Summer 2013

My vine has just started to burst into leaf! Whew! I was getting worried. Only the mulberry to get going now. Everything is so late.

Huh, ^ our^ vine has got little bunches of grapes on it
One of my local natural history books calls the next two weeks "Prelude to summer"....... today feels more like the middle of winter.

That couplet is lovely, merlot .

Where are you dusty?and is your vine an outdoor one?

Apologies to Merlot,I meant to say that I'd enjoyed her verse as well.
Galen I'm in the Algarve but inland,up in the hills. Yes the vine is an outdoor one,very old one that came with the cottage. The grapes are small and very sweet with loads of pips. Someone passing by chatting this time last year, just calmly took off the excess grapes for us,I wish I could remember who it was.

Thank you, Soop, dusty and Bags. I always mark the day when I hear the first cuckoo. DH laughs at me but I find it so uplifting.

Algarve! No wonder yours ahead of mine. Mines been in for 30 years now. The one in the greenhouse is younger and is in full leaf. I've never had grapes from it as it gets the mould every year!

Merlot - Lovely.

Yes, cuckoo's are uplifting, aren't they.

While getting dressed this morning, I saw a neighbours cat spring into my apple tree and start sniffing round the nesting box.
I have just spent several minutes waiting with bated breath until I saw the adult great tit return to the nest!

Judging by the way the adults are flying in and out of the apple tree, I think the young great tits must hae emerged out of the nesting box!

A goldfinch built her nest in a climbing rose that I have to pass every time I go into the garden, when she then flies off. Sadly, I think she has deserted her nest. No action for the past two days.

I have been noticing the beauty of cow parsley over the last two weeks. Maybe more noticeable because the hawthorn is so late - usually gets upstaged. Great frothy drifts everywhere. Noticed it smells strongly too - all the white multi-flowered blossoms produce a similar scent at this time of year - competing for the attention of the same set of insects. The cow parsley also reminds me of the fantastic flowers in the Olympic village - great drifts of long stemmed wildflowers.
Insect life is suffering though - there are not even any aphids on the rose shoots and few pollinators.

Jess I've just returned from being out and about, and all the beautiful cow parsley and various grasses that were looking so lush and frothy along the banks have all been mowed (mown?) down by the commune. The lanes here are so tiny, it's a safety precaution, particularly needed on corners - but it is always sad to see them go. Soon the poppies and wild daisies will pop through again, and the grasses will grow back.

JessM I've just noticed greenfly on the rose that climbs up to the steps on my conservatory balcony.
You've wished them on me!

Rowan blossom open at sea level but still thinking about it up our hill. The verges here are glorious with bluebells and wild garlic now that the Lady's Smock is passing its best. Yellow Welsh poppies growing out of old stone walls, and the oak trees looking burnished with their new, not quite fully open leaves. Saw my first apple blossom today too.

Meanwhile it's pouring with rain, making the grass look even greener. We keep thinking it can't look any greener and then it does

Spring was this morning apparenty - and then we will jump straight into Summer (hopefully) worst Spring since 1983 apparently. At least no hose ban, hey!

Been working hard in the garden all morning, planting, weeding, transplanting, etc. Started to cloud up again now! Struuuuuf.

Apple blossom practically over here. Loads of wild garlic, bluebells and cow parsley. My rowan, that I planted last year is in full bloom. I (well Gary actually) have planted a traditional english hedge with beech, hawthorn,hazel in it to replace a leylandi. It's really doing very well.

Greenfly and even flies would be more than welcome. I hate them of course- but we have to think of the birds - starving through lack of kritters to eat. Swallows and house martins are totally desperate, and so are bats.

We just can't have one without t'other I'm afraid. Same for nettles - I always leave a good patch for butterflies.

Drove home from my brother's gorgeous garden in East Sussex yesterday with a bootload of brassica plants so I've spent the morning planting out cavolo nero, cabbage and broccoli. I'll have to spend the afternoon netting them because I lost some early plants to pigeons

Warmest night so far this year – minimum temperature 12.6°. At the beginning of the month it wasn'teven getting that warm during the day! Summer is here. Roll on autumn

My mother-in-law used to say a similar thing when a meal was over: That's lunch over; roll on tea-time, and so on. One of the nicest women I've ever known . So I use the expression in her honour.

Seems like my part of France has missed Summer completely, B. Autumn has already arrived.

Gardening is an art as well as hobby...And it is really an interesting one!

My garden is looking lovely at the moment despite the weather we've had. It's finding the time to just sit quietly and enjoy it that's the problem.

Just lowering the tone a bit.
My Garden

The days are getting longer now
The snow has gone away
My garden now is full of weeds
And dandelions the only seeds,
That dare to grow above the earth.

The soil in my plant pot stirs.
Vine weevil grubs upon the move
In plant pots near and far.
The Bloody things have eaten through
The plants that once were there!

The lillies grow, but what is this?
A Lilly beetle. T’is no less,
Alas! I see a sticky mess
The grubs against the stem I view
Stuck fast with their disgusting poo!

Your garden is clearly alive and well !