Flowers

It's all about flowers at the moment. 

I can't bear to listen to the news in any detail. 

Why on earth are people (well, it's men, isn't it? - a few, horrible ones) still behaving in this uncivilised way, when we are so clever about so much?

Anyway, the garden blooms on, regardless. 

These poppies self-seed and I love them. 

Along the river, things are also in full bloom. This is cow parsley or something of the sort. 

Wild geraniums.

Elder flowers

and wild roses. 

And in Saughton Park, a shortish walk from where we live, the herbaceous beds are at their best.

 

We're lucky to live so near. 

More poppies. So delicious.

Heuchera in the foreground. 

And I can't remember what this white fluffy thing is in the foreground, but the pink flowers are peonies. The white-flowered plant is a member of the cabbage family, I think? It's very pretty, anyway. 

So that's life at the moment: doing the garden, making a quilt, going for walks in gardens and nature, socialising with friends - very peaceful. If only the whole world could enjoy the gentle things of life. 

 

Doings

So in brief: we went to the Tirzah Garwood exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery - interesting, since we'd seen the Eric Ravilious (her husband) exhibition there some years ago and I've read her memoir.

Her art was very varied. 

and in various media.

I had a lovely visit to a school friend's house, and met her partner. M and I were never particularly close at school but we were friendly, and I always liked her. It's been so nice to reconnect. 

And then we came home and Littlest Granddaughter also came (to her) home and reconnected with her guinea pigs, which we had managed to keep fed and watered. 

Apart from that, it's been a flowery time. These mecanopsis were at Branklyn Gardens in Perth, which we always like to visit. 

And we met up with a very old friend, also M, and went to Little Sparta, about an hour's drive away, which is the garden of poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. We've been meaning to go for ages, and when M - who lives in London - said that she would like to visit it, that was the spur for us to take her. M's mother and mine were friends in London during the war, specifically during the Blitz, and her mother was my mother's bridesmaid. 

It's a very pleasant garden

with various art installations and inscriptions, some rather mysterious. 

And then, at home, all is very floriferous.

A neighbour (whose front garden is mainly paved, with some neatly trimmed small bushes) said to me yesterday that she liked the wild effect of my garden. 

I know what she meant, but it takes a lot of work to achieve such a wild effect. 

And that's me just about caught up with our doings, though frankly I don't really know why I do this...
 

More Salisbury

 On the same day as Stonehenge, we also visited Old Sarum, which is the former site of the city of Salisbury. 

And the next day we went to the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral; and after that to the Salisbury Museum. 

However, Blogger is insisting on loading the photos backwards, so...

Here are two beautiful green glass bowls buried with a rich lady. I wish I could remember when, but I think it was in Anglo Saxon times, so about eight hundred years ago. I would happily have them on a shelf now. 

Quite a few of the effigies on tombs in Salisbury Cathedral have ancient graffiti on them. Tut tut. But quite interesting. 

The cathedral was built in between 1220 and 1258 and has the highest spire in Britain - though the spire was a bit of an afterthought and wasn't added till 1330. 

Going back in time, Old Sarum used to look as below, but now looks - roughly the same view - as above. It had a castle and a cathedral, and was built on the site of an Iron Age hillfort with earthwork ramparts and a ditch in between them, still visible today. Because it was on a hill, there was only one, deep well, and the nobles and the clergy used to argue about access to water. So the king decided to move the city to two miles away, and used much of the stone to build the new city and cathedral. Well, when I say "new" - it was new then. 

Now there are bits of walls and so on, so that you can get a good idea of what used to be there. It's very interesting. 

Stonehenge

The next day, we went to Salisbury, in the south-west of England, with the aim of visiting Stonehenge. Our hotel dated from 1226, as you can see above. The oldest of its buildings were erected to house the stonemasons who were building Salisbury Cathedral. 

You can see the red lion behind Mr L. 

This is a very elderly fireplace, with The Last Supper carved on to it. Later we had dinner in this room but I'm happy to say that it wasn't our last supper. 

This is, I think, Jesus. He looks understandably gloomy. 

You can see that the hotel has been put together in a fairly ad hoc way over the centuries. 

The following day, we went to Stonehenge, which was duly astonishing. It was put up about 5000 years ago, with some stones brought from as far away as Wales and northern Scotland. The big stones weigh around 3 tons. It's all very amazing. There are theories about how it was done, and also why - but no one really knows. Some stones have fallen and some are missing, but there's enough there to provoke quite a bit of gasping. I didn't know that the crossbar stones have hollows carved in them, and the upright stones have corresponding knobs that fit into these. Just in case, for example, they were blown off by a breeze? 

Anyway, that's one thing crossed off the bucket list. There's a good museum there too, and a nice cafe. Essential!
 

Chelsea

We've been away. First we went to the Chelsea Flower Show in London. Then we had a few days in Salisbury - I wanted to see Stonehenge. Then we went back to London, to look after Littlest Granddaughter's guinea pigs while she and her parents were visiting the other grandparents. 

Chelsea was lovely, particularly as we had Daughter 2 with us. We've been before, and knew what to expect. There are innovative show gardens - not always quite what we'd design ourselves, but interesting. There are always tall people at the front of the crowds, but if you're patient, the people in front of you eventually go away and you can get a good view. To be honest, you get a better view from watching it on television, but the atmosphere isn't the same. Sadly, the general public doesn't get to walk into the actual show gardens - wander along the paths, sit in the seats - but you can get pretty near to them.

This is a seaside garden, purportedly - this is supposed to be a dune, with thrift and other coast-tolerant plants, though frankly I've yet to see a dune with anything like this variety of plants in it. But, you know: artistic licence. 

I can't now remember what the theory behind this one was...

or this,

but I love these poppies. 

For me, though, probably the best bit is the show tent, where lots and lots of specialist growers make displays of their best plants, giving you hope that some day, you might achieve something similar. I do love streptocarpus - look at all the different varieties. 

These lilies smelt wonderful. 

Of course, they're all prepared to sell you plants and bulbs, and of course we bought some. 

Lovely, lovely clematis. 

This Gertrude Jekyll rose has a wonderful scent. I must get one. 

 And who doesn't love peonies? Well, probably someone. But not me. 

So that was the first day.