All these photos were taken in my garden. I went up the path, a couple of days ago, to throw scraps on the compost, and this surprise was waiting for me.
Close up, I think they look like little toothed monsters.
A pot of cherry-pie by my kitchen door has been attracting bees as big as my thumb - but none stayed around to have their picture taken.
The scent is as warm and sweet as cherry-pie.
The bees on the climbing hydrangea were more obliging.
I never liked the blue and pink bush hydrangeas my mother grew, but this one is a beauty. And it smells of honey.
I love the way these leaves hold the raindrops, but the plant is a thug. It's due for a severe weeding.
No takers this year, though it has been investigated. Perhaps next, when the ivy's grown a little more.
The pond continues to be a joy. Waterboatmen scull across it, hoverflies touch down on the lily-pads, spiders trot over the surface. (They have hydrophobic feet, I have learned, much to my surprise.) A large family of sparrows visits daily, to take communual baths and to drink.
But this, my favourite flower in the whole garden, won't take a good picture.
It's a hawksbill geranium and I love its simple, clear shape. Even more, I love its colour which is a deep, rich, slightly purple blue. But in every photo I've taken, with three different cameras, it looks almost white. To get it to look blue, above, I've had to fiddle with colour balance and contrast, and it doesn't do this beautiful flower justice at all. I can only assure you that, in the petal, it's a very pure and beautiful blue, deeper than sky-blue but nowhere near plum. It delights me every time I see it and I'm sorry that I can't share it here.
3 comments:
Lovely! Enjoyed the meander :-) And Lady's Mantle is a bit of a thug, yes, although I love the way it holds droplets of rain like little jewels ... it tends to set up shop everywhere round the garden, but you can get mini versions as well as the big ones. Apparently it got its Latin name Alchemilla because of those little sparkly water droplets which were collected by alchemists for their experiments, as they thought they were the purest forms of water. Of course, you will already know this! :-)
Love your garden pics. Mine is looking a bit sad this month with all the rain. My palm tree is doing a major moult and snails are munching everything, including my red hot chilli pepper plant... I hope they burn their little slimy mouths!
Answering belatedly... Karen, I did not know that about alchemilla, though I had wondered why its name (when I could remember it) sounded so much like alchemist. Its water in my garden is not a bit pure, not with the wood-pigeons and sparrows thundering about, Makes you wonder about those alchemists' ideas of purity and not in a good way.
Katherine, they are British snails and like their curry!
Post a Comment