mystery plant..

the mystery audrey plant, growing on!

Jack o'lantern 2

two strawberries in October

Jack O'Lantern

This is our Jack O'Lantern, carved by Sallyanne and photographed by me.I felt the urge to buy a pumpkin today at the shop.
The pagan festival of Samhain, All Hallowed eve, All saints eve.
I love this celebration, the goblins, vampires, and ghosts.Things going bump during the night.
Its suitably dark, cold, and windy outside.
We only had one lot of trick or treaters.My fav memory was when my Dad was in the Army we lived near an American base.The amount of sweets me and my sister collected astounded me.
The Americans celebrate it with more gusto than the English.The pagan overtones upsets the more straight religeous ones.
That is the great thing about the English, the public holidays have become mixture of old pagan beliefs and christian celebrations.
Its hard to know where one begins and one ends...
I worked today a normal tuesday.The buses ran smooth finally after a few days of wierdness.I have two days off to tidy the windswept garden, and sort out my seedlings!
I read Halloween was the old festival to celebrate the end of summer, fires are lit, lanterns hung up, sweets ready for giving, children go out to collect sweets for the celebration.
If you celebrate halloween hope you are having a good one!!

Splurge of colour

The colurful euphorbia flowers with the maddest colours like a watercolour, wet in wet wash!

The sun is shining and im going to work soon.I can admire many peoples gardens and dream of next years borders.

Tomorrow I want to buy some compost to move my seedlings into individual pots.I have to make a greenhouse upstairs with my over wintering plants.

This includes busy lizzies, pansys, and the hollyhocks.I want to start off some sweet pea's too..

The Euphorbia was called Splurge on the label, though it fits with the colourful flower bracts.They have turned from green to yellow to multicoloured.

Thanks UK Bob there still is a bit to look at in the garden, the pleasure is still there walking around with camera and seeing whats growing, or starting to sleep..

I read yesterday somewhere that only 3% of Blogs are updated daily.In the summer I managed it.How often should they be updated to be called current blogs?

Back garden view

The back garden between light and shade on a sunny autumn day.The snappy shadow is on the bottom right of the pic.Can see dusty millers, the monarda, the nasturtiums, and the strawberry plants on the coffee table!!

Autumn pics of the garden today

Sunlight on the Euphorbia, love the colours of green with light yellow and green.













The trimmed Lavender plants, they still smell gorgeous.














Secret nasturtium flower hidden beneath the green canopy.the leaves are like big green umbrella's..















The Foxglove still with dark green leaves.The dry heat stopped all the flowers.Gutted!!

Clarence house's Cabbages

I read yesterday in fridays Daily Mail that Prince Charles has ripped up all his grandmothers flowers at the Clarence house garden, and replaced them with horrible ornamental cabbages.The Hollyhocks have gone.
Here is a comment from the Daily telegraph.. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?menuId=5365&menuItemId=-1&view=DISPLAYCONTENT&grid=P8&targetRule=0
Cabbages, cauliflowers, and beans replaced the perennials. They are not destined to be eaten the veg. Prince Charles has been a fan of organic farming for a long time. I feel its sad that his grandmothers fav flowers have been turfed out in favour of something ornamental.
He wont be eating them, so why grow them?
His grandmother was the Queen Mother, a royal sadly missed since her death. She loved old fashioned gardens with borders of perrenniels. Her last visit to Balmoral was to see a new greenhouse..
I am a royalist, and a gardener, so its funny to have a story linking the two.. Heres the Clarence house link explaining it uses for non British readers: http://www.royalinsight.gov.uk/output/Page2522.asp
Been having problems posting so I hope this one works!!

Autumn tree

Mushroom

Its like a blue/grey UFO that has appeared on the grass...

