Sunny garden

Colourful blooms are opening around the garden, 

I love this time of year so much promise. 

As always pots rule here, all of the pots here are newly planted this summer, I did manage to get a few French Marigold seeds to grow for hubby, 

I love daises and in this pot they look good,

 it's under the Acer, so the colour pops out. 

I've planted my two long pots and whilst emptying the old pansies, I found these in one corner, next to the white Hellebore, There are 4 small seedlings, I don't want or need anymore white flowers, so if these grow I shall pass them on. 

Can you imagine my excitement as I watch these flowers on my lime plant, it would be lovely to have some fruit, sadly no flowers again on the lemon or orange plant. 

I planted out the bedding plants on Saturday, it was such a lovely sunny day, it was sad to pull up the pansies as they were still in bloom, some I put in another part of the garden, but my bedding plants were almost all pot bound, so they needed to go in. I spent some time sorting the new pots above, the garden should be full of colour this summer. 

We also moved the 2 water butts by the house, one we emptied and moved, it was half empty as it's always the 1st one I use, the 2nd we caught the water and popped it in the 1st butt, so not all of the rain water was lost. The big butt by the garage is full of rain water. The man started on the front of the house, and already it looks so much better, he will work on our house this and next weekend, he is really busy, but has fitted us into his schedule, he is a family member to our lovely neighbour and is happy to get us sorted, he says his work means he works 7 days a week often in the summer months. 

Sunday was dull, I was not too worried, a dull day after planting is always good, allows the plant to settle before the sun beats down, I had nothing to do, I did need to stay at home, hubby had a bike ride, so left at lunchtime, we/I had been invited to a BBQ, but declined, I do love a day at home to myself. I had just finished a book and had another to start, I should have got my sewing machine out and make cushions for our bed, but I was not in the mood. 

So it's Monday morning again and the start of another week, in a few weeks we will be half way through another year! hopefully our dull start will blow over and we will get another nice day, we are having a true English summer this year. 

Ugly house

I have always thought the front of our home is ugly, I don't much like the yellow stones, and neither of us like the brown paint on the bricks, we do need to keep parking spaces for 2 cars, so the stones will stay, but we have tried many times to see if we can get the paint removed from the hand made local bricks underneath. 

This is hubby's garden, he get to choose what is grown here, this year he has removed the shrubs from these pots and popped in flowers, the shrubs each year have died in these pots. Both pots are special they belonged to our lovely neighbour Win and sat outside her front door, her nephew gifted them to me.

We have finally decided how we can be rid of the horrible brown paint, but these 3 plants are in the way, after discussion it is decided we will cut them all right back, they all should regrow without any issues. We also need to move the 2 smaller water butts at the side of the house, just until the work is done, hubby will decide what plants stay in the front and what he wants to change. 

Our house has lots of 'new' additions, extension at the back and a bedroom in the attic space, none of them show at the front of the house, which makes the front of the house original as it was built in the 1930's, making it over 90 years old. I would love to see the bricks again, but to remove the paint would be a hard task and would damage the bricks, therefore taking away the beauty of them. So sadly we have decided to have the house rendered, most of the loose stuff will be removed and the rest covered up, the house will look neat, but never to see the original bricks. It's taken us 11 years to make this decision, we always hoped we could find a solution, but everyone we have spoken too has said the same, and we don't want to damage the bricks. 

Other houses in our street with the same design have all different looks, the ones I love the most are the houses where their front garden is  traditional with flowers and a lawn, it does soften the look, if you are thinking why buy an ugly house, the back and inside the house is perfect for our way of living, I never expected it to take so long to sort the front. 

Blooming summer

My first home grown sweet peas, I love these scented blooms, but have always had issues in my clay soil, last autumn I popped seeds into a deep pot, grew them over winter in my greenhouse and planted out healthy plants, needless to say I am really pleased. I don't normally cut flowers from the garden for inside, but these were always grown, knowing the blooms need to be cut for the plant to produce more. 

My Orchid purchase back in late January is still blooming lovely, I love the white Orchid blooms, this plant is lasting well, our sitting room is always cool in the summer, which these plants like. 

This bunch is just inside my patio doors, these are fake, I got the blue Alliums earlier this year to add to these, lovely summer colours. 

