SOOP's kindly Kitcheners.

Have a lovely day tomorrow at Bodant. I have heard that the garden is well worth a visit. In Scotland, the gardens at Invereue are amazing. I've an entire album full of beautiful photos.

That should have been Inverewe.

Thanks for the welcome. Head scratch for Rory. I like cats. I'll have a small glass of your bubbly Lona, thanks. Strawberries and cream for tea here so I'll pass on these this time. Just a flying visit as brother is due to call in for a meal. Then we are going to watch him play his cello at a concert. Just popped in to say looking forward to being part of Soop's kitchen.

I love Bodnant too!

Welcome jud, the only rules are no arguing and no nastiness! Soops kitchen was opened, by our soop, when there was an awful lot of aggro going on 'out there' and it is a haven of peace, tranquility, support and cake! There are fabulous views from the chaise longue and an occasional pianist who plays requests. The only thing to be aware of is the lone male. We are trying to house train him but we keep getting sidetracked into eating and training goes by the board.

It's lovely here and no-one minds if you only pop in occasionally if things in the real world are a trifle hectic.

We could try to whip him into shape but I fear he'd enjoy that rather too much!

He enjoys being the centre of attention in our elite group which is growing.

The evening here is lovely. The sun is shining on all the different foliage in the garden. The golden philadelphus is specially striking and judging by the buds, will also be incredibly fragrant quite soon. It makes a superb contrast with the red maple. There's a pale pink deutzia which is bent low with blossom - really gorgeous - and a choisia which is beautifully scented. Have you noticed that I really like my shrubs? I'm planning to get a small ceanothus as I managed to kill a big one through over-pruning.
Sadly, if one looks down, there's rather too much horsetail and sticky weed which are getting the better of me. I can do short bursts but then have to rest my bones!

Until 3 years ago when DH started his problems we had a caravan in NWales and Bodnant Gardens was one of our very favourite and very regular haunts. We took all our visitors and always walked down to the bottom of the gardens which we couldn't do now and doubt pompa will do after his op. It is a wonderful place and well worth NT membership or the entrance fee.

Beautiful evening here too but still a very chilly wind.

Just watered all the pots and my hanging baskets which dry out too quickly in the wind.

My Plena Alba clematis (a 5p bargain several years ago) is absolutely magnificent with big double green and white flowers- I have over 40 buds and flowers on it. My Golden Showers and Iceberg climbing roses are blooming too, very chuffed with my garden (bits of it anyway!)

I've got sticky weed too blasted stuff, we call it cleavers (and several other less polite words)

Just looked at your wedding photos Soop. A beautiful bride and such a gorgeous dress. The guests, especially your good self look very smart too. What a happy family occasion and so lovely that the bride's grandparents could be there looking so chipper. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks Kitty. That has given me a bit more clarity about the reason for the kitchen. I try not to do nastiness. There is enough of that in the world. Looking forward to popping in to the peaceful atmosphere from time to time.

anno, I've had to look up some of your shrub names to find out what they look like. They are lovely. We had a large ceanothus (I knew it as 'Californian lilac') in our Oxfordshire garden and a clematis grew into and over it. Looked great.

I follow a couple of tweeps who are interested in and knowledgeable about "fossil plants". Horsetail is one of these. That knowledge has changed the way I look at horsetail. Likewise cleavers (sticky weed?). Robust weeds like these are survivors. I find there is some appeal in that thought!

Jud occasionally somebody comes to the kitchen spreading nastiness and that person is soon stamped on and rarely returns. Some of us have had verbal maulings from other GNs because we did not agree with them. If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen which is what I did -I found this one and i have moved in almost permanently with Rory, enjoying the coffee and the chat.

A bright and cheerful good morning to our Kitcheners. Sorry to be rushing in and out again so soon. We're about to leave for Glasgow airport. MacS's sister and her husband are visiting from Perth in Australia.

