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We lost, by the way.

On penalties.

Yet again.

Not that the uninspiring and pedestrian England team really deserved to make the semi-finals after that performance.

Two years until World Cup 2014 ...

In the meantime, since we need a laugh, and further to my obsession with foxes, I am sharing this gem with you.

Here We Go.

I am what you might call more than a football fan, more of a football fanatic when it comes to England.

So, as we have a Quarter Final against Italy tonight, I'd just like to say (and please, say it with me):

COME ON ENGLAND.

Let's go, boys.  Get us into the semi-finals.

Foxy Loxy

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with foxes, or why I love it so much when they come in my garden.



There he was, one recent morning, which had me running for the camera and snapping away as he examined the lawn.



He seemed to be finding something to eat. What that might be, I do not know.



Isn't he just gorgeous?



At this point Ginger must have been wondering what I was clicking away at, so went out to investigate. Didn't bother either of them much, really.



Except when Ginger decided to relieve himself, which piqued Foxy's interest.



"Do you mind?  A little privacy here?"




Didn't last long. He settled back down for a nap.




Drama over.  What a beautiful creature.

Hurrah

One bright spot of good news, the hosepipe ban has been lifted.  It only took them two and a half months to do so, after "the wettest April in over 100 years", and forecasters predicting "the wettest June on record."  "Monsoon June", the papers are calling it (don't you love the British press), which is about right when you factor in the very high winds, and flooding.

So whilst it is good news that should we need it, there is no longer a ban in place, I for one don't foresee any need to actually get the hosepipe out, based on recent conditions and the upcoming forecasts.  Last I heard, this "unsettled" (The Met Office's favourite word lately) weather will continue into July.

Here's a cherry snippet for the weather in the next 30 days or so: 

"Periods of unsettled weather are likely to continue although these will be interspersed with drier and sunnier conditions. Temperatures are expected to start off a little below the seasonal average, but possibly recovering to nearer normal later in the period. Rainfall amounts are generally expected to be close to the seasonal average, but may end up above normal towards southern and eastern parts."

Oh dear, Wimbledon starts soon ... well, that's more rain guaranteed then!

Four Day Weekend

One day's work.

That's right, out of a potential four days of gardening, I managed to dodge the raindrops to get in a day's work.  That includes a visit to the garden centre to pick out some plants on Sunday (generally an awful day) and the luxury of little rain in the afternoon on Monday.  Even a tiny bit of sun peeked out.

Sigh.


So, off to Phoebe's Garden Centre on Sunday to purchase three tomato plants, two courgettes, and a cucumber.  Two lovely little Nemesias because I couldn't resist.  Sadly none of the easy-carry just-add-water compost I'm so fond of.  A 10-litre bag of compost which was all we could carry, not nearly enough to do anything with.

Monday was promised to be at least fair.  But first I needed to get more compost because the plan is to plant the tomatoes in these.

I discovered that the local Homebase had something like my easy-carry compost.  Sadly, it filled one of these.  It is made by Miracle Gro, so I'm sure it's good, but obviously not nearly enough (more is on order from the internet).  So at the moment, all three tomato plants are in a temporary home, in the one.

That's not all I managed to do.  The herb border was being overrun - by weeds only, so that is now cleared (note the Jasmine is still alive - shhhhhhhhhhhh)




Job number 2:  clear the recently "Ready" vegetable border of cat poop.  It seems the cats have decided that, apart from any other part of the garden, this particular border is now their litter box.  That was the second purchase from Homebase:  Growing Success Cat Repellent.

This is not of course to repel the cats entirely from the garden, but from this plot.  I could get all sorts of cat repellents; sonic repellents and such, which would eject the cats from the garden completely.  But since I have a cat, no, all I wanted to do was keep them off the border.

So I cleared the patch - again - of poop, hoed, raked, ready once more.

This is when the disturbing thing happened.  There is no photographic evidence of this, it all happened so fast.  I'm not sure if the sequence of events is related, but here goes.  Ginger squats in the newly once again prepared patch (but not yet sprinkled with cat repellent).  I shout "no", and pick him up mid-squat and place him in an acceptable place.  He does his thing.  Fine.  He vacates the garden through the hole in the trellis, and minutes later returns with something squeaking in his mouth.  I heard the (loud) squeak before he appeared.  "Oh crap, is it a bird?".  No, it was a mouse.  In his mouth.  He sat and looked for approval.  "I've brought you a present".  "Oh crap".  Poor mousie.

Must remember to remove mouse body before I cut the grass.  I'm ... honoured.  Horrified.  That's never happened before.  "Good kitty" I say.  After all, it's what cats do and who am I to interfere in the nature of things.

Yuck.  (For the record I have no problem with mice.  Only spiders).

