Your Rose Garden

I beg your pardon!  I did promise you a Rose Garden.
Along with the sunshine.  But maybe just a little rain sometime.


So, I do beg your pardon but I did promise you a rose garden, during my post about my recent visit to Nymans.  You must remember!


Here you have roses, plenty of.  Especially for you, my dear reader, because you're worth it! 



I think this is Constance Spry.

And this one's scent was so spicy, so heavenly.

Another is called James Galloway.  But which?

The perfume of roses hit me as I walked through the arch into the rose garden.

We seemed to have just missed their best time.

There was much dead heading that needed doing.  

I'll be honest, I was tempted to start the de-heading myself ...

but The Photographer stopped me; instead I carefully took shots away from the dead-heads.

I think I got away with it.

My garden roses look nothing like these blousy babes.  

Are you good with roses?  Do you have greenfingers?

A la perchoine.

Great Dixter

Great Dixter. 

An amazing place.  So amazing that I am going to let the pictures and this link do the talking.  Mostly. 

Just want to say that it's in East Sussex, north of Rye.  If you are in the area, please do pay it a visit.

The rambling gardens are a wonderful blend of wild and cultivated flowers, thoughtfully planted together.  The eye is treated to new and magnificent sights with each twist of the head, with each turn of the corner.

I am a sucker for outbuildings and these did not disappoint either.  The house is pretty lovely too.

You will not believe that these are just a few of the many photos I took on the day.  They are a chatterbox of photos - I think that's the collective noun for a group of photos that do all the talking.

I have a little garden-crush going on right now ...

This dress was pretty perfect for the day, it kept me nicely cool.  It's a bit of anomaly (in my mind) that a long dress is cooler in summer.  But it is.  The dress is shown in more detail here.

Don't me and the house look good together :-) ?



Neat vegetable patches.



I loved these.

I loved the colour mixes.

I loved the big pots.  Got my drift yet? I loved it all!

Taking a breather on a hot summer's day.

Shade!

Bumpy old rooflines.  How do these stay up?!

Aged woodwork abounds.

Families can picnic, here against an oasthouse backdrop

or you can follow my lazy girl's approach to a picnic - café fare. Scrummy flans and interesting salad mixes are on sale. The ginger beer is great too.

(And please don't judge me on my table setting!)

I love old barns.

And I love old sheds even more.

But I wouldn't kick the house out of the woodpile either!

And what a note to finish on.  The house is a real mix, a splicing of "modern" Lutyens and a 15th century hall.

I think me and the chatterbox of photos have said it all!
Hope you enjoyed your day at Great Dixter.  I did.

A la perchoine.

(Not So) Lazy Sunday Afternoon

"Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I've got no mind to worry

Close my eyes and drift away"

That's the way I'd planned it.  The Photographer had other ideas.

He bought me a present.  These top-of-the-range neoprene gardening gloves.

I tried to respond with enthusiasm and gratefulness.

He then directed me to my gardening cloggies (bought in Holland a few years' ago)

And I was put to work.

I emptied last year's pots and hanging baskets.  Cleaned and washed them.  Recycled any reusable plants.  As quickly as he dug up the self-seeding agapanthus, I busied myself potting them up.  Because he likes them.

Bertie was even sent out to check that I was working hard.

Finally I was freed from my labours.   I hastily changed out of my gardening clothes before he changed his mind.  And I scarpered!  To enjoy a Lazy Sunday afternoon walk around my Hood.

I hastily slung on a Woolovers cashmere/merino sweater over Peacock crops and Clarks sandals.

Feeling smug with myself after my labours, I perked myself up with this lovely grey hand-painted scarf which I won on Janice's blogsite, here.  She's taking a break from blogging.  I am missing her already.  I was a daily visitor to her very special blog.

Ready for walking around the Hood's ruettes.

(I apologise for my hair, I had been slaving away in the garden all morning, folks!)

I met Henry, the Hood Cat.  He's so friendly and he pops up just about anywhere in the hood.  Last summer he spent happy kitten times on The Photographer's shoulders as we walked the lanes.  This year he seems to have grown up.  He was far too busy to spend more than a short stroking time with us.

So the rest of the walk was spent without my cute feline companion.

The hedgerows are filling out with lightening speed.

Wild honeysuckle is everywhere.

There are hills to climb - OK, hillettes!

Big eucalyptus trees' shade to walk under.

Celandine-filled fields to wade through.

Wild flowers to admire.

In just a few short weeks all this wild loveliness will be cut back.  Such a shame.  But it's a requirement to do this twice during the summer months and the parish constables tour the roads and ruettes to check that we are law-abiding citizens.  First check is mid-June.

Plants to choose to fill the now-empty pots and hanging baskets back on the Pout Estate.

Luckily I nabbed the last two punnets of strawberries on the Hood's hedge stall.

They'll be nice with a dollop of cream for afternoon tea!

These stalls operate with what the English call honesty boxes.  You are trusted to leave money when taking goods.  

We broadly call them hedge veg.  Because it rhymes.

Maybe a few freshly-laid eggs would be nice too ...

It's a pretty nice hood.

So, peeps.  That's how I spent my Sunday.  Work.  Play.  Eat.  Not much lazing.  Not quite the Lazy Sunday I'd planned, but nice all the same.

Hope you've managed to have a nice Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

What have you been up to?

Has it been a sunny day where you are?

A la perchoine.