Plastic water lilies take on another dimension under ice .....
A day late with my weekly diary this time but not much to tell.
A combination of some real winter weather and my stiff neck/shoulder has put pay to any garden activities, other than the armchair sort. However my seed box has now been spring cleaned in readiness for the new season. One or two gaps were identified so I will be doing some online ordering this week.
In the virtual garden I had great fun holding a dinner party for some special guests. Mistress of ceremonies was VP who came up with this most imaginative suggestion of making this time of year more enjoyable.
I have learned a most delicious new word 'farch' (word used to cover the period from February to March). I have added some new to me gardeners and garden authors to investigate. I have also been amazed by other people's writing, great artwork and collages. So a big thanks to VP for brightening up the February doldrums.
Another ray of sunshine came with my copy of the 2009 'TheYellow Book' which seems to my mind to come out earlier each year. A full scrutiny of the book remains but we have already penned in a visit to Pear Tree Cottage in Cumbria. We were on our way there a couple of years ago when sadly torrential rain stopped play.
Whilst out on a shopping trip for household stuff I was excited to discover a bundle of willow twigs at a reasonable price.These are now outside waiting for me to get the creative urge. My first experiment will be a creation to support clematis 'Petit Faucon' which resides in a big pot outside our front door. She has had a makeshift support for the last couple of years so deserves something better to do her justice. Despite this cold weather there are already signs of green buds. There will be enough left over to make some structures to be used at the allotment so watch this space !
Postscript :
Saturday 7th February - sunrise: 07.29, sunset:17.02.
Saturday 14th February - sunrise :07:16, sunset:17.14.
I think we are all poised to start gardening now. It's a pity the weather is holding us back. I'm feeling a little stir crazy (lol)
ReplyDeletePlastic water lilies? And real ice! It's been quite warm over the weekend, well above freezing, and a lot has melted. It's been so frightfully cold and now it's warm. It's supposed to get to 60F later this week! But it'll certainly snow again and overnight temps drop well below freezing. Um, and that's the weather report here in southeast Michigan. :)
ReplyDeletePlastic water lilies - fab! I havent got my yellow book yet - I must be at the bottom of the pile being a new subscriber. A gardening friend of mine is opening hers in September so I will be busy helping her prepare
ReplyDeleteI hope you post up your willow structures.
ReplyDeleteRob
Well it is good they are plastic or they had been dead.
ReplyDeleteI had never had pumcin soup - it is a tradtion from You - now we have Halloween but not when I was a girl.
Thank you for stopping by my blogg and I am glad that you liked my photos,
Maria Berg
Hi Anna, I keep looking through your blog to not only get to know you, but to figure out if I have been here before, and I'm thinking not. Not sure why not as you have a very nice blog.
ReplyDeleteWe have been hearing of the big freeze and all that snow you have received. It must be nice! A change at least!
I just love your snowdrops. They go well with the snow and I don't have them so I really admire them on the blogs. Have a great night.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI've already shared your new word with three of my gardening friends as we're stuck in "farch" land with rain, ice, dirty snow and no end in sight. Thanks for passing this along to us that enjoy expanding our vocabularies!
A bit off topic, but I wondered which Roses you ordered from Peter Beales?
ReplyDeleteRob
Hi Anna, What is the Yellow book ? Your dinner party guest's sounded very interesting by the way.
ReplyDeleteDid you get my e-mail with my address for the seeds ? as when I tried to add it to my contacts in Yahoo Mail it said it wasn't a valid e-mail address, so never knew if you got it or not.
Maureen
I know the feeling Easygardener but I do declare it's definitely warming up :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about your weather Monica - it seems a case of one step forward and two back or is it the other way round ? You will know what I mean :)
I hope that you have got your Yellow Book by now Patientgardener. I like dipping into it on these dark nights even though I will only get into a handful of the gardens :) Have fun helping your friend with the preparations for her open garden in September. It sounds a long way off but will soon come round !
Hello Rob and welcome. Thanks for your comments. I have sent you a message via Blotanical but the roses are Felicite Parmentier and Blush Noisette. I will try to post a photo of my willow structures if they work out :)
Welcome Mariaberg and thanks for your comment. Your remark about the plastic waterlillies made me chuckle. Pumpkin soup is truly delicious :)
Hi Tina and welcome. We have met before but I think that you have worked that out now :) Not a lot of snow in my part of the country - well nothing to get excited about anyway :( It always causes such chaos over here - I am sure that other nations must laugh at us !
Thanks Ann - I am glad you liked the word - I think that it's most splendid.
Maureen - I will email you with information about the Yellow Book :)