A Rosy Outlook

Hellooo!! The last few weeks have been very busy indeed, and so I've had to be away from Blogland completely. I have missed you all very much! Now I have some catching up to do and, as there are only 3 days of term left I can feel my shoulders starting to drop and a sense of gradual relaxation creeping into daily life. I meant to share this post two weeks ago, but there are still some roses out in the garden, despite most of them being over now.

If you've followed my blog for a while you'll know how much I love roses. 

Every year I look forward to their arrival in June when they scent the long, light evenings with their subtly different perfumes. I think I must have inherited this love in part from my parents who over the years have filled the long narrow garden of their small semi-detached Victorian house with many roses. I grew up knowing the names of them and was even given one for my fifth birthday; 'Mischief', it was called. In their garden many roses came and went over time, and I remember their names well - 'Peace', 'Whisky Mac', 'Copper Pot', 'Fragrant Cloud', 'Iceberg'. Nowadays they often return from a trip to the garden centre cafe with a new rose and squeeze it in to their neat beds. They have too many to name them all but there are some beauties: 'Winchester Cathedral', 'Tess of the Durbervilles', 'Southampton', 'Buxom Beauty', 'Handel', 'Golden Celebration', 'James Galway'. You could definitely say that they are enthusiasts.

I seem to have inherited their rose-loving genes and enjoy having roses in our own garden. However, as ours is smaller than my parents' and we have lots of perennial plants we don't have as much room. This hasn't stopped me from adding to the roses which were already here. Delicately-scented 'New Dawn' was already scrambling up the front of our house when we moved in.

As was the wonderful 'Gertrude Jekyll' with its fabulous flowers and rich, fruity fragrance.

Also already here was this one golden yellow one which I now think might be 'Charlotte'.

Since then we've added several others: 'Compassion',

'William Shakespeare',

'Mortimer Sackler',

One known simply as 'Gran's Rose' whose parent plant belonged to my great-grandmother (born in 1872) and has a very rich scent.

'Guinee' (at least that's what the label said - I think 'Guinee' is supposed to be much darker than this)

'Etoile de Hollande',

And here is 'Gloire de Dijon', a rose we bought last summer and which is literally not in a happy place at the moment - it's in a dark corner and needs to be moved. However, it has produced a couple of stunning blooms this year. I put one on my bedside table and enjoyed its soft perfume and delicate buff-coloured petals. When I see it I am reminded of D H Lawrence's poem of the same name:

'In the window full of sunlight

Concentrates her golden shadow

Fold on fold, until it glows as

Mellow as the glory roses.'

Finally here is my rose of the moment, and I must admit I am very taken with it indeed. It's 'Rosa Mundi', a very old variety.

As you can see it has the most beautiful striped petals, ranging from pale pink to deep raspberry red, each flower different.

Its petals look as if they have been hand-painted.

Each one very different to the next.

I bought the last two roses from a little independent nursery nearby which sells roses very inexpensively. The trouble is that when I'm there, in the moment, I forget that we have run out of space in the garden for any more. I forget that when we get home and I take it into the garden in its pot, it's hard to find somewhere that's not already taken. There are so many more on my wish list - 'Munstead Wood', 'Heathcliff', 'Boscobel', 'The Lady of Shalott', 'Strawberry Hill', 'A Shropshire Lad' ... I do get carried away! It's a good thing Pinterest exists, because I can collect them there instead, and I count myself very lucky to be able to enjoy the roses which we do have in our garden.

I shall leave you with a photo of the rose petal shortbread which I made two weeks ago, and is a happy seasonal ritual for me. If you'd like the recipe you can find it in a previous post here.

Thank you for dropping by - see you very soon x

Autumn Blooms

Walking around my rather straggly, rain-soaked garden after work today,  I was delighted to find some very lovely reminders of summer. I picked all of these lovely blooms, and was very happy to bring them into the house to cheer it up. With a cold nip in the air, and some very heavy showers, the light levels have been rather low. There are snapdragons still flowering (surely the best value for money, flower-wise, this year), roses and fuchsias, all in complementary shades of red, yellow and purple.

These berries looked good with the fuchsias too.

I put the roses in our bedroom.

They finally ended up on my bedside table where they made me smile when I woke up this morning. At 6.30 the world was still dark outside, but the sight of them made getting up a much nicer experience! x

This week

This has been the final week of the summer holidays, and I have tried to dispel the yearly sense of gloom by trying to make the most of it. My youngest and I will be back to school and work next week, and in a couple of weeks or so my two older ones will be heading off to the first and final years of university. I have always found this to be a bittersweet time of year, as I mourn the passing of summer, but absolutely adore early autumn with its ripeness and abundance. So, despite the rain and having a bad back this week, I have managed to cross a few things off my seasonal 'to do' list.

1) I have been picking small bunches of flowers from my garden, as well as sweet peas which are still going strong, and roses which are in their second flush.

2) Windfalls from our little apple tree have started to litter the lawn, and I have used them to make Norwegian Apple cake from Mia's excellent recipe. Served with creme fraiche, it was delicious, and my good friend Jane and I enjoyed a slice with a cup of tea when we had one of our creative get-togethers.

 3) Inspired by another blogger, Sue at The Quince Tree, I made Damson Gin. I have been talking about making sloe/blackberry/damson gin for years, and am very pleased with myself, now that I've finally got around to it. The damsons came from the local farm shop.

I love the fact that in just three days in it's already gone a lovely rich colour.

4) With the rest of the damsons I made damson ice cream which was yummy, and very pink.

