A Funny Old Ten Days!

Wednesday morning, and as I sit here massaging Amandas feet and drinking sweet coffee, we think of things that may have been, but also indeed things to come. Having worked like a maniac to get on top of things last week, and also Monday, Tuesday onwards was supposed to be the point at which our weeks holiday started. Naturist camping in Cornwall was the new and fun order of the day, with everything in place for a week of nothing more than an all over tan in the daytime, and sumptuous meals and cosy drinks in the local pub during the evening, before retiring to the manor house of our tent for malt whisky and backgammon until the early hours. 

However......the weather forecast dictated otherwise, and us not being of spartan character (well, me not wanting to lose face in the cold and wet weather if you know what I mean?), we decided to put a hold on the whole camping in the wind and rain thing, and try to find something more.....how should I say?......uplifting.

I spent the whole of yesterday trawling travel agents, magazines and websites, looking for last minute deals. Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, Paris, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Barcelona, Nice.......even log cabins in....yes....Cornwall, for pities sake! Maybe it was just my mojo, but nothing came of it this time, and so last night we drowned our sorrows in Sohos. Too many Peronis for me, and probably not enough whiskies for Amanda, was followed by a sleepless night. This morning, I got up at six, made a pot of strong coffee, made a last ditch attempt at securing a holiday cottage anywhere in the world.....and failed......all too last minute now. And so it came to pass, that upon Amandas awakening, I had to admit defeat, and declare that for now a holiday may be better at a later date. We then set our sights on next month, and have successfully booked a very nice holiday in Paris. We will be staying next to the Sacre Coeur in a cosy little hotel....but that's for later!

For now, it's back to work tomorrow, having taken my holiday head back out of gear, which isn't easy. And so fellow bloggers.....To the plants!..............

In our bathroom at home, which is very white and minimilist, we didn't want to break up the lines with curtains or blinds, and so each year choose a new plant theme to give a little privacy from the outside world when the bathroom lights are on. This year we have gone for Coleus. Although not sure of the variety, not that it really matters on the grand scale of things, these ones grow quite upright and narrow, with dark mauve stems, which work really well.....we think.

All of the new plants are now in their new homes in the garden, and hacked down stuff mentioned in a recent post, are now just starting to fill out adaquately. Pots are now re-ordered and starting to take shape for the summer. In the picture foreground below is our Aloe, which is forever getting larger, and now flowering profusely.

Another of our new and experimental additions is a Chamaerops. These are now proving to be hardy enough to survive in the UK.....may we bless global warming in these circumstances? This one is in a large enough pot for now, but will need potting on in 2013.

Our previous Daturas have done really well, with one reachin a size of about 5ft x 5ft, but a couple of years ago some very cold spells saw them into that great garden graveyard in the sky. We had decided to put that little genus to bed, but there it was.....in the nursery.....calling.......'I am the one that will be different!'

And here is the little white flowered beauty, steadily growing. Here's hoping that we can keep this one alive.

Hobie & Misty, being quite a lot older, and certainly more arthritic, now find it beyond their capability to hunt the flying wildlife in our garden. Gone are the days of clearing up several sparrow heads from behind the office desk on a weekly basis. Now they both just sleep for most of the time, and stare out at the birds, chattering to themselves in the way that cats do, dreaming of the glory days when they could actually catch one.
And so I have finally re-introduced that most tantalising of cat torments.....the bird feeder. Balls of fat impregnated with nuts and seeds, and another simply loaded up with peanuts, now bring myriad birds into the garden, and also have resulted in two highly strung, but totally incapable cats.

Plantwise there are also now zonal geraniums alongside new guinea busy lizzies, Physalis and Stachys byzantia.

I took the picture of the Paulownia the other morning. Amanda was still asleep, it was six o'clock, and I was laid on my back....pretty strange I suppose, but I just saw the leaves against the blue sky and thought YEAH!!!

The skyline across our back garden seemed pretty good as well.

Along with all of the other plants that we introduced this year was another Lotus berthelotii. It seems to be doing really well so far, and so we are hoping that it will create another three foot cascade of foliage and flowers like the previous one. We'll see.

And finally, Lillies, Phygelius 'Fanfare Coral', and our reliable old friend, the Kalmia latifolia, are just a few more of the things to bring new life into the garden. As for the allotment.....don't ask....yet!