Summer Photographic Scavenger Hunt 2018

This year's hunt is organised by  Mary-Lou of Patio Postcards, you can find the link here.

3. A Framed View

One of the houses at Wimborne Model Town, as seen through the gardens.

4. Wings

A recent visit to The Museum of Army Flying

6. Glorious Green

Badbury Rings on a glorious summers day

9. Looks smaller than you

Another view from Wimborne Model Town

16. Something that could be from a Favourite Book/Movie

This reminded me of Mary Poppins, but I think it could also perhaps be ET

14. A Trilogy of Three (in UK a trilogy is usually understood to be a series of three books or movies, so this doesn't really count, but I love that the photo makes these alpacas look more like a three-headed monster - if you squint and forget to count the legs)

Garden update

. . . a bit later than planned. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago, just a week or so into the recent long, hot spell, then forgot about them while busy doing other things.

The very unlawny area of grass at the back is cracking up due to lack of moisture

but both the sunflowers and the figs are really enjoying the heat

the crocosmias - my very favourite flowers - are about to burst open

I've already picked a few helpings of runner beans

lots of tomatoes formed

a pot of hollyhock plants, which really should have been planted out by now

I've taken some cuttings from the fig tree, but not sure that they'll survive the intense heat

the little rose plants that JO gave me for my birthday continue to flower

my little pot of strawberry plants, which have been grown from seed

a couple of giant pots that have been planted up to sit outside the french windows

GM fixed some trellis to a small area of wall by the front door, and I managed to pick up a couple of reduced price clematis to plant there, one of them is already in flower

and the hydrangeas are looking quite magnificent.

Lastly (and by no means least) my friend Jean gave me a plant as a belated birthday present, which is still in the pot, but, if you look closely, it's actually two plants, one with plain leaves and one with variagated leaves - you purchased a bargain Jean, two for the price of one, so thank you again. They are still in the pot as I'm really not sure where to put them just yet.

Summer Photographic Scavenger Hunt

The list for this year is supplied by Mary-Lou and can be found here

My finds for June

1. The rolliness of red (poetic license)

2. Stripes, 5. Pedal Power, and 11. Pretty in pink, all in one shot.

 7. An unexpected reflection, in my car window

15. Out of the Blue - a rather ethereal aeroplane?

Alternative B. A coupon to use

The early summer garden

I've spent a lovely restful couple of hours this morning just pottering, tidying and generally absorbing nature, so here is an update on the back garden.

JO recently gave me these roses for my birthday, so they are now on display, along with a rescued fuchsia, just outside the kitchen so I can see them while I'm doing chores.

I purchased a few "reduced" packs of plants for these two pots, also sitting just outside the kitchen - these will look quite splendid in a month or so.

Sunflowers grown from seed. It is my intention to enter these in the "tallest sunflower on Augusta Park" competition later this summer, must remember to keep on feeding them and to keep GD5 well away!

I tidied up this pot and, never having been quite sure if this is a clematis or not, I was delighted to find this flower, which more or less gives the game away. I inherited this pot when I moved into the last house in Warminster 6 years ago, and this is the first year it has flowered, so it must be happy to have been moved to Andover.

Runner bean plants coming on strong . . .

. . . as are tomato plants.

Fig tree looking well loaded, Nigella in full bloom and crocosmia growing strongly.

Please come back next month for another update.

Nigella

. . . or love-in-a-mist, will be blooming soon

Not much happening

Another cold, wet snap and very little progress to report, apart from a few figs and some forget-me-nots.

A little bit of progress

In between the showers, which made the ground too heavy to work with, and the recent hot spell which dried the soil into a concrete-like state, some progress has been achieved.

Firstly the developers sent in their landscapers who tidied up and made significant improvements to the area at the front of our house. The photo doesn't do it justice, but in a month or so when everything is in full leaf, I'll take another.

These hydrangeas are in the wrong place

and this border on the boundary is just a mess

so the intention is to widen the border, remove these scrubby plants which, it seems, have no intention of growing, and move the hydrangeas across. Hydrangeas don't like being moved, so the process will be undertaken by moving one at a time and leaving it until it's firmly established before moving the next one. I think this, the first, is fairly well established now, having been well and truly watered in both by me and by the rain gods.

At the back, the first of the runner beans have been planted out

and more are ready to join them.

The clematis is also now in its permanent position close to the back fence - a trellis will be erected for it to climb up. (The rather droopy leaves next to it belong to a hollyhock which is slowly recovering from the shock of being planted out).

This, the far right hand corner, which I worked on briefly last year, is looking good. The fig tree is greening up nicely although you can't actually see much of it, the soldiers and sailors are in full bloom, self-seeded love-in-the-mist (nigella) is growing strongly and my little fairy at the bottom of the garden sits proudly in her spot and lights up after dark.

And lastly, a late flowering narcissus to brighten your day.