Periwinkle's Journal

More than a week!

Oh dear me, over a week since I've done a journal! Jacinta will be cross!:):):)!

But it must be over a week since I have done any gardening either!! But today was lovely and mild and calm here and I got out for a couple of hours this morning!

What a joy!! Just great to be out there!! I started by doing some "sweeping up" - plenty of that needed after the storm of last week - and as I swept along by the front border I discovered a verbena bonariensis seedling growing in the gravel. That prompted me to go for the trowel and a pot to lift it. While doing that I noticed some seedlings of a little rockery dianthus also in the gravel!! Now I was into serious potting up!! By the time I was finished I had a whole tray of seedlings potted and sitting in the shed window!! If they survive it will be a bonus, as just the pleasure of planting was a joy!!

Now time has been very limited and I probably wont write another journal until after Christmas so Im going to take this opportunity to

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS and will look forward to sharing with you all in 2012!! Thanks for all the pleasure and info given over 2011!!

Still smiling through it all!

Brave helleborus.

It really is a wild day in these parts! There is a heavy wintery shower on at the moment that has blocked out any view of the sea.

However, these wonderful, brave and hardy plants are smiling their way through! No wonder I'm so fond of helleborus!

Excuse the picture, but it is not a day to stand out there!

New lawn mower.

New lawn mower.

Well now! Your all wondering if I have finally taken advice from Rachel or indeed, Myrtle, and moved to a dryer climate!

 But no! Lawn mower moved in early this morning! (Early Christmas present to self, me thought!)

 Supposed to work by remote control but I found it hard to steer in the right direction! Seemed to want to go on the borders! But beautiful looking machine and we all know about "boys and their toys" but this is  one that might 'tickle the fancy' of lady gardeners, even more than men, just for its good looks!!!.   And very light-weight on the soil, no sign of wheel-marks!! Now if you are one to take pride in your "stripes" there might be a bit of a problem with that! 

The trial lasted for several hours and part of me really wanted to invest! The remote control bit really appealed to me, 'specially in this cold, wet weather. But I somehow couldn't quite get the hang of it! And having to go out so often to re-direct was rather disappointing! 

In the end I got the owner to take it back!

Nearly there!

Dependable!

I'm not wishing my life away but just facing facts! I took this pcture from the front doorway just before 9am as the sun came up and realised that it is almost rising as far west as it will go! You may be able to make out the little mountain on the right which is called Breezy. next week, at winter solstice, the sun will rise a little closer to it.

And then slowly, but surely, start moving east again!!

(JUST TO CHEER YOU ALL!!!!!):))

Holding on.

Magnolia stellata

I had my customary walk around the garden this morning, this is now restricted to the gravel paths as the ground is so saturated that to walk on it is doing damage to the soil. This region has had more than its fair share of rain. Anyway, at least we can still get out!

I have been noticing how the leaves are still holding on to some of my magnolias, especially those that are more sheltered. My young "Susan" and this Stellata. Is this normal or is it as a result of the milder winter, I wonder? 

Worth it!

Cordaline 'Torbay Dazzler'

Late this afternoon, after clearing the shed gutters and sweeping up after after "The Party" I decided to have a quick walk before dark as it was a DRY (!) evening. On my return I couldnt help admiring my tubs at the ends of the hedges - they did look so bright and cheery!

Away back in, probably May, I had 'hmmed and hawed' before finally deciding to purchase these two cordalines to replace the two that had been knocked to the ground by the severe winter. (I say knocked to the ground as they would probably have sprouted again from the base if I'd been prepared to wait).

I remember they were €12.50 each but they did what I wanted in adding a bit of formality at the entrance  and made a "statement", which was what I was looking for. I do hope they survive this winter but even if they dont I wont consider them a waste.

Guests for dinner!

Not even stacked in the sink!

I did notice, as I drove past the shrub border on Sunday, two blackbirds fly out from the varigated holly tree. this tree had an abundance of berries this year; so yesterday I walked around to see if many were eaten. There were less than a dozen berries remaining!! I'm glad they enjoyed them!

Then coming back to the house I noticed this awful mess by the shed. Looking up I saw that the gutter was also overflowing with pieces of moss!!  There must be something very attractive underneath that moss!! (Perhaps some of you will be able to enlighten me).  Now, I dont mind them all having a good feast but you would think they would offer to "wash-up" afterwards!

But no! I'll just have to do it myself! Dont you just hate the clearing up after the party!

Brightening a bleak December day.

Brightening a dull corner.

I was given a present of a potted red flowered azalea/rhododendron for Christmas last year as a house plant and when it had finished blooming and the weather had warmed up I planted it out in my "Woodland" area in the lower garden.

I went for a walk down there today and what a cheery sight awaited me! Now I'm wondering if I should be covering it with fleece or if it will survive the frost and hailstones that we are having? What do ye experts think?

Forty shades of brown!

No gardening has been done here since my last journal entry, due to weather, work and other commitments. This has been a wet and cold day so I wasnt tempted to even go for the daily stroll around the garden!

But late yesterday afternoon, around 4.30pm, I did take a short walk to the seafront. Dusk is one of my favourite times of day to go for a walk. Often after a breezy day the wind will have dropped and there is that deep stillness and quietness that you can almost feel and hear. It is lovely to listen to the last song of birds as they give thanks for the day before retiring to their roost for the night.

The sun had just gone down, it sets a bit later here in the north-west than with some of you in the south, and the last rays were glancing off the landscape turning it into a beautiful tapestry of rich colour.

I was struck by the many shades of brown, and they increased in number as one stopped to take a closer look. There were the beiges of grass stems still strong enough to stand erect with their, now empty, seed-heads held aloft. The rusty brown of bracken and the bronze of beech leaves holding tightly to their branches. But as the low light glowed on wet, after a recent shower, and cast its glow sideways across the view it was the many different shades of tree-bark that stole the limelight. From the orange-brown of willow to the silver-brown of birch, the grey-brown of alder to the green-brown of ash and the dark-brown bark of fir there was such an array of shades of brown that I am convinced that there are just as many browns in winter as there are greens in spring, we just have to look!!