Border, by the way, is now sprinkled with Cat Repellent, and I'm happy to report when I looked today there was no poop.  It smells strongly of garlic - key ingredient, it seems - and seems to have done the trick.  Hurrah.

Even with all the rain today.

I leave with you a picture of the lovely Nemesias, in situ.  Berries and Cream, and Raspberries and Cream.



Am trying not to be too fed up with this gardening lark.

Boo

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Ready.

But for what? The recurring question on my mind, and will be for the next 5 days. Vegetables of some kind. Courgettes? Cucumber?   Potatoes (too late?).  There is certainly a lot of room without tomatoes, which I think I have figured out a plan for, to put into action next weekend.  It requires a deal of compost, which is always an issue without a car.  I hope to find some of those compost blocks, just add water.

I'll just have to see what delectabilities my local garden centre has on offer when I visit on Saturday.

Ah, next weekend, four whole days of it. Plenty of time to get everything planted.

I was given some leftovers from the Bristol Affordable Art Fair - I never get to go, but it sure must have looked pretty with the wide assortment of flowers on offer.

On the other side, very exciting these lillies. There was only one last year, with one flower.  How wonderful all those buds!  I think perhaps when they bloom and fade, I may move them elsewhere, to make room for the desired shrubbery (will it fit?  Another burning question).

And the poppies are coming up nicely too.

The delphinium is blooming, but I may have to move that as well.  We shall see.

Did I show you my Ceanothus?  Yes?  Well, here it is again (did I mention my favourite colour is purple?).

Fabulous weather, fingers crossed it lasts .... very excited about next weekend!

Evening Sky

I love these evenings, when the sky doesn't darken until much later than I'm used to at this time of year.  We are much farther north than where I used to live, so the light is always much longer.  Until the turnaround at the Summer Solstice, the sky will be lighter and lighter, later and later.  That goes for the morning, too, lighter and lighter, earlier and earlier.

So here's a shot of the Cancer Moon.  New Moon just happened, an eclipse no less, on Sunday.  Not that you can see a New Moon, but now the edge of the Moon is creeping back into the sky.

Hey, I know someone with a Cancer Moon.  Cool.

Meet you at it.

Slowly, Slowly

This is perhaps the last day of inhospitable, unseasonal weather.  It's still cool out there, and so very slowly the flowers are coming out.

Here are some roses - finally!

Here are the Alliums and the bulb I can't remember the name of - they should actually be finished by now.

Not fully open yet in all their pom-pom glory.

However, we seem to be promised, this week, a taste of Spring.  Temperate, sunny, proper mid to late May weather.

Hurrah!

Time to think about that vegetable border, which hopefully with some careful planning and work next Saturday, will be planted on the long, lovely not just Bank Holiday but Jubilee Weekend following - 4 days off!  Thanks, your Majesty ...

We survived

My trusty electric lawn mower and I.

I would highly recommend that you never let the grass get this long before cutting it.

I should have done this a month ago, or even six weeks.  There were opportunities, here and there, as far back as late March/early April.  That's when we had the nicest weather of the year thus far.  But no, I must have thought, "it's okay, I can do it next weekend ..." and then "it's okay, I can do it when I get back from my trip."

Nope.  As I've probably whined about before, it has been an almost constant deluge of rain since my return, and apparently all the while I was away as well.  Making something like 5 weeks of pretty much steady rain and gloom.  Not in all my 23 years here have I encountered such a Spring.

Luckily, this last weekend was at last, bathed in sunshine.  And it was nice while it lasted, for all of two days.

Better.

The problem with leaving it so long, is that every two passes or so I needed to empty the basket.  I managed to deposit one lot in my already-quite-full compost bin, and the rest had to go into a bag for collection by the Council (I'm amazed I managed to fit it all in the one bag I had left).

Yes, I trod in some cat poop.  But for all the noises my gallant neighbours made, no one came forward to actually do the job.  So, yours truly did.

We're back to rain/occasional sun/much more rain.  Really, I've never seen the garden in such a state at this time of year.  That rose bush should be full of roses.  The alliums are only starting to open, along with the other flowers in the herb border.  Everything is at least a month late.

I shall stop saying, by way of consolation, "ah well, it's good for the garden."  It's not.  Plants need more than water, they need that other key ingredient - SUN.

And so does this girl.

This is a test

I am trying to see if I can write a post from my new "toy" (that would be an iPad). Keyboard takes a bit of getting used to and just for fun, let's try a photograph.

Not without a bit of bother and a (thankfully) free app. Now that I just spent an hour on google trying to solve the problem, next time it might be a little faster ...

So theoretically, yes, I can publish a post from my iPad.

Interesting ... (if you're a geek like me, I guess!)

