November Musing - 'An Easeful Approach To Autumn'

"Apart from those fronds prickling my conscience to do something about them , I ignore the words 'Tidying Up The Garden before Winter', with their nauseatingly prissy undertones . My ears are covered. I know that's what we should be doing in autumn: we should be clearing up the garden and leaving it ship-shape, with as much efficiency as some people clean the house , or their motor- cars on Sunday. 'Do it before winter', we are cautioned .....

Here, with my ideals turned towards easeful loving, there's a kinder climate and somehow find I don't bother until spring. And then it's too late to be a serious undertaking. Anyone can change their attitude of mind; if gazing out of the window in November, you think the place looks a shambles, comfort yourself with the knowledge that those untidy seedheads will look unbelievably miraculous outlined in rime. The sedums, lady's mantle, rose heps, twigs, stalks and stems - all the shabby eaves and the skeletons of radiant blooms left over from last summer - when outlined by frost will transform your habitual setting into somewhere unfamiliar. You will feel that you have never walked there before. Why not try it? Don't confirm to this tidying up business, but move into the territory of slothfulness. Inertia and a laid-back philosophy do have their moments. And this is one of them. From a home for shamefully neglected debris your garden will one day in winter be turned into a place of beauty, a place that is denied your neighbour, with his clean earth full of clumps of shorn stubble."

Extract 'From A Breath From Elsewhere' by Mirabel Osler.

Illustation - 'Autumn Garden, Norfolk' by Angie Lewin.

'Slightly Wordy Wednesday ~ 'You're Out Of Time'

 

Weird goings on in the garden - this inula is shining again after flowering profusely in the summer. At the same time there are also snowdrops in bloom as well as winter flowering jasmine. In the words of Messrs. Jagger and Richards "You're Out Of Time" and it's most disconcerting.

IAVOM ~ 'Three Is A Magic Number'

 

A tiny tiny vase this week to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the most special institution that is 'In A Vase On Monday'. Just the three occupants this week :

• A flower from 'Bathsheba' one of its last few roses and sadly slightly bedraggled. The only rose that is still showing roses in any significant number is the climber 'Blush Noisette', but they are all too high up to reach.
• A stem from the perennial achillea - 'Summer Berries' grown from seed in the autumn of 2020.
• Finally a stem from a small evergreen shrub which is planted in a container in the area in front of the house. It was a purchase from a  local garden centre. True to form the label has gone absent without leave and I can't remember the name. I'm hoping that somebody might know.

The vase is an Etsy purchase and is an old ink bottle.

I'm using the same post title as I used to celebrate the third anniversary of IAVOM and indeed in you multiply 3 by 3 what do you get but 9! 

I will have to go back into the archives to see when I first posted a vase but it was a good few years ago.  Its very existence is a most comforting and reassuring start to the week and for a couple of years or kept my blog afloat. I always look forward to seeing what is everyone's vases and always have pen and paper to hands. None of this would be possible without the love and devotion shown by Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who who came up with the idea of IAVOM and who has nurtured it like she might well do one of her favourite roses or witch hazels. A huge thank you Cathy and sending you a virtual bouquet 💐 Thank also to all the participants over the years. It was magical to put faces to names yesterday afternoon when there was a virtual get together to celebrate this special ninth anniversary.

IAVOM ~ Variation On A Theme

 

This time my start of the week vase is a variation on a theme, or should I say a continuation of last Monday's resurrection theme. By the way I forgot to say in that post is that our resurrection special often tastes better than the original Sunday roast dinner! Anyway two of last week's vase occupants survived perhaps because the vase remained in the cooler temperatures of the greenhouse. It was dropping little bits of white and pink in its wake so I thought that it would stay put. Some of the flowers stems in fact departed earlier in the week.

Still going strong though were a spray of the graceful hardy annual ammi visnaga as well as a couple of flowers of rudbeckia 'Sahara'. This rudbeckia is a mix of different colours and although this shade  isn't my favourite it is more than welcome at this time of year.

Joining them also with a swap of vase, are two picked in the November gloom and dampness newcomers. The first is a stem of a rather dog-eared geranium 'Rozanne', which is an outstanding hardy perennial hardy geranium. If only it had scent it would be perfect! I think that vase life will be short but will be keeping an eye out to see what happens. Hiding her head bashfully is a stem of the climbing rosa 'Bathsheba' which you can see more clearly in the photo below. 

