the week in pictures … from sunsets to sunshine-filled days

“I love the quietude of misty dawn before the sober sun is up … The morning songs of the birds awakening in the blooming garden sets my soul gently … Aroma flowers with glistering of the dew … Deep full chest breath …Shy sunbeams flickering over the tops of wisdom whispering choir of waving trees … Serenity of mind … The crystal still lagoon reflecting soft lavender sailing clouds … I step in breeze realm, close eyes and fly with them over the miles, time and space … The serenading music fills my heart … Above the skies the joy of the refreshing winds, as our summer, recalls my being by your side and makes me feel the touch of you and gladness of your tranquil vibes… I smile” (Oksana Rus)

I hope the weather has been as lovely where you are as it has been here.  I have spent most of the days outdoors pottering around the garden … harvesting the first of the summer crops … picking flowers for posies and generally, enjoying, and making the most of outdoor life.

“Here are sweet-peas, on tip-toe for a flight … With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white … And taper fingers catching at all things … To bind them all about with tiny rings” (Keats)

“Who would envy a sweet pea?  By rights they should reign over the choicest spot in the garden – looking and smelling as ravishing as they do – whereas more often than not you track them down to a row by the cabbage patch where they languish in regimental splendour ready for cutting.  Though I think them lovely as cut flowers, my enthusiasm for sweet peas in the garden is boundless.  I grow them up everything – the climbing roses, the apple trees.”  (Felicity Bryan)

The beginning of the Sweet Pea season, picking every day as they produce more and more flower heads.  I found some packets of ‘saved’ seed that I had forgotten … sowed them all, not expecting any results as I wasn’t sure how old they were … and guess what … they all grew … now I have five wigwams full of growing plants which hopefully will keep producing right through to the autumn.  They have to be one of my favourite flowers … so simple, such delicate colours and all with that elusive fragrance.

The first of the new potatoes ‘Foremost’ tipped from the florist bucket where they were grown … one potato in each bucket produces enough for a couple of meals … and delicious they were too.

Eaten together with the sugar snap peas and the first heads of the summer broccoli, lightly steamed … so mouth-wateringly tender.

So much in flower in the garden … it is hard to know what to pick for a posy … geranium, sweet william, ladies mantle … all in abundance.

The garden is full of fragrant flowers – including the beautiful Mock Orange (Belle Etoile) and my new rose Arthur Bell

and how could I leave out the Lavender which is flowering profusely in the front garden

ladies fair, I bring to you lavender with spikes of blue; sweeter plant was never found growing on our English ground (Caryl Battersby) 

"lavender, sweet lavender;
come and buy my lavender,
hide it in your trousseau, lady fair.
Let its lovely fragrance flow
Over your from head to toe,
lightening on your eyes, your cheek, your hair."

Cumberkand Clark Flower Song Book 1929

The blue tit nest box has been cleaned out – sadly there were three mummified chicks in it but happily the tits did manage to rear a couple of youngsters who have been hopping merrily here and there waiting for titbits from their mom.

You can see clearly what the nest was made of - with a lining  of soft green moss – and from the look of it, mainly the coir from my hanging baskets.

An early morning walk capturing the moment a crow flies low over a stunning field of Flax.

An inquisitive calf comes to investigate the car as we stop to take his photo – this is a suckler herd – where the calves are left with their mothers to roam free across the Gumley Hills not far from where we live.

I sit on the terrace in the afternoon sun ...pretending to read … watching the bees lazily exploring the foxgloves ... trumpet after trumpet. The chatter of sparrows as they visit the pond daintily sipping ... thirsty in the heat. The nuisance crow lands with a click of his claws on the greenhouse roof - his viewing point ... eyeing the bird table for leftover seed cases – he calls … ‘cark, cark’.

A ‘ plop’ as a fish leaps to catch a fly and lands clumsily back into the water.  A starling sits on the very top branch of the willow tree - preening and making a 'ree, ree, ree' sound. The swifts twist and turn high in the sky - two, three, four of them - an aerial ballet. Two pigeons clap their wings that make a whistling sound as they fly - chasing one another. An ant scuttles over my foot, hurry, hurry, scurry - then disappears  down a crack only to reappear just as quickly. A butterfly lands on the window sill - stretches its wings - soaking up the sun's warming rays - flick, flick - and it is gone.

A little breeze picks up and flower petals flutter.

I hear a creak as my neighbours shift in the sun chairs, chattering on about their day - though not loud enough for me to hear the conversation. Overhead a bi-plane drones and I hear the whine and clatter of the refuse collectors lorry and the clink of bottles put out for re-cycling.

So much going on … so much to listen to … so much to see … if only we have ears and eyes for the sights and sounds of nature.

‘Til next time -  enjoy everything that is going on around you.