A Farewell To My Summer Garden

It is sad to see the end of my summer garden.  Knowing that from here on in there will only be grey as I look out my kitchen window.  But some of the flowers and plants are giving quite a grand farewell.  How brave they are to bare their heads during the early frosts and the pounding rain.

The ever reliable nasturtiums that always add wild colour to my garden in late summer and to the salad bowl too.  And I'm not the only one to love them.  They are great to attract butterflies and bees to the garden.

I really love the colour of these dwarf lupins.  Even the little furry seed pods are very attractive.  I took some of the seeds this year and put them under our laurel hedge and I hope that they will add some colour to it next year.

I love the way that these ganzias are the colour of fire.  They are reluctant little flowers as they only like to open in the warm weather.  I think that this year they just got tired of waiting and finally despite the cold they flowered in all their glory.

This poor little lone geranium flower is all that is left on the plants that flowered all summer long.

My elderberries have finally ripened.  One month late.  I was beginning to think that these little black beauties would just fall from the tree still red as often happens if the summer has been too wet or cold as it was this summer.  I must have a jam making day soon.  They make wonderful elderberry jelly.

The Japanese maple that sits just outside my kitchen window in all its golden glory is very slowly turning red. Worryingly I must move this tree next year in order to build my studio.  I'm hoping that it will survive the move.  Would you know what is the best time to move it?  Winter or early spring?

And finally the tree at the end of my garden.  I can never remember the name of it but as my mother gave it to us when we first moved in here, we call it Ma's tree.  It is wonderful and changes colour throughout the seasons.  In spring it has vibrant red berries and soft yellow leave in the summer that slowly turn green and then to deep red in the autumn.  Fantastic display.
Well thanks for taking the time to visit my garden with me.
Rosie xx

The Summer Garden

Despite the bad weather, our garden seems to be finally blooming and coming into it's own.  Here are a few of the gorgeous sights in it at the moment.

This is called the Blue Rose for some very odd reason. I got this as a birthday present from my mother a few years ago.  It was badly affected when I neglected and I was not sure if it would be able to recover.  I was so glad to see these, the first blooms on it for three years

These blackberries here were the first things that we planted in the garden when we moved in and a few years ago I planted a climbing rose close by.  Now they are closely intertwined and support each other well.
This year hopefully there seems to be a bumper crop of blackberries on the way for jam making season.  Beautiful with apples from a neighbours orchard.  Yummmmmmm

This little burst of orange gorgeousness was given to me by my sister-in-law.  It will grow absolutely anywhere and the plant doubles in size  in the matter of weeks.  It's brilliant for corners of the garden where nothing else wants to live.  I found that it thrives under trees.  The flowers themselves are on long stems and last ages as cut flowers in the house.

A beautiful visitor today which sadly has now become a rare sight.

Being Busy

My most favourite colours in the world have always been green and yellow and what else would produce a more perfect way of showing them off at their best than mother nature in this simple native cowslip. Beauty in simplicity.  Having two young kids is mad and very hectic at times but when I see something like this I'm often stopped in my tracks and I just have to take a moment to admire it.






In the last couple of days I've taken to my sewing machine and tried my hand at patchwork for the first time.  I picked a small project for myself and decided on a pot holder in some of my favourite fabric remnants.  A few short hours later I was finished totally.  And it may not have been perfect but I was quite delighted and pleased with myself.  But within a few short seconds of using it, I let it slip from my hand and it burned to a cinder on the stove top.  What a wally!!

I also made this cushion cover this week from a feather and fan shawl that I had knit but was too short even after it was blocked.  And as I hated to see all my hard work go to waste at the bottom of a drawer I decided to make it into something that I would see every day.  There is nothing better than having a piece of knitting with old fashioned stitches in your kitchen even if it's only for under your bum.

My Poor Neglected Garden

Believe it or not there was flowers here in these beds once!

The part of the hose that has been neglected the most over the past few years while I've been ill is my garden.  Now instead of flowers there is scutch grass and instead of roses there is bindweed. I used to say that it wasn't overgrown but just an intentional display of native Irish wildflowers.  But this year, we have decided to tackle it as a family.  My kids miss having a pretty garden to look at and they have vowed to help me regularly with it.  The hubbie will probably be doing all the heavy clearing, while I get the joy of replanting it again.

Wish me luck with this one!