The temperatures have most decidedly started to dip and not only have we had much more in the way of rain we had our first frost of the winter. It was a light frost but that combined with all the wet will see me clearing up the remaining soggy annuals and dahlia foliage in the next few days. The last green waste collection of the year is next Monday so I want to make sure I fill that bin to the brim. Collection resumes towards the end of February.

I see that our lovely host Cathy who blogs over at 'Rambling In The Garden' is making some special plans to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the inspiring and friendly weekly happening that is 'In A Vase On Monday'. I'm really looking forward to joining in and to meeting some of my blogging friends. Hope to see you there!

IAVOM ~ Resurrection Special

 

We don't often have traditional Sunday roast dinners these days but when we do there is usually enough left over meat and vegetables to concoct what is known in this household as a resurrection special on the Monday. Todays vase is a such a resurrection special existing of some flowers from my last vase as well as some new additions.

Out have gone one dahlia 'Copperboy' (only to be replaced by another stem of the same), dahlia 'Matilda' and cosmos 'White Purity'. The persicaria and ammi visnaga have remained but now have a limited vase occupancy as both are messily shedding. The newcomers are a couple of stems of the half hardy annual panicum 'Sparkling Fountain' and a couple of stems from the shrub symphoricarpos or snowberry. The white berries are now morphing into a delicious pink shade. The latter is one of the banes of my life so the least said about it the better. Joining them are also a couple of flowers of rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara, one of my favourites. These have not performed as well as usual maybe not enjoying the drier summer. I must admit that apart from watering them after they were planted for a month or so I wasn't diligent enough with the watering can. 

With a nod to Halloween three little ceramic pumpkins have gathered for a convention. The vase in the shape of an old pickle jar is also is the same as last week. Apologies for the slightly blurry and tipsy photo - it was windy and I was in a hurry to get a photo before the light faded yesterday. The earlier descent of darkness takes some adjusting to!

Thanks as always to the lovely Cathy who blogs over at  'Rambling In The Garden' for her steadfast hosting each week. This week she is trying to spook us all with a most seasonal vase. Do have a peek if you dare! Happy Halloween.

IAVOM ~ Matilda & Friends

 

This week's flowers for 'In A Vase On Monday' were uncomfortably soggy when picked this morning, after yet another prolonged deluge yesterday. At least we escaped the dramatic thunderstorms that affected other parts of the country. I may well return to the vase before it gets dark when it has dripped dried for a while and have a bit of a faff as I crammed too much in. Most of the flowers have featured in vases this year such as ammi visnaga, a nameless still going strong persicaria as well as dahlia 'Copper Boy'. There is also a stem of geum 'Totally Tangerine' from which I was able to pick a stem for a vase on 22nd March! The folaige doesn't do it for me but for staying power it's a star looking good in the company of thalictrum and polemonium in the spring, red astrantias and a hardy geranium in the summer and dahlias come autumn.

Two flowers that haven't been in vases this year are firstly the white cosmos 'Purity'. I didn't sow this favourite in the spring but a seedling appeared in the paving close to where it grew last year. I was amazed to see it sprouting so left it to its own devices and it has gone on to flower. There is also a new to me this year dahlia 'Waltzing Matilda', which was grown in a large pot alongside annual purple swan river daisies. I would like to say that Matilda waltzed all summer long but sadly she stuttered and limped her way through producing odd flowers at intermittent intervals. The flowers themselves though are large and most appealing. I have read much in the way of praise of 'Matilda' both in print and online so will persist. I will be removing her from the pot soon, will overwinter the tuber and will try her in a different spot in the ground next year. Has anybody else grown 'Matilda' this year? Would love to know what you thought of her if you did.

Thanks to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for providing us with the opportunity to share vases every week. Here we have a week of more above average temperatures predicted and some dry weather on the cards. Greenhouse sorting and cleaning is on the cards in readiness for sowing next spring. Hope that you all have a good week ahead.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 'Wonderwall'

IAVOM ~ Of Honeysuckle, Conkers and A Treasure Trove.

