A DAY IN THE LIFE: Sunny Sunday

What a crazy time of year this always is. The peace and tranquility that I find in my own garden is soon lost when I get up on a Monday morning and set off for work in the van. I like to have my schedule for the coming month carefully planned out in the diary, but although this is vital to try and keep track of things, it is still simply more like a dreamy wish list because as soon as there is one wet day, or a desperate request such as the sudden need to get things spruced up for the grand re-opening of the dementia care home that I look after this week, things rapidly get shaken up. Mix into this some random tax and accounts auditing by our friends the HM Revenue & Customs, and all the ensuing requests for further paperwork that is 3 years old and has spent it's entire life in the loft. Finding out that the 11 colossal hanging baskets that were on order for the 'Grand re-opening' and due for collection on 14th June are in fact ready NOW, and so out of this week must suddenly materialise a free half day, complete with empty van AND trailer and by colossal....I mean BIG!!

I spent yesterday morning re-landscaping part of one of the care homes rear gardens and generally getting things together there. The sensory garden is now complete, and a new decking now wraps around the whole of the rear of the bulding. Everything should be done by Friday and so I will post some piccies then.

For now, let me take you around some of the things going on in our garden. The Tibouchina above is just about to break into flower now. Can you see the tantalising glimpse of purple just peeking through?

The Lantanas are starting to come out as well, this one is my favourite, although there are some red and some yellow ones as well.

The Sempervivum that I mentioned as being rather peculiar in a previous post, is doing what only these plants can do......behaving very strangely indeed......Love it!!

We have a very low pot on the patio that contains a mix of three different Verbenas, all very flat and so small that you could pass them by at the moment. Close up they are simply beautiful, this mauve one in particular.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Cistus. In a tight space some can need trimming back quite hard to keep them in check, resulting in a sorry looking shrub for part of the year. On the upside, they do produce good, prolific summer colour. The Cistus purpureus above has to get trimmed very hard, but the rewards outweigh the problems I think.
All of these last few photos were taken early this morning as I wandered about in my shorts with a coffee. The rest of the morning was spent down at Sandbanks.

We parked up at the beach at Shore Road (see red arrow above), took off the old socks and boots, rolled up our trousers and walked for a long time along the waters edge. Now, I can hear you all saying that this sounds like too much hard work on a restful and sunny day, but let me reassure you that we did have to stop at The Sandbanks Hotel for a drink, even though sitting in those seats overlooking the beach was very taxing!!

TTFN!