I love this jug on my kitchen window sill, and have 4 different seasonal displays, I love these sweet peas, the jug is cracked so I can't keep water in it, these are just so pretty. 

I have read loads of books by this author, some I have found great, others not so, this book started out well, but whilst the plot was good, it did not hold me, a couple of times I thought a new opening was forming, but sadly no, it went along the same route. book 24 read this year. 

I stopped purchasing fresh flowers a couple of years ago, I was shocked when I totalled up the money I was spending on flowers, I have more house plants, but they are mostly just green, and placed in our office, which is the sunniest room in the house. I do love my fake flowers, these days they are very real looking, and gives colour in corners. On our dining room table in a dark corner of the room, I keep a glass bowl with fake lemons, limes and oranges, they add colour, again saving me purchasing them regularly, I do always keep a lemon in our proper fruit bowl in the kitchen, we use them often. 

On a very different subject, we watched Call the midwife, the storyline with baby Robert, an older mum with 4 grown up girls having a baby for her younger sister, Robert has Downs Syndrome, the younger sister rejected him as he was not perfect, the mum (older sister) loved him because he was her baby, and dad was shocked, I love they already have Reggie in this show, I though the story line was very well done, there is alot of shock and love, not always in the right order. Lots of TV shows have run Downs Syndrome stories, Emmerdale being the one causing the most hurt, Line of Duty showed their vulnerability. Both hubby and I could relate to this episode, both knowing the mum's love for her baby, because every time we see George, all we see is George our beautiful grandson and younger brother of Will.

It's raining again here, grey skies, but still warm, so British summer is here, no plans for the weekend, I do have books to read and I should do more on my socks. I have sorted the fabric required for making my new bed cushions, just no inclination to get them made. 

In my English garden

Our new Pergola is working well, the decking stays in shade until after 5pm, whilst it's open, giving us loads of shady space. After that the sun is at the wrong angle and we don't have any benefits, but we think we may have a simple solution. 

The garden is looking good, just a couple of things to be sorted, mainly the small raised bed next to the back door, it's in shade most of the day, so it's behind the rest of the garden, the tulips are just going over. 

I love begonias, the 1st brown pot is a new plant this year, the middle blue pot I have just placed outside of the greenhouse, with promise of loads of flowers again this summer,  and I have them in different chimney pots around the garden, they are just coming into leaf, I never remove these, they survive the winter well. 

I love these Salvias, I have 4 in this pot, should fill with loads of red flowers, in the middle is a blue Lobelia, I am mighty pleased with this new pot, made of soft rubber, with handles for carrying, got it for £2.25 from a local cheap shop, it's a small laundry/ washing up bowl, works perfectly as a pot. 

My pots inside the gates are doing well, I have fiddled and changed these around so many times, the Acers are doing well, my new one, I have re-potted and it's growing well. 

I have loads of plants to go into these 2 long tubs which sit in front of the raspberries, but the pansies are still looking good, I will swap them over later this week, I had planned French Marigolds in these tubs, but the seeds did not set. 

These pansies are still good, I will transplant them elsewhere in the garden and pop these Geraniums here, it's a sunny spot and the colours will look good. 

I read an article on how easy it is to grow Hellebores from seed, I have a plant with dark red almost black flowers, on checking I could see seed heads, so I am having a go at growing them myself, I got 18 seeds, I have them in a seed tray on my desk, I'm keeping everything crossed some will grow. 

I still have the tail end of a cold, I dislike summer colds so much, so it's been a time to stay at home, garden always calling me, I do something outside most days, but we also find time to sit and chat and enjoy our space. 

I am desperate to grow things, I have a cucumber and 2 tomato plants on the go, last month I soaked some Pinto beans, the shells broke and I got a few shoots, so I have potted them up, again I have no idea if I'm doing them right, but it's fun trying. 

I am hoping I get new Hellebore plants from the seeds, I do love the dark flowers. I have potted on a climbing rose cutting, I am hoping it will grow into a strong plant, not that we need another climbing rose. 

Tuesday the coffee ladies came over in the morning and tested the shade in the garden, we sat and chatted for a couple of hours, it was lovely to all be together again, plenty of room for 9 people. The rest of the day was inside, where it's much cooler, our weather has gone from poor wet and cold days, now it's over heating hot sunny days.

Today we have George, whilst Will goes swimming, George is still full of cold, so another topup of germs.