 

Just one floral offering in today's Monday vase in the shape of single stem of leycesteria formosa, also known by the common names of Himalayan honeysuckle or pheasant berry. It's quite plain for most of the year but lights up in autumn with its dangling claret flowers tipped with white. It is an easy going shrub which just gets on with things and is recommended for shady gardens and woodland areas. This is a seedling child of my original plant. As well as the berries self-seeding it can be propagated by softwood cuttings. At the base of the vase a few conkers that have recently fallen from the horse chestnut at the top of the lane and were quickly picked up to thwart any squirrels with devious ideas.

The vase is new and an unexpected purchase. Plans for himself to drop me directly outside the hairdresser's salon in Chester for a recent appointment were quickly changed when my hairdresser texted me before 8.00am on the day of my appointment. He imparted the information to say that the road where the salon is was going to be closed to traffic for a few hours because a military parade was taking place later that morning. We decided to park at a Park & Ride facility and then make our way in.  I had my hair cut, himself saw the parade and then we made our way back to the car but firstly a pit stop. Not far from the hairdressers is a florist which sells huge houseplants at eye-watering prices but I had espied a display of glass vases in the window at affordable to me prices. I persuaded himself to let me have a quick browse in the shop on our return to the catch a bus and emerged clutching a couple of green glass vases. I discovered that there was a small room at the back of the shop crammed with a rainbow of vases of all sorts of shapes and sizes. A veritable treasure trove. I will be returning! 

As always thanks to our Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for her stalwart hosting every Monday which is much appreciated by fellow bloggers. 

October Musing - Fall

"This is the time of year where everything drops into the earth. In the spring there is an upward movement all around one, with a lift in plants and trees. Now it is the time of weight, when seed pod and berry, fruit and leaf fall and return to the earth. It is truly the fall, a lovelier word for this season than autumn. The horse chestnut has cast down its shining fruit, warm of colour as it breaks from its tight fitting, kid-lined case case, on the soggy ground all around lie these lumpy, horned shells. The winds blow down pears and we find them, yellow and brown surrounding the trees at their base .....

How it rains these days . In the grass by the hedges, large shiny slugs appear, black as liquorice and beautiful of shape as they stretch themselves out. They heave like ships on a rough sea in their passage across the grasses. The garden is sodden and the trees drip, their autumn colours deepened and burnished. But roses and violas still bloom, and carnations are in bursting bust. Michaelmas daisies are untouched by frost, and the cosmos still shows pink among its seedling heads. We gather bowls of bright-coloured flowers for the house .....

Autumn is not the sad time it is supposed to be. Darkness falls at five o'clock and the garden is cold and wet, but it is a season of planning and expectation. It is now that we plant our bulbs, in itself an act of faith. How then can autumn be called dull and hopeless? Even the fallen leaf is food for future years of foliage and fruit, and promises next summer an added colour to the flowers."

Extracts from the October chapter of 'Four Hedges' by Clare Leighton. 

Illustration. of 'The Acorn Fairy' by Cicely Mary Barker.

Himself and I visited a local pharmacy a fortnight ago for the first of two seasonal vaccinations. We parked just outside where on getting out we noticed that the ground was littered with fallen acorns. We both hoped that nobody had parked nearer to the tree otherwise they and their vehicle might have been in danger. 

Earlier today I was delighted to discover that some of the Flower Fairy paintings by Cicely Mary Barker will be exhibited at a local art gallery next year! I'm looking forward to seeing the fairies in the flesh.

IAVOM ~ 'Metal Guru'

 

Just dahlias in this week's 'In A Vase On Monday'. They are 'Copper Boy' which has been full of flowers since summer. There are still a good number in bud which I'm keeping my fingers crossed will win the race to flower before the first frosts. They have long stems, last well once cut but the one fault seems to be that the long stems flop rather drunkenly and snap off in heavy rain and wind. We have had a lot of inclement weather recently including last night and this morning so I cut these flowers yesterday before they came casualities. I made the mistake of bringing them into the kitchen to put into the vase only to then have to pursue three earwigs along the worktop. I will have to remember not to do that again! A change from the usual perch for Monday vases. I noticed that himself had left a terracotta pot which contained one of this year's tomato plants out to drain, after he considerately started to wash them out them out for me. I'm not sure why he stopped after one pot and will have to investigate.

The vase which has appeared here before is an Emma Bridgewater product and was purchased a few years ago via eBay. 

Thanks as always to our steadfast hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' who has featured some lovely autumn joy in her vase this week.