Iced Plum Jam

The deep freeze continues. But there are buds of hope. Jammy the kitten-cat would like to show you, look he’s pointing.

Tiny blossoms are lying in wait.

Here is the same tree on the 28th March 2011  it looks a little different, frosted granted, but not marooned in snow and ice. I think it’s wild plum, look I’ve even found a recipe for a recipe for wild plum blossom ice cream, written by Blanche Vaughn (I really couldn’t line up any more snowy, white  icy themes if I tried).

The snow isn’t going anywhere fast, here is the lane to our house.

Here is Jammy tip-toeing through the snow.

Bdahlia

As a child I could never quite master the word dahlia, I always called them bdahlias, b’s and d’s were never a friend of mine.

My Dad grew lots of dahlias his favourites were  spiky deep crimson varieties, they always remind me of him (and earwigs!). He used to insist each autumn on drying the tubers that he’d lifted from the flower bed (to protect them from frost)  in the airing cupboard. My Mum was never impressed by this intrusion to her line dried laundry!  I snapped these  dahlias in the garden at Chatsworth House on Saturday, I nipped over just in time to capture the penultimate day of the Barry Flanagan sculpture exhibition. More photos to follow.

Seaside Rock

How quickly our seaside holiday is becoming a distant memory. How quickly the real world piles in to the vacated mind.

How heavy it has rained today! Just as well I have some holiday snaps to look back at.

On the coast path there were some fine lumps of rock (you know I’m fond of them) ancient gate posts, long since disused girded with hand forged iron.

The remnants of old walls

The bizarre weather we’ve had in UK this summer seems at least to have pleased the costal flowers, or just made them flower later than usual. I can’t ever recall  ever seeing quite so many as this year.

The insect world seemed appreciative

Just delightful really, *sigh*

Here, There and Not Quite Everywhere; Yet

We’ve been bouncing around the country like a pinball this week, the trusty family estate car (station wagon) clawing through the miles*, since the wedding in Oxford last weekend, destinations have included, Aberystwyth which is as difficult to get to as it is to spell, London, Manchester, Bakewell, Matlock and Bangor. And it’s not over yet, Stirling and two trips to Manchester have still to be chalked up this week.  Whilst we’ve had some rainy trips, we’ve managed to avoid the worst of the flooding that has blighted great swathes of the country, it is all to do with the Jet Stream apparently

At dusk tonight Spud  the dog and I went out for a spot of bat watching, no hope of capturing them on camera I’m afraid  they are too swift and agile for me to manage anything other than admiring them.

Another summer evening pleasure to my mind is the scent of the garden, however this year, to my nose the honeysuckle’s perfume seems rather diluted by the lack of good weather,

but closer inspection of an image taken with flash shows that as far as insects are concerned the honeysuckle is as attractive as ever.

*We tried to travel by train, but the cost of fares and scheduling of trains put the mockers on that plan.

Wash Out

June has been something of a wash out*, great if you are a  hosta munching slug or snail though.

This snail made an early morning slither across on my window. Lovely.

* We are thankful not to have had the floods that have troubled many parts of the country though.

Milky White

The lanes are full of  the foaming flowers of cow parsley 

 

and hawthorn

As  creamy and frothy as a bucket of fresh milk, but cast aside all  romantic notions of fair skinned milk maids and check out the reality of dairy farming over at Lavenderjack

Simply White

The Green Man Goes Cool

 

The Green Man with a contemporary flourish.

A lost pair of sunglasses could not have been placed in a more prominent position.  I think he looks a little like Simon Cowell from this angle.

I’m left wondering if it was just serendipity that the glasses were placed so well or if the finder was on a mission to find just the right branch to perch them on. 

There is often something to catch the eye on this part of my route to work. The trees cling on to the side of a steep gully

with every last root at their disposal.

It is where I’ve seen the brawling wrens in the past, today there were violets to admire.

I really can’t grumble about my commute to work.

Here is a Green Man blog, with some very nice photographs, very nice indeed.

Dewy Morning

 

Followed by a bright and beautiful day.

Messed Up

Blackthorn, part of our hedgerow, we planted it about nine years ago and it is looking rather splendid and well established, we never intended it as ‘stock proof’ sort of barrier, just an enhancement of the ‘green corridor’ that flanks the boundary between our field and the lane.

It also has the look of my hair (and head!) My hair could be described as luggy at the moment. I’ve decided my ‘soft curls’ phase is over, I’m going back to trimmed efficiency at least that way I know where I’m at.

The weather is also messed up, blossom and sunlight is on the wane, snow and wind are forecast. Watch this space.