Back in the land of daytime

Im back awake in daylight hours after three night shifts and a late shift. I have been working in the dark, sleeping through the daylight.
The first frost has not reached us yet. Its getting chilly at night.
My monarda seeds have germinated one seedling so far. The pansys are doing well, and the hydrangea leaves look really nice growing on.
My Hello wont work now so im uploading photos via blogger which is slow. I have taken a few pics to upload soon.
The garden is running out of steam with less and less flowers.The leaves are falling, changing colour, and it has rained a lot.I have a new species of mushroom on the grass.
Im off tomorrow so i will be out in the garden.Will post more later.Hope your gardens are all growing still!

Yellow flower close up 

Flowers on the tomato plant.. 

Stain glass window effect, the volunteer tomato plant 

Whats on your windowsill?

The brightness of the Nasturtium flower contrasts to everything else that is slowing down.We are still waiting for the first frost, its getting nippy at night, but not freezing.

The windowsill has the most going on with baby mother in laws tongues, winter pansy seedlings, hollyhock seedlings, the Amaryllis plant, the leaf grown african violet, an easter cactus, a kalancoe in a pot, the big mother in laws tongue, my hydrangea cutting, and a volunteer tomato plant from the frontwindow border..

Cara says miow for all her comments.She feels hungary all the time but she is in no danger of dissapearing.

Im back on night shifts for next three nights.I will take some photos soon off whats growing today and post them.

The tree's are slowly turning into browns, reds, and yellows.The change has been gradual due to the warm temperature i think.More post soon!

Magpies and Stawberries

This is a photofit of the magpie I saw today flying around the rooftops with his soul mates.My mission is to get a close up photo when they come to my garden.There are bird feeders up and water for them.

I looked them up on the RSPB website( http://www.rspb.org.uk/ ) , the Royal Society for the protection of birds. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/m/magpie/index.asp

I think that the British generally love song birds and do not mind helping make their gardens bird friendy,They are like original free spirits, that give me enormous pleasure when they visit the garden, and hop around.Their songs are sweet and make you remember childhood memories.

I know the magpie has had a bad reputation but i think they look so regal.Their is a pair even within my hospitals grounds and i see them hopping along the grass with wings folded back, like old generals.

I want to photograph a strawberry nearly ripened.Angela from work gave me about fifteen strawberry plants, perpeptual strawberries hence the fruit in October.They are very juicy but she said they would be sweeter if they were in a greenhouse..

I hope next year to eat plenty of strawberries and cream, and to make home made strawberry jam.Yum yum!!

I was also reading about wild strawberries which I could plant along my hedgerow, a natural British fruiting plant..

The photo is on the left.mmmmmmm strawberry...

I have just brought in the self seeded tomato plant to see if it can over winter and see what tomato's it actually grows.The house is warm and the windowsill a good greenhouse effect.

I have four tomatos now ready for eating off my two experimental plants.They were both planted maybe six weeks later than they should have.The experiment worked you can grow tomatos from seeds obtained from store bought tomatos.The resulting toms were lovely, delicious and juicy, like their parent.

I have got some seeds from the tomato pictured earlier with the evil cat.I have a supply for growing them next year.Cant wait.I may do some experiment store tomato obtained seed versus proper tomato seeds from a reputable seed merchant.See which one produces the best fruit.

I want some onion seeds and kale so i can plant something in my veg patch because the weeds are loving the cleared soil.Sigh, they never sleep the weeds!!

im soooooooooo hungary..the mad under gardener trys to get my attention outside the kitchen window 

Hollyhocks on the windowsill, so far so good! 

Mioww ,is it breakfast time? 8.30 am this morning 

African violet grown from a cut leaf.. 

Autumn sunshine yesterday after early shift 

Waiting for the bus...dappled sunlight dancing through the trees 

Autumn trees at the hospital 

I saw a pair of magpies today, this one was sat on a chimney five hundred yards away... 

From the front and stood up properly this time... 

Anemone flopped over, like a gone with the wind skirt 

Busy lizzies great balls of fire 

Nasturtium leaves, flower buds, and seeds 

My little succulent, it had to be removed from the big pot because the succulents bullied it out of the way,the sedums and sempervivums.. 

Not a strawberry i ate today..its a bit pinker now!!