Late Monday Musing

I am back in the land of the living after falling asleep for twelve hours Zzzzz.

The Flower is a Streptocarpus Happy Snappy. My plants have grown on well, or keeled over on my week of nights.

I need to prepare for moving,if the estate agents ring up. It was wet and cold this morning

not good gardening weather,as the soil is waterlogged and sticks to your tools.

This week I will photograph Pats Garden, and Help Fran plant her 140 Spring bulbs.I want some Hyacinth Bulbs to force indoors so I can smell them over xmas.

I finally read the First unit of the RHS course. will sit down and try to send off the questions for that. might just answer them as I best can and post it. hope the units get easier. it might be my academic lay off, six years has made my studying rusty.

Just need to blow the cobwebs and dust off. I enjoyed the more in depth knowledge of Seeds, and Taking Cuttings. Ideally I want some real life plants to propagate so the Academic knowledge is applied in real Horticultural practise. I must look for some placement somewhere like a Nursery to see these techniques in use..

A house with no DAMP will be more conducive to growing plants and seeds. Fungal infections have wiped out a lot of my plants. I guess Cleanliness is next to Godliness when you want to grow beautiful disease free plants that are not stressed!

I need to take some more photos this week, for the Blog mainly. David Austin Rose's have extended their judging until the end of October. I guess the Popularity meant they have been swamped with photos of their roses. If they don't Pick any of my entry's I will blog the photos I sent off to them. Fifteen Rose Pictures!

I can catch up on the Gardening Blogosphere, and see whats been growing and what people are writing about. I love the creativity of people, and the shared passion between gardeners of all ages, sexes, and nationality.

I am Happy the week of Nights are over. Now the Snappy gardener is Happy :)

Strawberry Sunday

Sunday morning.I never posted yesterday as I was exhausted from work.Even the snappy gardener misses a days post sometimes.

Six night shifts down one to go.I needed a photo to blog today....

Its my Strawberrys cup.So sweet I can almost smell them. With the Serrated leaves and White flowers with yellow centres..

The new garden will have strawberry plants too, to eat freshly picked from the plants.

I hope the new week coming brings good news.I can continue my RHS course, after reading the first unit book. It has been hard going though so far.

They would be nice with sugar and fresh cream...yum. I will have to dream of them instead at the moment. More blog posts soon :)

Ruby Raspberry Ripple

My free Streptocarpus Plant Ruby, with the mad looking flower nearly open. All five are in flower now, although the black Panther is drooping now. It only had the one flower bud on it.
I have been told the streptocarpus with the Furry leaves is a Cape Primrose.That did not show me any exact pictures on a google image search.
The Fourth night shift is over, three more to go. I love this flowers colours, the blurry Pink colour reminds me of an ice cream, with swirling white and Red colours inside the petal.
It is similar to the Happy Snappy streptocarpus. Will dream soon of the new garden and all the flowers that will bloom :)

Rain Drop Wasp and Whispering Trees

This winged beastie was resting on Pats green bean leaf the other day. He has handsome black and yellow stipes, metallic wings, and a shiny visor like front.
My Camera batteries decided they were not going to recharge overnight, so I could not take some photos for todays post.
Luckily I have taken soooooo many photos since March I have lots that I never post!
No news from the Estate agents about the house, or from David Austin Roses about my photos.
It was cold last night, with a clear sky, and a quarter moon. The only noise outside the ward was the wind rustling through the trees.They are so calming, healing noise is barely audible, but when I had the silver birch tree I loved to stand outside in the dark to hear its leaves.
I read about sensory gardens, and they mentioned Silver Birches are very good for the calming noise. Its like running water, or the rhythmic sound of waves crashing onto a beach...
Now im resting like my Green bean Wasp. Remembering the Trees.

Hanging Around

A Spider hanging around from the visit to Pats Garden a while ago.

Spiders get themselves busy in the Autumn spinning intricate webs between anything vertical and just dangle in the Breeze.

This Spider let me photograph him closely. Another wander of Nature.

The estate agent have not rung me yet about this house, so I am hanging around too :)

The Camera is empty of Battery, and needs recharging again, ready for more flower photos!

Nights and Red Satin

First night shift down, seven to go. Pictured is the Begonia Regal Minuet, a gift from Hil's friend.Im under strict instructions not to kill it in my flat! It has small pink flowers buds beneath, but the most beautiful thing is the foliage.
It is a shimmering red and black, like Satin, you can see how the flash has reflected off the leaves surface. Its sat by the Front room window with light, but not direct sunlight.I need to do more research about the plant when im not working.
I love the colours!

Stand and Deliver

The Happy Snappy in flower today. I like the Red/pink flower with the vanilla throat, and dark stripes, like Adam and the Ants from the 1980's. Stand and Deliver!

I got another flower catalogue through the post. This one was from Dibleys, pages and pages of Streptocarpus, African Violets, Foliage Begonias, and Other Strange Houseplants that I have never heard of.

From never hearing of Streptocarpus before, I now have five plants growing on the windowsills.

I am thinking about other colours that I dont have like White, yellow, or Blues. The plug plants only cost £2.30, which is probably about $3 in US money.

They are easy to grow, and give lots of flowers from April to Winter. They have survived the flat and will be moving with me to Windowsills new.

Im back on Seven night shifts this week, so the posts will slow down. I got a comment from Sue about a Retro Carnival Blog post, republishing your favourite old post again. I need to think as I have posted over 2200 times in three years :)

I will leave the link here: http://balcony-garden.blogspot.com/2007/10/lets-have-garden-bloggers-carnival.html

Hope all the people who visit here click on the link to read Sue's post. It will be a little bit of Winter Warming as the Northern Hemisphere slows down a little.