August 2023

August 2023

What a summer! Recently we have had many days of cloud without a hint of sunshine, along with constant stiff breezes from all directions and showers every few hours. Not much fun for a gardener, but the plants seem happy with it. The lavender is now full of bees and butterflies once more and our ‘bee hotel’ is busy. Until I was given one of these I had thought they were unlikely to be attractive to solitary bees, but how wrong I was! I look every day and watch a variety of odd-looking bees exploring the bamboo tubes before backing into one of them to lay an egg; eventually the tubes are sealed up with mud or cut leaves. After going through the stages of egg, larva and pupa, the adult emerges by chewing its way out.

The pond is full of life too, and on the rare sunny days, as if by magic dragonflies and damselflies arrive. I find these little creatures lift the spirits even in difficult times. My grandchildren in Wales call such creatures ‘minibeasts’ which is new to me!

July 2023

As the 2022 film title says: Everything everywhere all at once! That is how it feels here just now, as every time I set foot in the garden I see another job (or ten) to attended to; the fullness and exuberance of all the flowers and vegetables in the July garden never cease to amaze me. I am making pesto this year for the first time as the basil has grown so large and leafy it seems a pity not to save some for future eating. Weather still very mixed up here on the east coast with cool days of cloud and wind followed the next week by brilliant sunshine and intense heat; a variety of clothes kept handy for what the forecasters term ‘changeable’ weather!

As usual in July I am preparing framed works for an art exhibition in the nearby village of Grainthorpe over the Bank Holiday weekend. It is a lovely festival, do come along if you are in the area. www.grainthorpeartsfestival.co.uk

July is also the month I begin to design and stitch for Christmas!

June 2023

It is so wonderful to see the flowers appearing everywhere! We have a rather untidy rambling Cottage Garden here which is the inspiration for much of my work. It is home to many different birds and bees, with wild places full of cow parsley and buttercups, the borders packed with traditional perennials and annuals, and lots of weeds! We do have some tidy places; the vegetable garden with its raised beds of strawberries, courgettes, leeks and squashes etc., is more or less under control!

My husband’s father used to breed irises and knew Cedric Morris the artist and plantsman who set up an art school at Benton End in Suffolk. Cedric was a fellow iris breeder and my husband grows some of Cedric’s beautiful old varieties, remembering his visits as a boy, with his father, to Benton End many years ago. Cedric named two of his irises after his cats, ‘Benton Menace’ and ‘Benton Baggage’! Interesting to see a Chelsea garden this year featuring Cedric Morris Irises.

Photo of some of ours flowering here now, not all Morris.