miss marie's miscellany

Sunset and stained glass

Another beautiful late evening sky. I took this on Wednesday night at 11pm when the temperature was still an amazing 23 degrees. 

The weather has been so good, hot, hot, hot! Let's hope it carries on for a good summer, unlike last year's washout. 

I'm writing this post at my dad's house in Liverpool. There is some beautiful stained glass in his house,

where I and my siblings grew up, so we tend to not look at it as 

appreciatively as we might; 

it's just part of the fabric of the house 

But it is lovely, catching the light and filling the house with colour.

 

We are travelling to the Yorkshire Dales today for a week's holiday, can't wait! I hope I'll still be online and able to post, as we have lots of lovely outings and treats planned; but just in case I disappear for a bit, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and left kind and encouraging comments. I really appreciate you stopping by and your kind words, and I'm glad you're enjoying my photos and thoughts. 

June collage

My favourite pictures from June.

Just arrived!

Look what arrived today! (Delivered by a handsome young gentleman too!)

A new sewing machine.

Sadly my old one has died after much faithful use, so I decided to get myself up to date and buy one with a few more modern features. It literally is just out of the box so nothing to show yet; I'm pouring over the manual to see how it all works, there's so much to take in! But I'm planning to put it to good use as soon as I can manage; I have some hems to turn up and tonight would be a good time to do that due to impending holidays!  Over the coming weeks some mending, dressmaking and soft furnishing projects are all distinct possibilities. And hopefully good for blog postings too!

A new arrival in the garden too, this unusual rose 'Ferdinand Pichard'; my neighbour said it looked like someone had been in the garden with a paintbrush and pink paint! 

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!

Sunset

It was a gorgeous hot day here in Glasgow on Tuesday (and yesterday too!).  And after such a day, what better ending than a glorious sunset. 

Anyone for tennis?

I won't be the only person glued to the TV for the next fortnight, I'm sure. Yes, after 50 tennis-free weeks, it's Wimbledon!

I really enjoy watching Wimbledon.....all that determination and sportsmanship is very exciting. It's a great sporting arena steeped in the history of the game of tennis. It might also have something to do with enjoying watching fit men in shorts running around! I will be cheering Andy Murray on; he is tipped to win by several tennis legends in the Guardian, and he has been playing splendidly of late. Let's hope the weight of expectation of the entire nation doesn't weigh too heavily on his shoulders.  I can't help thinking that Roger Federer will be spurred on to win his 15th Grand slam title. It will be so gripping to see how the tournament unfolds, day by day. I'm not sure who is the clear favourite for the ladies; and I have to admit I find the wailing and screaming of some of the female players off-putting. I suppose I could turn the volume down! Not quite the same without the racquet -hitting -the -ball and crowd-cheering sounds. For the real Wimbledon ambience, I should really be drinking Pimm's, not tea!

This week's flowers

Some garden lovelies today.

Achillea 'Salmon Beauty'...... isn't it pretty close-up?!

These poppy heads waiting to open

And two lovely roses

This lovely white one is a beautiful climbing rose; unfortunately, no-smell blogging prevents me from letting you inhale the gorgeous scent of the flower, it's heavenly!

And this pretty pink one has just peeped out in the front garden

Colour photo

The Tate Liverpool has an interesting exhibition on just now, Colour Chart; Re-inventing Colour. As well as exhibiting works of artists from 1950 to the present, they are collaborating with Flickr to create an photo group of colour monochrome photos sent in by anyone who has a Flickr account. They will choose 36 of the entries to make a Colour Chart poster which will be displayed at Tate Liverpool. I'm sure there are lots of fellow bloggers who have taken great pics which fit the bill ; I'm quite tempted to have a go myself. Quite a difficult remit though; I take lots of photos daily and usually try to fit in lots of different colours, very rarely just one.

 

Would something like this do?!

There are a selection of photos already showing on the Tate website  (in fact all entries will be displayed online) and as ever, it's interesting to see how different people interpret the brief. 

I took this photo last summer standing outside Tate Liverpool. I will be in Liverpool again in a few weeks, and will be doing my utmost to get along to see this exhibition. Sounds like just the thing for a summer's day, bright and vibrant.

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.

.