Plant Shopping

Before I begin I'd like to say 'thank you' for your comments on my last post and for sharing your favourite scents. I must say you chose some good ones, and I loved reading about your choices and the fascinating stories behind them.
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Today we're back at school and work, and it's unseasonably cold and blowy. However, last week was a good half-term week here, starting very warm and sunny and ending cold and and showery.  Despite this, I managed a good deal of sitting outside, a little bit of gardening (due to my dodgy foot), a bit of housework, a fair bit of creativity and a little bit of going out. Here's one of the first blooms from our 'Gertrude Jekyll' rose. I wish you could smell it - it's like rich, spicy Turkish Delight!



On Friday my friend J and I spent a very enjoyable day out together at the local garden centre. We drove through a rain storm to get there and headed into the indoor part until it subsided. In the warm poly tunnels there were trays and trays of brightly-coloured blooms. We drank in the bright hues of the pelargoniums and petunias - my goodness, it was heaven on such a wet, chilly day! Needless to say we both filled up our baskets on the way round with inexpensive summer plants, and each talked ourselves into buying a rose. They were very reasonably priced - here's mine!



We had a lunch of sandwiches and coffee in the garden centre cafe, and J's car was bursting at the seams with floral goodness as we drove home, finishing off the day with a cup of tea at my house. Here is my little haul.

I photographed the blooms just as the raindrops started to fall again. I'm always very excited to have a new batch of plants to find spaces for in the garden (this is becoming increasingly tricky these days!).

I even bought a couple of squashes to grow in pots. I'm not a vegetable gardener, but love the colours and forms of autumn squashes, so I'm going to try my best to grow some. 

When I went outside to plant my new additions I found that in the front garden the ceanothus has been dropping its petals, making a delicate carpet of blue underneath it.

In real life the colour looked very bright indeed. I think it's rather pretty, like blue snow!

As far as planting out goes, I've grown just a few seeds this year: sweet peas, cosmos and borage. Sadly my calendulas didn't germinate. I wonder if it's too late to plant some from a packet. What do you think?

Finally, on the subject of blue, I thought I'd show you our garden shed. I don't think it's ever featured in my blog before, as it houses all our garden paraphernalia and has been a dingy creosote green for a few years. I definitely won't be showing you an interior shot - it needs a good tidy! However this week I gave it a lick of paint, a darker blue than my creative shed (although not really 'Cornflower' as described on the tin). I'm really pleased as it makes a feature of that corner now. There is a joke in our house that anything that stands still long enough is in danger of being painted blue by me. I'm nothing if not predictable! 

Well, this evening the central heating's on (it's June!!), the trees are blowing wildly outside and rain is hammering on the windows. I'm very glad to be cosy indoors finishing my crochet. In my next post I'll show you what I've been making. Until then, hope you stay warm and dry! x