5) I am working madly on a granny square blanket that I'm making for my son when he starts university. Not long to go now, and it's not as far along as I'd hoped. Oh well, he won't need it yet as it's not too chilly.

6) Despite the rain I've been popping out in the garden to pick blackberries and raspberries which are ripening fast now. The raspberries also seem to be having a second flush, as I already picked lots back in June.

7) The roses and peonies which, like the lavender, I dried in the airing cupboard, make very pretty pot-pourri. The colours do fade quite quickly, and I add a few drops of essential oil, but they are a lovely reminder of summer.

I love the intense colour and crinkliness (if that's a word) of these dried roses.

8) This morning (Sunday) is wonderfully warm and sunshiney after all that rain, so I've taken time to sit on my favourite bench in the garden with a cup of tea. Despite the garden being a bit untidy in that end-of-summer way, I'm concentrating on how good it feels to be almost in September - bring it on!

Day Trips 3 - London

Well, having spent the last two 'holiday at home' posts delighting in heather, bracken and moorland, it's now (in the words of Monty Python) time for something completely different. The big city! I'm not in general a lover of lots of concrete and traffic, but I do enjoy a visit to a lovely city. We don't get to London as a family that often, so we decided that it'd make a nice change to spend two days there. 

On the way we sped past Stonehenge, an amazing heritage site that I haven't actually been to since I was a child. You could actually touch the stones back in those days.

We were staying in lovely, leafy west London and took a train into the centre. After a couple of stressful (for me) tube changes we emerged above ground at Canary Wharf. Oh my goodness, what a culture shock! I'm not a great fan of this sort of urban landscape, but it is amazing. I love the clouds reflected in the glass windows.

Just look at these buildings. I was a bit awestruck, and walked around looking up, trying not to trip over or lose the rest of my family.

A quick trip on the Docklands Light Railway, and we arrived at our destination - Greenwich. 

We've talked about going to Greenwich for years, having 'done' the Tower of London, museums, etc with our children when they were younger, but have been curious to see this famous maritime site. When we turned a corner and the Cutty Sark came into view we were delighted. Such a beautiful ship, and so well preserved. I loved the figurehead, graceful and elegant.

This view shows just how much rigging there is on a ship like this.

After a quick picnic we walked along the river Thames, and it was pretty busy with different kinds of craft.

Here's the Old Royal Naval College, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. In the sunlight the ornate white buildings and Baroque landscape positively sparkled.

The compass dial on this tower reflected a clock on the opposite one.

A great place for following lines of perspective, the sheer size of the grounds and buildings is impressive.

I just loved these ornate gilded gates in front of the Queen's House. With their twirly bits and symmetry, they traced intricate patterns on the sky behind them.

The house itself had gorgeous curving flights of steps at the front entrance, bordered on either side by spiral topiary.

From here we walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory. Lots of people were picnicking lazily on the grass or strolling around admiring the views.

As we climbed the hill we looked back at the view. I really liked the elegant proportions: all of that green space in front of the beautiful 17th century buildings, and then another layer behind of modern London and high-rise Canary Wharf.

Finally we arrived at the Royal Observatory, and my husband and son decided to do the tour which included seeing the famous Meridian line. It was a hot day and we'd done a lot of walking by then so my youngest daughter and I (oldest daughter couldn't come, sadly, as she has a summer job) decided to find somewhere to sit and relax.

We quickly found the very pleasant Pavillion Cafe and sat outside in its gardens. So pretty, I even spotted some gorgeous roses.

An exquisite old rose in a delicate shade somewhere between pink and peach.

These cold drinks were very refreshing in the heat and we recharged our batteries for a bit more walking.

Right on top of the hill, that view just got better and better.

We walked back down to Greenwich town centre and decided to visit the market which is full of stalls selling food, jewellery and crafts of all sorts, a very nice place for a spot of retail therapy.

Back on the train again and at one of our changes I emerged onto the platform to be greeted by this amazing view of the Shard, towering over us - wow! Like me , all the other tourists on the train stopped to take photos there and then on the platform.

We were staying overnight, and the next morning was very wet and windy with the tail-end of hurricane Bertha passing over. We waited for the worst of the rain to subside and headed out to one of our favourite places nearby, Bushy Park. We've been here many times and it's one of London's great parks, such valuable green spaces in a heaving city. Given to Henry VIII as a deer park (the beautiful Hampton Court Palace is nearby), water gardens were then added by Charles I and now it is home to a fantastic array of flora and fauna. Both red and fallow deer roam freely and the park is always full of people walking, cycling and picnicking.

As the rain eased we walked through the beautiful Chestnut Walk and tried to spot deer. 

They were a bit reticent that morning - this rather blurry photo is the best I could do.

After lunch in the very lovely Pheasantry Cafe we went for a gentle wander, first in the Woodland Gardens.

We were delighted to spot this very sweet fluffy duckling.

And this rather lovely Orange Balsam plant.

And this exotic-looking Egyptian Goose.

Back out into the main part of the park again, we walked under trees and through long grass, and I felt my shoulders drop as I began to relax. London is the most wonderful place with so much to see and do, endlessly exciting and new, and it is wonderful to have these green spaces to unwind in.

The sun even came out, making the grass a more golden-yellow.

Look - I even found some brackeny ferns to enjoy!

As we started the drive home we circled the beautiful Diana Fountain, glinting in the sunlight.

I relaxed into the journey, looking forward to returning to our little corner of Somerset and reflected on our visit. London is truly a fabulous place to visit with so much to offer - I'm sure we'll be back again soon