Violet White

It's a while since I last posted - well, a while for me anyway.  That's because I've been over in England, with a stall at the Curdridge Show.  There were lots of people there, but they didn't seem to want to buy...  Maybe it was the weather (a VERY hot day) or maybe they just didn't have the money to spend on what are, in essence, luxury, gift-y items.

My best customer was my daughter's MIL!  Without her I would have made very little indeed!  As it was, I only just covered the stand costs with a few pounds to spare.

Anyway, I had a lovely week with my daughter and her family and the weather was brilliant the whole time.

While I was away a friend kindly watered my garden for me as I was especially worried about the Japanese Anemone....



...which, as you can see here, is doing brilliantly!  This will be the first year it has actually flowered (I hope it does!) as it does not like the hot weather at all. Normally the flower buds just harden on the plant and wither away without opening because I have gone off to England or somewhere and left it unattended.

I also planted an Italian plum tomato in a wooden box that my late husband made me and, of course, that cannot survive without lots of water.  That is also doing well ...




...with lots of fruit that, hopefully, will ripen in a few weeks!

My potato patch too has grown...



...it looks a bit sad here, as there was a terrific thunderstorm in the night with lightning and pouring rain, and the plants got a bit beaten down.  The weeds have survived it though...

In my daughter's garden she has a couple of fabulous jasmine plants that scent the evening air and also look beautiful, so I bought myself two the same to go over the arch that she put in for me last year...




The variety is called Clotted Cream (perfect for you, if you're reading this Barbara).

At the front of the house my stargazer lily has a huge bud...



..and all the other plants in pots are doing well - such as the blue Agapanthus...



...the first time it has flowered since I bought it as a dried-up little rooty thing in a bag of wood shavings!

The lavender hedge at the back of the house is splendid, as always...



... and the David Austen rose (Crocus, I think) is having yet another flush of flower - such good value, this rose!



This morning, after the storm, the sky was cerulean blue with just a few cotton wool clouds.  But the clouds have come over now and the humidity is high...  Great if you are not doing anything, but hard to work in.  I dug holes and put in the jasmines earlier and I was bathed in perspiration glowing almost immediately. (I was going to say 'sweat' but, as my daddy told me, horses sweat, gentlemen perspire and ladies gently glow...