Finally.

At long last.  I have done something out there.  Oh my, it needed it.

Weeding was top priority, even if when I started it was sprinkling a bit.  At least it was slightly warmer today, so I wouldn't need to keep going back into the house to keep warm.  Ugh, that right border!  What is all that?

I stepped in cat poop at least once, and did a "Carrie" at the outside tap.  Slightly less glam with the wellies instead of Laboutins (10 points to you if you can name the episode of Sex and the City that one comes from).

As an added bonus, the sun came out!  So I doffed my hoodie and felt the warm sun on my face.  A nice change from the freakily awful weather we've been having.

Filled two bags for the Council to collect and woo hoo!  I can see what's there, and what's not.

The Euphorbia, much as I love it, was completely taking over.

Much of had to go.

Now I can see how lovely my Ceanothus is (on the right) having tied up the climbing rose.  There are many Crocosmias coming up for summer, which was the idea last year.  And the Sweet William is back.

This now gives me an idea of space for those shrubs from the wish list.

Much as I wanted to carry on and cut the grass, I may take up the offer of the two gentlemenly neighbours, who want to do it.  Hey, knock yourself out, I say.  Just watch out for the cat poop.

It's a start!

Wish List

of easy care, perennial flowering shrubs for the left border:


Skimmia Japonica

but with these, you need both male and female variety in order to obtain fruit.  So that's two of these.

Glossy Abelia

This is a must.  It has THE most fragrant, fragrant flowers and blooms in the Autumn.  I pass it on my walk to work in the morning and it stopped me dead in my tracks because of the scent.

Camelia

Just ... because.  How can you go wrong?  A deep green plant covered with luscious blooms, throughout most of March.

That should fill out the border nicely, along with the existing Ceanothus and the Choisya, and of course the Roses.

My most fervent wish?  Some good weather so I can get out there and actually DO something!!



Weather Report

Nice.

Been like this since I returned.

Did someone say hosepipe ban?

Progress, but not by me

I'm still complaining about the fact that I have had so few weekends lately. I cannot complain, of course, about the previous two seeing as I was in the Midwest having a wonderful visit with friends and family, but this weekend, here again ...

Being at work today and halfway across London doesn't help of course, but neither does the weather. I see SO much that needs to be done - grass cut, weeding, pulling up the gnarled old rosemary ... the list, as it usually does in the Spring, goes on and on.

However, in terms of landscaping, someone (HWMBO) has been hard at work. Nothing like the threat of new neighbours (within our four-flat building) to spur him on. What was this hideous overgrown back part, which I hoped someday would be a nice gravel patio for all, is less so. Much less so.

I should say this is about ready to lay the ground cover and the gravel! It has been agreed amongst all and so this particular piece of beautification seems imminent.

Result! I even missed the pleasure of moving the compost bin 6 feet over! Although I'm told there is some good, rich stuff in there. I wish I knew where I was going to use it, without a large tomato patch this year. Hmmmm.


So hopefully, the next several weekends, I can get out and do my stuff. It will be May soon, after all - we've had our share of April showers, so here's to some lovely weekends of gardening, and most fun of all, planting!

Virgin Territory

At last. Almost a year later, I was able to plant in this lovely little space. Twelve foot wide, and at the deepest, seven foot down. A small but perfectly formed space which is my parents' new garden. Nothing too arduous or time consuming to look after, perennials the lot of them, to come back and bring joy year after year. My first new garden creation in a long time.

So, off to the garden centre in nearby Palatine, Knupper's Nursery. I highly recommend it if you are in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. Fantastic selection of plants.

This site gets some morning sun, and for the rest of the day is in shade, and so needed some shade lovers. I had recommendations; Sweet Woodruff, Columbine. And that's what I went for.

Plus! An Iris, at my father's request. Two Heuchera's, Obsidian (the purple one) and Stoplight Foamy Bells (a lovely green with red accents). A Phlox for the scent. Lady's Mantle, just because (I seem to be repeating the English theme here!). One bunch of Dianthus, again for the scent and the absolute darlingness of them. These are close to the house just in case they can catch the scent when they open the window.

Bugle, Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow'.

My mother picked that out, and a good choice too, as it will spread and be a lovely carpet in that section. That's the one on the right.

First we placed everything out to get the correct layout. Low in the front, higher at the back. That's the fun part.

And then, we began. I couldn't have done this without my little helper.

We started at the left, with the Christmas Rose, the hellebore. We moved across and planted, plant by plant.

And after a while, it was done.

My dear girl, who turned to me at one point and said, "I love gardening" (ah, how wonderful to pass that on), I can trust to look after it whilst I am away.

Some happy customers here. My parents were over the moon. I can't wait to see the progress!