Welcoming Autumn

Firstly I must begin again by thanking you for your lovely comments and well wishes for my parents. I'm happy to report that they are now settled back in at home and dad, although still very thin, is looking so much better and feeling much more like his usual self. This type of operation takes around 3 months to recover from, so hopefully by Christmas dad will be feeling much better.

Here in the northern hemisphere, we're welcoming autumn in with open arms after a rather hot and sticky summer. I love the changes in season, adoring them all for their different attributes. We started off by giving the garden a good old tidy up. Emptying and cleaning some of the tubs, weeding and lots of sweeping up. There was a bit of a bargain to be snatched up in our local garden centre with their Cyclamen, just the thing to brighten up the garden.

 I put some in the back and a pot in the front to bring some colour.

Some of the other flowers are still going strong, a second Foxglove appeared from nowhere, which we were quite thrilled about. It makes me wonder about what will spring up next year!

Lots of deadheading and weeding helped show off some of the summer's marigolds and geraniums that are still looking quite vibrant.

Some heather and violas dotted about

The physalis is at it's best this time of year, I love the bright orange lanterns

Honey, Alfie and Gary sat outside with us enjoying the September sunshine, but just couldn't be persuaded to pose for photographs. I think this was the best with Gary (in the middle)

Honey in the middle here

this isn't too bad of Honey and Alfie, but Gary wasn't having any of it that time!

After sorting the garden out, I thought it time to update the mantelpiece too. Brought out the Halloween globes so we get the benefit of them for a little while.

I think this little chap may be my current favourite, I don't tend to use him as a time piece as my slowly ageing eyes need to get quite close to him to make it out, but he does carry the correct time.

 Hope you're enjoying your seasonal changes wherever you are.

Take care
xxx

My Time in the Sunshine

I feel like I'm getting back in the swing of blog writing and have been posting on Instagram regularly, look at me getting all on top of everything! I've noticed I have a couple of new followers, I'd like to say hello (waving), please leave me a comment so I can come back and say hi to you to if you have a blog, and please come and say hi on Instagram too if you have an account

Wow, the weather has been amazing here in our little piece of England, until today when the clouds came. A bit overcast, but perhaps can be welcomed as a break from the intense heat we've had (we're just not used to it). It's due to return by the weekend, though we could really do with some rain, perhaps during the night when we're all in bed.

We've been eating outside and I think salad has become a staple in our diets, it's just been too hot to spend too much time in the kitchen. It helps that we have our own cucumbers from the greenhouse to add to them

I've been spending an hour or two reading in the garden on the days we don't have Zackary (impossible to do on a Zack day, far too much playing for us to do). I'll do a separate post about the books I've been reading recently on another day

A tub of sunshine, these Marigolds are really coming into their own now and are good for keeping little midges at bay as they don't like their scent.

This clump of Californian Poppies are from last year's crop, they just appeared at the side of our pond and look lovely they way they've naturally sprung up next to it. I may have to keep my eye on them next year though, don't want them to take over the area. I love watching how they change through the day, slowly closing in their petals as the day wears on.

The city centre looks quite beautiful in the sunshine too. This photo looks like it has a little statue of a child playing in the fountains, as lovely an idea as I think that would be, it's even better to watch the real children running back and forth and screaming with joy as the fountains change their patterns and soak them.

 There are seats all around too, and I you can see people smiling as they watch and listen to the little ones running about.

It's been so hot that the garden pond has needed topping up as it's level got lower and lower. We use water from the water butt as it's the closest type to what's already in the pond. It's a good job it's only a small pond!

I hope everyone else has been enjoying this glorious weather, I know it can get a bit much at times and we're just not used to it. I have felt sorry for Alfie and Honey with their thick coats (Gary's less dense, smooth white coat means he can enjoy the heat a little more). We put ice cubes in their water to help them keep cool and they sit in the shade away from the hot sun.

Take care
xxx

Lunch Out with an Unexpected Guest

Our routine has changed, we were having our little grandson Zackary for 3 days a week, but now that mum and dad are both working full time, little Zack has been enrolled and started going to nursery and we now have him twice a week. Poor little Zack is not impressed with nursery and makes his poor dad feel awful in the mornings when he drops him off by screaming his little lungs away, though is usually playing happily when mum comes at the end of the day to pick him up, little rascal. It has made him very clingy though, when we're doing our babysitting duties, Zack doesn't like either me or Andrew to leave the room and is wanting extra cuddles (which I have no problem providing at all).

It's a long day for such a small person, from 8 till 6pm, so when Zack has his days with us we try to go out for a while in the afternoons to break it up a bit for him. We had some lunch out the other day, a nice cup of tea

and a healthy salad with a baked potato, simple and very tasty.

Zackary enjoyed sitting outside, watching people come and go.

We were being watched while we ate by this little robin red breast, perched on a chair looking for scraps.

When the person next to us left their table, he swooped straight in there, picking about to see what he could find.

Quite a tame little fellow, I caught this picture just after he'd been on the floor between Andrew and Zack, an unexpected guest picking at Zack's dropped pieces of food. He seems to be on a good thing here and we'll be looking out for him next time we go.

It's funny as it's only an extra day a week, but we seem to have more time and it's been nice to spend some of it outside in the garden when the weather was a bit warmer. I found a comfy seat with a cup of tea, good book and some hexis I'm working on.

The book is Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I really enjoyed her other book, The Girl on a Train, and this one is just as gripping and written in a similar way, from different peoples perspectives.

Little hexis waiting to be made into something glorious....

I wasn't the only one enjoying the new free time, Gary stretched out and caught some ZZZZZs

I had to show you little Alfie too, what a face he was pulling at me here, another one who likes lots of extra cuddles!

Take care

xxx

Garden Flowers

I took a few photos of the garden the other day when I was out there enjoying the sunshine, I'm glad I took them when I did as yesterday rained most of the day and today is very gloomy and overcast (very warm too though, feels very close).

I wanted to show you our beautiful foxgloves and thank everyone who identified them when they first appeared.

Looking quite glorious now, lovely trumpets for the bees to go in and out of.

We have a few tubs around the garden, this one has petunias tumbling out of it (I kept Honey in the photo, she's nice and relaxed in the sunshine).

I'm rather fond of Geraniums, good staples to have in pots providing such vivid colour.

The camellia has finished flowering it's beautiful full pink blooms.

This is a new addition, a Honeysuckle to grow up our pergola. It's in a pot so I'm hoping it still manages to thrive, there are lots of buds waiting to burst into flower.

The rambling rose climbing up the other side of the pergola, also full of buds.

Lupins too,

more Lupins along the back of this raised planter.

 Pretty anemone, closing every evening then waking up each day and stretching open it's petals.

Couple of hanging baskets starting out

Sweet williams and our heuchera.

It's had a lick of paint this year, our tiered planter. Full of trailing petunias, lobelia and some geraniums too. It's just started flowering, so hopefully each tier will grow and reach down to the one below, filling the garden with colour.

Looking over everything are the green men

The vegetables are doing well too, we have lettuces, cauliflowers, peas and brussel sprouts in the trugs and tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. There are a few things we haven't planted this year such as radishes and potatoes, which I shall miss, if only there were a few more hours in a day (more space would be nice too).

Andrew's watching the rugby so I'm going to go and sit in the conservatory and do some patchwork while the light is still good.

Take care

xxx