Tag: Flowers

Rode Hall Snowdrop walk

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Rode Hall is a small stately home on the borders of Staffordshire and Cheshire. It’s on a lane running between two major roads, one of which is the A34, which is in England.

Each year they hold a Snowdrop walk at about this time. The weather today was cold, crisp and bright. The various varieties of snowdrops glowed in the sunshine.

We had a very pleasant walk along a pathway to a lake in the grounds below the hall. Then back along the path a short way and up the small hills around the grounds of the hall. Finally we visited the walled kitchen garden with glass houses full of award winning vegetables.

I took lots of photos and I will post more on other blog posts. It wasn’t expensive. The only thing was there was a massive queue for the tea room but we ended going off and getting refreshments at a local church.

Diversion

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Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was diversion. This is a totally digital drawing using tools like flower and leaf stamps in the ‘Sketch’ app on my phone. It also has a pixel pen and a ruler that allows you to draw straight lines. I added some crackles and shadows to make it feel like something that has been there for ages. I call it ‘Round the houses’. Or ‘a long way round’!

Orchids

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A new orchid as a present from my hubby. I now have four. Three of them have already flowered and I’m hoping in the summer I might get some more blooms. The old ones have masses of arial roots. I think I need to re-pot them soon. They need clear pots to allow light to get to their roots and the orcid compost has to be quite loose not packed in to allow the roots to breathe. I repotted them a couple of years ago so I think it will be OK to do it again. I need to check the details but I know they are happy in this window.

Still going!

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What is going on? Begonias and Lobelia in November! I know some gardeners cut everything back and compost things after the summer. But I can’t do it. I love seeing things grow. The baskets will eventually die back. The tops of them are already looking a bit scrappy, but any sleepy and cold bee or hover fly can maybe sneak a sip of nectar. Our back yard is sheltered by the house, large bushes and a fence, I suppose the plants huddle together forming a microclimate. We also live towards the bottom of the hill so we don’t get hit by winds sweeping down from the north. It’s a haven. Looking forward to next summer. X

Still gardening

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The garden is still thriving although the evenings are drawing in. It gets dark earlier and stats dark longer. A lot of the flowers are fading but the plants are staying green. The worry is that as it gets colder they will die off, but it is to be expected here in the northern hemisphere. I do love cramming plants into our small yard and I thinks it creates a microclimate that keeps the temperature up and supports the growth. We’ve also had some heavy rain which has perked them up a bit over the last few days.

Old roses

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Autumn is coming,

the roses are fading.

Blue sky has mackerel clouds.

Sea breezes are cooler

laden with moisture.

Soon it will be

‘the season of mist’s

and mellow fruitfulness’

that some forgotten poet

(forgotten by me)

once wrote about.

Beauty and the Beast

watch the petals fade and fall….

Will they catch them

before it’s too late?

Hollyhocks!

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Unusual to see hollyhocks on a walk round a nature reserve like Westport Lake. I guess the seeds may have been dropped by someone feeding the birds? It’s more the plant you would find in a cottage garden?

I’m glad it hadn’t been grubbed up. It suddenly reared up about six foot high next to the low hedge of the maze that has been created at the far end of the lake. It definitely is a hollyhock plant, my mum used to grow them in our garden. When the flowers fade they make big round seed heads that easily break into flat seeds, shaped a bit like orange or satsuma segments.