May Flowers

At this time of year in my favourite month of May it's all moving very fast in the garden and countryside, and already some of my favourite flowers have been and gone. My goodness, they were lovely. The hedgerows around us are at their best and I picked this frothy bunch of cow parsley, garlic mustard, plantains and wild catmint on my walk home from the gym last week.

The garden's looking very colourful in places at the moment, and these jolly bellis daisies are brightening up a dull spot under the honeysuckle arch.

Just looking at these sugary coloured pom poms makes me smile.

The softly-scented apple blossom came and went quite quickly, blown off the tree one windy and wet weekend. It was lovely while it lasted, though.

The Spanish bluebells were beautiful, creating large pockets of deep blue around the garden.

Their pink cousins are more dainty, and very pretty indeed. I think I like them better than their relatives.

In the pond (which is half a barrel of water, rocks and water-loving plants) the marsh marigold is as joyously yellow as ever, each flower a reflective little sun.

On my shed the blue clematis was fabulous. I love this plant. Each year I do nothing to it and it rewards me every spring with this delicious display of fabulous purpley-blueness. Wonderful.

This little clematis which I bought from a supermarket for £2 last year flowered very prettily this spring with these lovely mauve flowers. I can't wait for next year as it scrambles up the back of our garage.

The kerria has been as bright as ever and seems happier for the pruning I did last year.

And the cloudy rowan blossom promises lots of berries this summer. The birds will be pleased.

There's more yellow in the garden in the form of this very yellow geum which has just come into flower.

The pretty little blue-eyed grass is a tiny treasure at the moment,

Here's Clover sitting behind it, soaking up the sun.

And the deliciously citrus-scented mock orange has started to bloom. It's smell reminds me of eau-de-Cologne.

I treated myself this year to a lilac, a small variety which is suited to smaller gardens. The common lilac in the front garden needed a big prune last year and as a result had only a couple of blooms on it this year. Lilac is my favourite flower and perfume, so I'm going to grow this one in a container for a while before planting it. 

It does have some lovely flowers on it, and they smell heavenly.

Finally something else that's heavenly is the fabulous blue of the ceanothus in our front garden. We've had it a few years now, and it's a deep blue (it matches the front door!).

It's almost over now, but it has been wonderful.

Well, that's my May round-up of flowers. At this time of year there is so much floral loveliness around I find it hard to keep up - I can't believe that May is almost over, and I'm not quite sure where it went! We're just beginning half term here, so I'm planning to slow down, be creative and enjoy my week off. 

If you're on half term too I hope you have a lovely one and if you know someone who's in the middle of their GCSEs, like D is at the moment, I wish them luck and some time to relax too. I'm looking forward to being in Blogland a bit more this week. I'll leave you with some hedgerow photos, full of lacy cow parsley.

See you very soon x.

Merry May

 May is my very favourite month of all. There is a freshness about it, still a part of spring, but containing all the promise of summer. Trees and fields are verdant with the brightest, zingiest greens, and the air smells sweet with the honeyed scent of blossoms and new growth. Even when it rains in May, it's fresh and invigorating. I tried to capture this sweetness in my calendar page for this month. It was difficult limiting myself to just six photos - I could easily have chosen many more.



I'm in good company in my admiration of May, as many writers and poets have been inspired by this month. The poet Thomas Carew wrote about the burgeoning countryside:

'Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful Spring
The valleys, hills and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May'

And I love this quote from Mark Twain. It perfectly captures the feeling of renewed energy and restlessness that arrives with the spring:

'It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!'

I've had Edith Holden's 'Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' for many years, and the charm and skill of her paintings never fail to delight me.    

The May paintings are very delicate and fine, and I love her depiction of bluebells, may blossom and a bird's nest.

On the subject of blue, have you noticed just how many flowers in May are blue? And not just any old blue - my very favourite shade of purply blue. The early clematis which grows up the front of my shed is so graceful with its bells which gradually open. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago and the flowers are now green, spirally seed-heads.

Our ceanothus, or Californian lilac, is blooming at the moment. It's such a deep, rich blue and makes quite an impact in the garden.

The Spanish bluebells are looking glorious now. We haven't been out to look at any native bluebells yet this year - we'd better get a move on before we miss them!

When we celebrated my dad's birthday at a country pub a couple of weeks ago I took a picture of this wonderful wisteria growing up the front of it. We used to have a lovely one which grew around the windows on the front of our house, but a couple of years ago it suddenly died. I do miss it - maybe we'll plant a new one, if we can find room.

As well as blue there's plenty of pink around at this time of year too. The aquilegias, or granny bonnets, are at their best now. Long slender stems carry those gently dancing blooms above ferny foliage - what's not to like? A year ago I wrote about how prolific they are in our garden, and it's still the case. I shall have to do some thinning out so that our other plants have room to grow. I'm very fond of their soft colours in shades of pink and blue, though.

The dicentra, or bleeding heart, is another pink flower which brightens the garden in May. Its unusual blooms hang in a row of delicate little pink hearts.

I also have to mention this sweet little lilac-coloured flower which is at its best in May. I always knew it as Wandering Sailor as a child, but in recent years I discovered it's official name, Ivy-Leaved Toadflax.

Along with ivy, it grows all over our stone garden wall and has pretty little flowers which look like tiny snap-dragons.

It's easily overlooked, but I think it's an incredibly pretty little plant that deserves a closer look.

Every April and May the ferns unfurl (just love that word!) and send up little coiled fronds which look a bit other-wordly, like strange creatures.

Gradually they unwind, uncoiling up the length of the frond.

This is how the fern looks this morning, completely unfurled.

These are all things I love about May. Other things I'm looking forward to are:

-cow parsley lining paths and lanes

- meadows full of buttercups

-hawthorn blossom in the hedgerows

-really warm days that feel more like summer than spring

-eating outside in the garden

-wearing sandals - hooray!

-the first fragrant, glorious roses

-watching the Chelsea Flower Show on tv

- long evenings spent outside

... what are you looking forward to this month? 

(By the way, I'd like to say a big 'thank you' for your encouraging comments about our forthcoming kitchen and your own kitchen-related experiences. Our old one is now gone and the room is a shell awaiting damp-proofing - it's all very exciting indeed!). 

See you soon x