'I like this meal'. Now it's random.

Then, 'amazing'. During the last couple of days I have had one or two business type telephone calls which have the word 'amazing' splattered around as in 'Did you get my email? Amazing!'  I can't agree that receiving an email translates as being amazing but.....

The word 'wicked' once meant evil. Now it seems to mean wonderful!

I've just had a look at Wikipedia's list of GenZ slang , and it's a foreign language to me!

Am I being crotchety??

 I think I need to go and sit in the sun for a bit!

A little corner of my garden.

The blues

 

How can one plant have so many colours? This Hydrangea seems to be a mass of blues, purples and even a rogue pink bloom now and then. It's just outside my front door, and people passing by often comment on the colours.

When I was walking through Trelissick gardens recently I saw this Hydrangea  which was rather different. I'm not sure of the variety and the gardeners weren't around to ask.

Later in the Autumn the flowers on my bushes will turn deep red and look very beautiful. I always mean to dry the flowers but never quite get round to it.

Cornwall is a county that specialises in Hydrangeas, and many of the large estates have different varieties brought back many years ago by intrepid plant hunters. This is the Hydrangea Valley at Trebah gardens, near Falmouth. The hydrangeas were planted 70 years ago, over two acres. Aren't they splendid?

So much pleasure,

Bits of Wimbledon

Every Summer we have the excitement of Wimbledon Tennis Tournaments. I watch now and then, and find I don't know the names of players any more.

As I watch I run Subtitles. Being hard of hearing, and hearing aids not picking up everything, it's useful to see the words.

I'm not sure whether the subtitles are put on by something like AI, or whether its a 'real person', but occasionally the mistakes are amusing.

These are taken from the commentators at the match.

We heard...'he lost the set against catching.....catching over.....Kachinova'

'Some it up for us',....... 'a grand lunch...lunge'

and 'he Julie applied.....duly applied'

Well, it kept me amused for a minute or two!

These are two blooms from Pierre de Ronsard, a rose that hangs its head, so can't really be picked for a tall vase. It's one of my favourites.

The intense heat has decimated my roses and so many of the flowers have dropped. More heat this week to come!

Reading

 The extremely hot weather has given me a bit of an excuse to do nothing. No ironing (too hot), no gardening (too hot), nothing except sit in a cool room , just maybe with a good book.

I've just read The Paris Novel, recommended by Brenda, whose literary taste is similar to mine. The author Ruth Reichl was for many years a food critic on some of the larger American newspapers. It's a novel about Stella, who was left a cryptic message from her late mother, telling her to 'Go to Paris'. There are delicious descriptions of food, places to eat, dishes she enjoyed. It's a very well written book which I appreciate.

I've also just finished Lorrie's account of twenty years living in Ecuador, where she and her husband served as missionaries. It's a book that left me in awe of the way she lived the life, living in the jungle, raising children, serving the community, far away from family and friends. She portrays it beautifully. We can feel her pain and struggles, but at the same time commitment and Hope shine through.

And just in case you havent had enough of roses....

Roses

 Today's little joys.

The scent drifts through my room. There are six different varieties in the vase. That little touch of acid green from the Alchemilla seems to set off the richness of the roses.

What next?

 Whatever next??

Poor harmless Janet and John books, used by so many schools, loved by so many children, now have a warning. 

I cannot believe it. Yes, if you look at them now they have old fashioned ideas, Mummy busy doing the washing up while Daddy reads his newspaper. It happened. It was life. Surely we are all adult enough to realise that different times bring different values?

Do we really need a warning? And what next? The Flopsy bunnies pilloried because Mr McGregor was a nasty man? Winnie the Pooh books pushed aside because Eeyore had mental health problems?

I did have my suspicions about certain people in the Famous Five books though!

At last!

At last I can show you my Peony! I've been gazing at Peonies on several blogs and wondering when mine would open, Here she is.

I call her, for obvious reasons, 'Queen mother's hat', meaning no disrespect to our dear late Queen mother.

Or maybe a tutu worn by a beautiful Ballerina?

Sadly she wont last very long, but the gentle perfume she emits is giving me so much pleasure. And there are eight more flowers to open!

Outside my front door

 

I step out of the front door to this lovely scene. This is Dancing Queen, who has danced her way right across the front of my bungalow. The scent is mesmerising.

'Its the time you spent on your rose that makes the rose so important. You're responsible for your rose.'

 Antoine de Saint Exupery

Poppy

 

If Poppy could talk, I think she would say 'Aren't I beautiful'.

A bowl of plants

 I like to have something by my front door , just to look pretty. This is a bowl full of Diascia, Verbena, Petunia and a little pink and white flower whose name I'm not sure of. The colours are quite dramatic, especially the Petunia, which looks like velvet.

Once again I have had to copy and paste. I do hope Blogger gets itself together soon.

Small success.

I have found a different way to put photos on, which involves copying and pasting. Blogger is still insisting that I 'sign in' when I try the more usual method. Of course I'm signed in!

This is Darcey Bussell who is rewarding me with more flowers than ever this year. I feel she should be dancing. 

I shall continue to experiment with photos.

A little break

I had some lovely photos of my roses to show you. They are just beginning to flower and give me such pleasure. When I see that a new flower has appeared I greet it and tell it how pretty it is!

Blogger wont let me show the photos, sadly. It just keeps telling me to 'Sign in', which of course I have done.

I'm going to take a break for a while as it is hard not to be able to comment, though I have slipped through a couple of times. So, hopefully things will get better and whatever the glitch is will fade away. I'll still be reading your posts.