A touch of Paradise

Forest Pansy

I guess we all take the everyday for granted - our lives, family, friends, even gardens - and it is only when something or someone jolts us out of the routine of our regular daily existence that we begin objectively to really see and  become aware of what is actually around us.


This was brought home to me last week when I was frantically trying to finish off filling tubs with bedding plants and had to pause when a young boy's face appeared round the  trellis to ask if he could search for his football which had flown over the dividing  fence. Grandfather then appeared and, as we walked down the lawn, he looked around in astonishment and remarked

'This is a touch of Paradise'.


' ...We sat in the garden indolently reading. L not sitting but gardening. We had the best display of flowers yet seen - wallflowers in profusion, columbines, phlox etc

Columbines

and as we went huge scarlet poppies with purple stains on them. The peonies even about to burst.  There was a nest of blackbirds against the wall. Last night at Charleston I lay with my window open listening to a nightingale, which beginning in the distance came  very near the garden. Fishes splashed in the pond.
May in England is all they say - so teeming, amorous and creative.'
                                                        Virginia Woolf     Diary 28th May 1918

Bluebell time

Just a reminder that the  bluebells are out in  all their glory this month and one of the best places to see them is in the woods on Hollingside Lane, opposite the entrance to Durham University's Botanic Gardens. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them and you don't have to walk far into the wood before they appear. Just pop through the small entrance gate and there they are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluebells and ferns - good companions

Just a reminder that if you are looking for perennials to fill your garden  borders, then do go to the Botanic Garden's annual plant sale this coming Sunday, 11th May.  from 10.00am. There are some real bargains to be had and the coffee shop is open.

See you there.

April so it must be Harrogate Spring Show

Mixed weather this weekend for Bishop Auckland's Food Festival but, I'm delighted to report, that Thursday was glorious down at Harrogate for the Spring Show. Dressed suitably for the projected rain, by lunchtime we were stripped off down to t-shirts and basking in welcome sunshine as we ate our toasted sandwiches and watched the gardening world go by.

Veggie owl

 (The only disappointing part of the whole day was the dearth of vegetarian food. Vans selling veggie and nut burgers no longer make an appearance and we are resigned to the ubiquitous cheese sandwich- with or without onions. Organisers please note!)

The Flower Hall did not disappoint and despite avowing I wouldn't buy any plants before the Botanic Garden Plant Sale on Sunday 11th May, I succumbed. I even went back to purchase a clematis I'd had my eye on only to find I was too late, they'd sold out on the first day. A lesson for us all in not procrastinating. Even so, I was happy with my purchases - an unusual lavender and a delighful  woodland plant I'd not seen before, together with an assortment of summer-flowering bulbs for pots.

I was also tempted by a tree nymph-like piece of driftwood which will form part of the stumpery I'm hoping to erect - if the Prince of Wales can have one then so can Gillian Wales.

Euphorbia and flowering currant

In Pablo's Garden there's still lots to do -  annual tidying of the borders is still not finished - but I did manage to place stakes ready to tie in leggy perennials. The trees have finally had a trim back and part of the high fence which decided to lie down and die has  been resurrected. Both were large tasks that de-motivated me from gardening proper but now I'm full of enthusiasm and raring to go. Both the quince tree and the apricot which should have been a medlar have flowered so fingers crossed for a fruitful summer.


 I just need the sun to shine.

Even greater generosity

A Daffodil update

View from the french windows

Back to Marie Curie and just to let everyone know that in addition to the magnificent £3,500 donated in local supermarkets in March, we have also received the terrific sum of £1,800 collected from daffodil boxes placed in local shops, pubs, hairdressers etc etc in the area.

A huge Thank You

The entrance to Pablo's Garden which you can visit on Sunday 6th July under the National Gardens Scheme

March is for Marie Curie daffodils

Daffodils  at Durham's Botanic Gardens

'Daffodils grew among the mossy stones on which some rested their heads as on a pillow, the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay..'
                                                                                        Dorothy Wordsworth

The glory of the daffodil cannot be underestimated.

Neither can the work and dedication of Marie Curie nurses  who provide end of life care for those who need it. March is Marie Curie's major fund raising month and the Marie Curie daffodil has become associated in the public's mind with Marie Curie Cancer Care almost as much as the poppy is with Remembrance Sunday.

Promenading in Saltburn - complete with daffodils!

I am proud and delighted that the recently-formed Bishop Auckland Marie Curie Fund Raising Group have raised £3,500 from collections at local supermarkets during the month of March. This will buy 175 hours of nursing care for the people of Bishop Auckland as all money raised locally goes back into the local community.

Thank you all

Calling all angels

Every blade of grass has its Angel

That bends over it and whispers ‘Grow, grow’  

                                          The Talmud

Step inside the crocus

The lawn has had its first cut of the year and already begins to take pride in its appearance, despite still needing to have its edges trimmed and sharpened.

There is such a lot of tidying of the borders needing desperately to be done. Already the first garden bin is full to over-flowing. My back aches just thinking about it.

Narcissi

 Friend Elaine has delivered a margarine carton full of frog spawn and the blue tits have discovered the nesting box nearest the kitchen window.

The intermingled smells from the flowering daphne and winter honeysuckle combine naturally to rival the best that Jo Malone could ever produce – and all for free.

It is such a glorious time of the year - full of so much promise.

The days are lengthening and the catkins are alive to the sound of early birdsong as I know to my cost, being woken to the sound of them leaping from wardrobe to wardrobe before 6 a.m. each morning!

When in these fresh mornings I go into my garden before anyone is awake, I go for the time being into perfect  happiness. In this hour divinely fresh and still, the fair face of every flower salutes me with silent joy that fills me with infinite content, each gives me its colour, its grace, its perfume and enriches me with the consummation of its beauty.

                          Celia Thaxter An Island Garden 1894 

The glory of neighbour Robert's Van Gogh-like tree full of blossom

 

A Woman's Hardy Garden

 For female gardeners on 
International Women's Day

I always think of my sins when I weed.
They grow apace in the same way
and are harder still to get rid of.
                                                   Helena Rutherford Ely
                                                    A Woman's Hardy Garden 1903

Pablo's Garden