Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Lockdown week 9 - Wednesday. I think.


It was a beautiful day here - warm, by our standards, and sunny. We went up to Murrayfield golf course and took the same pictures as always - sorry!


This looks down on Carrick Knowe golf course, to the upper right of the photo. You can see how much higher we were today.


The red campion is just spectacular - it shows up much better to the eye than in this photo. There's so much of it - which is why one shouldn't be tempted to allow it in the garden.


But look: so pretty.


I don't want to boast, but I think the skyline is as good as that of any other capital city (and better than most) - though I might possibly be biased.


Anyway, we then came home (2.8 hottish miles) and I took some photos of the garden. This is what we always called Nancy Pretty when I was a child, though it's also known as London Pride - who knows why? It's a saxifrage.


And then - irises. Love them.


Alliums.


Geraniums.



More irises.


This peony seeds itself everywhere but I sometimes let it. It's single but early and pretty and the bees love it.


Like all columbines, this seeds itself prolifically also. But it's so frilly.


More irises and heuchera.


And ceanothus - I love this blue. It spreads over the path on the way to my compost heap and is usually covered in bees, so it makes composting the household waste a slightly hazardous enterprise. But it's so lovely!

And so many congratulations to my lovely American bloggy friend, Margaret, who's just become a granny! Which is terrific news, though very sadly she can't meet the baby at the moment because of lockdown. I feel for her so much. But welcome to Granny Club, Margaret!! It's a good one.

Missingthefamilymissingthefamilymissingthefamilymissingthefamilysigh.

4 comments:

  1. Is that a normal geranium? Mine look nothing like that. I think the views in Edinburgh are spectacular, so you're not biased. Is it time to talk to your children about reasonable ways that you can get together with them and the grandchildren? This is going to be longterm, and we have to find ways to spend time with our loved ones.

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    1. Yes, it's a geranium. I don't know about America, but in Britain we tend also to call pelargoniums "geraniums", but this is actually a hardy geranium.

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  2. Another day, another amazingly beautiful walk. And your flowers. You are so far ahead of us! And we cannot grow ceonothus here, at all. I hope the restrictions will lift a bit for you so you can see your grandchildren and still maintain a safe distance.

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  3. Apparently London Pride is a cross between a Spanish and an Irish saxifrage species. It only arrived here in the 1700s. According to Wikipedia 'it will grow well in neglected or unfavourable urban spaces' and that is certainly where you find it in London. And, citing Brewer's Phrase and Fable, Wikipedia notes: 'Bishop Walsham How (1823–1897) wrote a poem to the flower rebuking it for having the sin of pride. When told the flower had the name because Londoners were proud of it he wrote another poem apologising to it.'

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