miss marie's miscellany

Progress in the veg garden

I have some produce well on the way to readiness! I'm really excited, it still makes me feel like a child in a sweet shop when I go out and see things nearly ready to pick.

This raspberry cane lives in a big pot and is rather neglected by me, so I'm amazed and pleased to have fruits ripening.

Blueberries........delicious!

Peas looking good......nearly ready for eating.

Broad beans starting to form pods......I love broad beans, they were my star crop last year so I hope for a repeat this year.

Potatoes starting to flower

Under the leaves I spy......a radish

Window box carrots are thriving

I can't wait to try some of these goodies!

Bright and beautiful

Lovely summer colours today. The weather has been wonderful this week, perfect summer climes....let's cross fingers that it will continue like this for a while. I like feeling the sun warming my bones!  It's doing the garden too

Red anemone.......I planted a pot of these so I hope for more red and blue ones soon

This wildflower is such a vivid shade of orange, like  glowing embers

This lovely delphinium is coming into its own this week

I wish you could bottle that sunshine feeling!

Escape from the Granite City

This week I was working in Aberdeen, the Granite City, so called because every building is made in grey granite. It gives the city a distinctive look all its own, certainly, but it can be a little unrelenting, especially if you crave some colour. Just a short drive away, through some lovely countryside, I discovered a wonderful place to visit. It's called Pitmedden Garden, a National Trust property. The garden is laid out in formal parterre style, and looked after beautifully. The original design was made in 1675, and was re-created in the 1950's by the NT. It's about half a mile from the village of Pitmedden, so there's little passing traffic, meaning peace and quiet in which to really enjoy the garden, flowers,birds and insects.

This formal garden features over 5 miles of box hedging. I feel faint at the thought of cutting that lot into such impeccably neat and intricate patterns.

All around  were long avenues of grass paths, some plain like this one, light and springy to walk on

And some with long borders....this one is entirely planted with lupins

Tree lines surround each section of parterre

and dissect the garden too

 These lovely espalier apple trees were trained on the high surrounding walls. There are over 80 varieties of apple growing in the garden!

My highlights from the many wonderful flowers to be seen;

glowing red peony

                                                                                                  Meconopsis - blue poppy

And this gorgeous iris complete with sleeping bee

 

There are old statues 

and fountains

As I sat near this water feature, 2 little birds flew around near me, having a great time swooping around the hedges ( too fast to be captured in photo; I tried, but to no avail, I'm afraid).

The gardens have an 'Alice in Wonderland' quality about them,  such a tranquil and atmospheric place;  all one can hear is birdsong, insects buzzing, the sounds of a gardener working and teacups tinkling in the tearoom in the distance (no Mad Hatters thankfully). I had the gardens to myself almost all of the time I was there. Bliss!

At the gate, I noticed  this lovely paving

Made with love, as all gardens should be.

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Peapods

My peas are podding! Hurray!

Highland castles

I've been away, working in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. I go there because of my job twice a year, and always have a good time; it's a beautiful part of the world, with lots to see both historic and picturesque.

Here is the view looking up the River Ness towards Inverness Castle.

The weather was lovely (apart from one day when it poured and was chilly- the unpredictable Scottish climate! )

Here's the view looking the other way down river; eventually if you follow the river this way, you reach Loch Ness.

Yesterday,I decided to leave the city and visit Cawdor Castle which is only about 14 miles from Inverness. If you cast your mind back to school English Literature, you will remember that Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor, although in actual fact, Macbeth was born in the early 11th century and the castle was built in the 14th century, so the events of the play could not have happened there. But despite Shakespeare's poetic licence, the castle has a magical and mysterious air about it, one could imagine the 'Scottish play' to have taken place somewhere like this.

A burn runs alongside the castle, and next to that a wood with some enormous trees, Scots pine and oak.

I decided not to go inside the castle, purely for reasons of meanness! And to be honest, I really wanted to see the gardens which are beautful and plentiful.

There is a walled garden, quite formal in style.

In the sky, you can just see a plane taking off, as the castle is quite near Inverness Airport.

I love this combination of pink and orange, very bold and eye-catching.

There were paths edged with laburnum trees and bluebells.

An interesting sculptural fountain hidden away behind thick hedges which you had to push through to get in - a secret garden.

The planting around this was all white which looked lovely and set off the fountain well.

Next to the castle was a more informal garden

with this beautiful covered path with wildflowers at the side.

Some of the gorgeous flowers we saw

I'd love to know the name of this last plant, if anyone can identify it for me. From a distance, the flowers look square, almost like Scrabble tiles!

Let's have one last look at the castle.

Yes, it does look like a fairytale castle!

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Columbine

I love these aqualegias or columbines. No planting or sowing on my part , they are wildflowers which grow every year bringing some lovely colour to the garden, and I love seeing where they'll appear.

purple 

 white 

pink

and this beautiful red one which I haven't seen in the garden before

It's a lovely sunny day here. Whatever the weather, I hope you have a great weekend.

After the rain

Busy bee

I've been busy for the last few days, so not much time for posting. In between real money-paying work, I've been toiling away in the garden, getting the grass cut and doing lots of  weeding. A bit of drama.......yesterday afternoon whilst gardening, I was stung on my forearm by a bee and had quite a bad delayed reaction to it. I didn't think anything of it at the time, made sure the sting was gone and cleaned it up. But I had a concert last night and by the end of it my arm was much more sore and swollen (perhaps holding one's arm up in a cello playing position for several hours wasn't helpful? Unavoidable though!)

Yuk! The white pasty flesh doesn't make it look any better. Note to self; a light fake tan might not go amiss! Anyway, medicine has been taken and ice-packs and lotions applied and I'm well on the mend now, thankfully. But do watch out for those bees! 

On a more positive note, I have managed some crocheting, a new project. I bought some new wool and together with a few bits from my stash, decided on this colour scheme.

And I sat for a while this morning making these

Which will turn into something cushiony for the bedroom, I think.

And I had to show my new shoes.....

They do seem to tone in with my crochet very well. I've had my eye on these for a while, and now the weather is more summery, I feel I can justify the purchase!

And just to keep the purple harmony going, here's a lovely rhododendron from the garden...... looking good!

Wishing you a happy weekend! 

Tick tock

I know I should be getting rid of these with haste, but they are amazing when seen at close quarters. 

One more garden lovely today, this pansy with its unusual colour

And the Royal Horticultural Society have made me laugh again, now they're after your bras and your fella's boxers to turn them into hanging baskets. Apparently there are special laundry baskets at the Chelsea Flower Show in which to deposit ones old (clean) undies. I wonder if Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry brought their old smalls with them when they visited!

Blue skies

A lovely day today, hardly a cloud in the blue, blue sky

A walk round the garden this morning and I see that the good thing about all the weekend rain is that everything is GROWING!

I have flowers on my peas and broad beans

And a little onion shoot peeping out

Queen of the Night tulip. The tulips are nearly finished for this year, but this is a late and lovely arrival.

Apple blossom

This gorgeous bush,which I'm afraid I don't know the name of, not yet anyway. I think I have pruned this a bit too enthusiastically in past years, as it's never had such a profusion of flowers before and wasn't pruned last autumn. I'll hold back with the secateurs this year. 

Hot pink azalea and japanese maple, I love the combination of these 2 colours

Lime green euphorbia to add some zing!

And the wonderful clematis. It takes my breath away every time I look at it.

It's lovely to see the sun dappled on the (long) grass

So much to enjoy and  look forward to!