Flowers and buds

Summer is in full swing and the garden is bursting with colour.

I do love it, even though some of the major spreaders are going to have to be dealt with. The garden is not large and some things are determined to take over, such as these pink leucanthemums. They remind me of my youth, though - my girlhood garden had lots of these.

Lavender. I love lavender and this is a particularly bright one.

On the path by the golf course, ragwort and cow parsley are doing their thing too.

 And these oxeye daisies, which are a cousin of the pink ones in the garden.

We went up to visit The Unbloggables today, which was lovely. Here's Middle Granddaughter playing in the sand...

and on the slide, or chute (as we call it here) with Son.

Here's a rare photo of me, with Little Grandson. I have to crop him out so I could hardly crop me out too.

We walked up to the burn (stream) and paddled. Well, Middle Granddaughter and Son did. We didn't bring our boots.

She suits her hat.

This is one of their cats, who for some reason decided to sleep on the gravel. I suppose it was warm and fur must make good padding. She has a nice comfortable bed in the house, plus many blankets on high shelves away from little patting hands.

A lovely day.

Home and back again

I've had a last-minute visit to London - yes, one day at home and then back down again. Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter were supposed to be coming here for a long weekend during which we were all going up north to visit The Unbloggables, but alas, she was unwell and couldn't come. So she hasn't yet met her new nephew and was very sad about it. However, I went down there to do a bit of baby-minding while she did some recovering.

Actually, Littlest Granddaughter isn't really a baby any more. She's 21 months now. Above, she prepares to change her dolly's nappy (so cute!).

Here she is, melting her granny's heart with those big blue eyes

and cheery grin.

She's not the world's best sleeper, except when it's inconvenient of course.

All by herself, she built this fine Duplo construction consisting of self-colour towers. She's not saying the  names of colours yet, but clearly understands the concept and isn't colour blind.

And now I'm home. Can't wait to see her again. And her mum. How I wish they weren't so far away.

Hampton Court flowers

We've been away for a few days visiting my brother and sister-in-law in the south of England, who kindly invited us to go to the Hampton Court Flower Show with them.

The show was wonderful. I love flowers and took far too many photos of them.

Such as this, which I didn't at first recognise as a gladiolus. I wonder if it would grow in my garden... in the space which I have in my mind but which doesn't exist. It might, though, if I ever got round to purging some of the more prolific thugs.

Ah, the pink-and-blueness. I realise that agapanthuses are weeds in Australia, and indeed the one outside my kitchen window has spread hugely and I could never dig it out even if I wanted to. But I don't.

Lavender. You can imagine the scent.

Poppies like little ladybirds.

Alliums, alliums, alliums.

Some of the show gardens had a tendency to make political points - which is fair enough, but they weren't terribly gardeny. Whereas this one is. So beautiful. Unrealistic - the plants would soon become overcrowded. This picture is approximately what I would like heaven to be like. It just needs a pile of books, a some grandchildren and associated family members (this would have to be heaven on earth since I'm not having them die), a few friends, tea and cake...

Summertime...

The weather has been somewhat mixed recently. For example, a few days ago, in balmy sunshine, I admired the candytuft I didn't plant (or at least, I scattered some seeds a few years ago and since then have allowed it to seed itself) and behind it, the Canterbury bells I never planted (but which seeds itself all over the place in this garden) and behind that, the foxgloves (ditto). It was a lovely day and I reflected that gardening is sometimes just going with the flow. To a limited extent.

Granddaughter and I took a trip to the local park. It was hot.

Grandson the Elder stayed the night on Friday so that he and his grandpa could go to a model railway exhibition in Perth yesterday morning.

While they were away, I walked with friends in the park, admiring the lovely flowers and enjoying the sunshine. Then there were a few spots of rain, so we quickened our pace to come back here for coffee and cake.

And then, shortly after they left ... it POURED.

AND POURED (this is not a pond. It's a flower bed, right in front of the front door. Argh).

And poured. We never used to get rain like this here - pounding relentlessly down and splashing up again with the force of its fall. Climate change. Fortunately it didn't last long. It saved me from having to water the pots outside and it did prove that our roof doesn't leak. It was a bit alarming, though.

Orange

My brother and sister-in-law came to stay for a few days and we had a little at-home holiday with them. We went to the Victoria Crowe exhibition at the City Art Centre, which we all enjoyed. The quality of light in her paintings is very striking but doesn't come across well in a photo, especially as I usually had to take it from the side to avoid the worst of the glare.

She's very good on trees.

Sunset light on snow. I love this.

Another day we walked round Saughton Park. I don't like orange, even in flowers, but I have to admit that the combination of reddish-orange and white looks good here. (No orange flowers are allowed in my garden, though.)

Beautiful vistas.

And some rather successful wild flower planting.

Then we had a stroll round the grounds of Lauriston Castle. You wouldn't think you were in a city, would you? Here you can see over the water to Fife on the other side.

Lovely lupins, with nary a lupin aphid on them. Unlike mine.

We wandered round the Japanese garden, a gift from Kyoto.

Thank you, Kyoto.

It's much appreciated.

Then today they went away and then the sun came out. See, no orange in my garden.

Flowers, hair and summer nights

The other day we again made the journey over the bridge and up to Angus to visit Son and his family. We took Daughter 1 with us to meet her new nephew.

Here are Daughter 1, Son and The Unbloggable Baby. He has a good head of hair. As does Son.

We all went to a playpark, The Unbloggable Medium Granddaughter riding on the back of the buggy like a pro big sister.

Daughter 1 pushed her on the swings. It was a lovely day.

Back home, I admired my peonies. For once, this year (famous last words) it hasn't done its usual thing of pouring for days and ruining the blooms just at they reached their peak. The alliums are still good too.

To cheer ourselves (well, me) up for the lack of at-hand grandchildren (the Edinburgh ones were at school), the old chap and I had a walk in the Botanics, which always soothes my soul at least temporarily.

Delphiniums. I love delphiniums. So do slugs, though apparently not here.

These are interesting little primulas. I'm not sure if I like them, but they have an otherworldly charm.

This is my garden just after 10 last night, when I decided to go out and do some gardening. Hurray for the light nights.