Lots of love and hugs from me to you lot...I may not be able to pop into the kitchen again until tomorrow.

bags wheelbarrow loads of sticky weed in our garden.

loopy we call it cleavers too. It's quite satisfying to pull up though as it comes away easily - in great long strings in my garden anyway.

It's all go at this time of year in the garden, isn't it. The roses are all bursting into flower, as are the later clematises. On my pergola I have planted a climbing rose and a clematis or honeysuckle on each trellised support, so that it smells lovely when you sit under it, but it does take a day of tying in and pruning in the Spring and Autumn to keep it from taking over the space underneath and also trying to reach for the sky.

Today will be spent transplanting small kales, putting down membrane in the fruit cage ready for the new strawberry planters that DBH is going to start making me, and probably more water. It has been so dry and hot here, I spent four hours watering yesterday. It's another beautiful day today, I had better round him up soon or nothing will get done.

Oh - and the bees have moved on, all by themselves! I had resigned myself to huge expense and having the bees removed months into the future and not being able to open my windows or turn on the upstairs lights, but two mornings ago I stood by my dressing table and realised that the hum had stopped. apparently our accommodation was sub-standard - thank heavens! So another task for today is to stand on the bottom of the ladder while DBH wields the expanding foam and blocks up any small holes he can find around our dormer windows.

I have just spent an hour on the phone to DD, she has her final law exams tomorrow and is panicking. I need the tranquillity of a bit of gardening to get over the second-hand stress. I only phoned up to say Happy Birthday to DGS (7 today!) but ended up with an hour of angst, so I hope it did her some good to offload all her fears onto me.

Have a lovely time with MacS's sister and husband soop

Been there, done it and got too many the tee shirt janer, I guess that's what mums are for! Secondhand stress that sums it up beautifully; I used to find it took me a while to offload it again but definitely gardening is a great stress-reliever for me

I bet your very relieved that the bees have b.....ed bumbled off, hopefully they will be thoroughly thwarted if they try a sneaky return (which is pretty unlikely I think)

soop I do hope that you and MacS enjoy your time with his sister and her husband. I hope that the weather is as kind to you "up there" as it is to us in London. I have been outside reading the newspaper and sunbathing, or should I say getting my vitamin D naturally whilst watching the washing dry. Such a pity that people cannot listen to musak through earphones or indoors as we do not all want to share what is blaring out. I am aware that I am showing my age!

bags, I have a sneaking admiration for equisetum (posh name for horsetail), and to that other great survivor, the relatively harmless silverfish! I was almost tempted, in Home Bargains this morning, to take up a special offer of a flame thrower gadget for destroying weeds. Who knows what else I might destroy? A sneaky visit across the burn to wreak vengeance on the gigantic cypresses that darken my garden?

You could try a sneaky bit of girdling, anno. Sometimes just the thought of knowing you could do it if you wished is enough!

I wouldn't do the whole row if I were you though, that could look too suspicious! And don't do it neatly!

I have heard that a copper nail will cause the tree to die. However, depending on the direction of the wind at the crucial moment, it might fall on my garden and might even reach the house.

Cypresses and all firs can be highly inflammable from the resinous vapour they emit - might well be a very dramatic inferno anno

Years ago we lit a bonfire at the end of our garden (we didn't have any neighbours) and a leylandii some 35' away erupted in flames, nowhere near the actual bonfire.
Very spectacular (and yippee it finished off the hated tree) but frightening at the time.

The prevailing wind in most of the UK is from the West, anno. So where is this evil tree in relation to your house? And would the ones either side hold it up?

It should start to turn brown, at which point you go and tell your neighbours that it looks dangerous, and please remove it!

I too have fantasised about removing huge old conifers.

You Machiavellian plotters .....and in soop's kitchen too

I hate them too, we need arboreal ASBOs!

Well!
I actually managed to get to archery today for the first time for at least a couple of months!
I was absolulute rubbish, but still really enjoyed it and was welcomed back.
Tonight I'm absolulutey knackeref ( a technical term) and off to bed!
But another step forward!