Wordless Wednesday ~ Market Day

In A Vase On Monday ~ "Sunshine On A Rainy Day"

It looked as if there might not be a vase on a Monday today as it poured down most of the morning, whilst an essential shopping trip reared its ugly head in the afternoon. There was just time though earlier this evening before cooking our evening meal to snip my very first ever chrysanthemum. I've never grown them before - I'm not sure why, but they are hopefully going to provide some welcome autumn colour. I bought a set of plug plants from Sarah Raven earlier in the year, which contained two plants of five varieties. This is 'Orange Allouise' which is certainly providing a ray of warmth and sunshine today. There are doubts in my mind as to whether all the plants are going to flower as there are still no signs of flower buds on some but I've been telling myself that they've got perhaps until November to party. I'm off to make a welcome brew now, before sitting down to some vase gazing and gawping, thanks as always to our lovely hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling in The Garden'.

In A Vase On Monday ~ The Chicken Or The Egg?

In this instance the chicken came along first well before the egg. The chicken was liberated from a local charity shop sometime in the previous century and usually guards the entrance to the greenhouse. I suppose that strictly speaking he's a cockerel and also that I should treat him more kindly than I do. He remains outside all year round so he must get rather chilly at times and his feathers are getting quite thin in places.

The egg 'vase' only arrived this year. I can't take credit for the idea, which I came across somewhere when I was surfing the web on one of those serendipitous journeys that come from out of nowhere. I decided there and then to have a go. Several soft boiled eggs and toasted soldiers breakfasts followed, before I had an eggshell that was intact enough to find a home for this project. I think that I may be cheating a little this week as my 'vase' does have a teaspoon or so of compost in it and it is planted. I'm not sure what Cathy will have to say on the matter.

Put together in late spring and sitting outside since, both the vase and eggshell now show signs of being exposed to the elements. I'm not sure what will happen overwinter but will find out. However I suppose that this could happily live indoors just as well as outdoors. I have plans to make more as well as one or two ideas for seasonal variations, especially for Easter time, in the pipeline.

Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her idea of getting each week off to such an eggcellent start and providing us with the means of sharing our vases.

September Musing

"The sun that shines through the mauve, check - patterned petals of the autumn crocuses on the front lawn ripens our tomatoes. This is the pride of our year. To have grown a row of tomato plants in the open, one with forty -eight fruit tumbling heavily down on it, and the rest with nearly as many! They are beautiful in their dripping clusters, with their musty acrid smell. It will be a race now between the September sun ripening them and the autumn frosts smiting them. Already I take off those fruits that have turned a dull yellow, that they may redden in the sheltered sun in our windows. It's so difficult to find the dividing line in one's garden between utility and beauty. If things are eatable they are supposed to be only useful, if they are flowers they must be needs be merely decorative. But our tomatoes are lovelier than most flowers and and if we only have to tell the truth we must say that we only grow vegetable marrows and scarlet runners for the beauty of their blooms. To eat they are dull, but to look at they are disturbingly lovely. On the other hand beautiful though sunflowers are, I doubt if we should always aim at having them in our garden if it were not to provide, with their ripened seeds, an autumn delicacy for the tits".

~ an extract from 'Four Hedges' by Clare Leighton.

Tree Following With Lucy ~ September 2015.

Hopes of a bumper pear crop this year have long since disappeared! The last bulletin on my chosen tree for Tree Following With Lucy was back in June, when the tale was related of drastic June drop and the arrival of the disfiguring pear midge. We were away in July hence no update and I'm not sure sure what happened to August's post. Now in September the sorry saga has continued. The remaining grand total of all of six pears seem to have hung in a state of suspended animation all summer. The fruits are just not swelling and it's not as if it's been a dry summer in these parts. Not only that but to add insult to injury the leaves of the tree have now been afflicted by pear rust. Not wanting to hurt my tree's feelings further I decided that the tree paparazzi would steer clear of it this month. Instead the above photo is of its neighbour rescued from a bargain bin and planted only a few feet away. It has been affected by pear rust as well but not as badly - you can see the orange marks on the leaves. I need to remove these leaves as a matter of urgency. However on the plus side the fruit is expanding and there are more than six - well nine of them to be precise. Thanks as always to Lucy over at 'Loose and Leafy', who provides us with the opportunity to peek at trees of all shapes and sizes each month. Thoughts of putting my tree up for adoption are flitting through my mind - any takers?