Dragons, Butterflies, and more cake ideas ~~~

Gentle Reader ~ it has been warm and humidly hot at times in the Garden this week so I have been doing very little other than necessary tasks such as watering and harvesting.  It has been too hot for it to be comfortable outside when working up a sweat ~~~ so I have spent time in my craft room this week ~~~ today is much cooler though so I have been outside preparing an area ready to receive the two butternut squash plants in a week or two ~~~

Meanwhile, the tiny Swiss Chard plantlets already show signs of the beautiful jewel~like colours that will brighten the garden in Autumn and maybe even in to Winter ~ I am looking forward to eating the stems, cooked, and served in a homemade four cheese sauce~oh! yummy ~~~

I do not know, but I think Swiss Chard is of the same family as beetroot because the seeds looked very similar, little gnarly things, and now they are growing they look very like the beets that are in another area ~~~

The tomato harvest, although small is delicious, and every two days there are enough to add to my salad bowl.  They are fresh and taste properly of tomatoes ~ I love how my hands have that tomatoey smell on them when I am picking them from the vines.

Mother Nature provides the best camouflage ~~~ the plot is jumping with grasshoppers, it has been like this for weeks when hundreds of tiny grasshoppers appeared all over the garden.  Now, there are not as many {for there are hungry birds and other predators in the garden} but they are much bigger and they provide the backing music to the buzzy bumble bees busily harvesting pollen ~~~ you don't see the grasshoppers, you hear them, until, that is, they leap from their hiding place because they think you got too close ~~~ then off they leap in a bound and away ~~~

Perfect camouflage, don't you think?  Can you see the Grasshopper?

There it is! If not for that tiny flash of orangey brown, it would be very hard to spot indeed ~~~

The courgettes are harvesting well now and I have them for my supper most evenings.  It is important to pick them regularly or they will stop producing fruit.  Did you know that the courgette plant produces male and female flowers?  This is a male courgette flower ~~~

and this is a female one ~~~

which bears the fruits ~~~

while the male just sits there looking pretty ~ however, for the overall benefit of the plant, and to aid in production of more female, fruit bearing flowers, it is a good idea to remove the male flowers as soon as possible ~~~

The garden is absolutely alive with dragonflies ~ naturally, I am thrilled, for I counted as many as fifteen whizzing around, darting hither and thither and then I gave up trying because there are just too many of them to try to count as they flit about at such a speed ~~~ did you know that one of the folk lore names for them is the Devil's Darning Needle?  I think we can all see why!  It was the answer to one of the questions on a television quiz show earlier in the week {I do love quiz shows!} ~~~

I love this shot and am quite chuffed with it.  Other than re-sizing for posting purposes it is unedited and is exactly how it came out of the sd card, not cropped in any way ~~~

It sat for a while ~ as do we with our tea and cakes ~ so I zoomed out to get this one too ~~~

at a jaunty angle it sits ~~~

It looks very 'knowing' don't you think? ~~~

Butterflies have appeared more slowly this year ~ I wonder if it was the very wet winter? ~~~ the Gatekeeper, here, is one of my favourites and often accompanies me around the berry patch ~~~

The wing looks like brushed suede or velvet ~~~

Such a pretty marked creature ~~~

Busy Buzzy Bees make me happy ~ all sorts of bees but especially big, fuzzy wuzzy Bumble Bees ~~ Bee~utiful! My name is Hebrew for bee ~ and my spirit soars when I wander off into the garden and hear them buzzing as they go busily about their business of gathering pollen and fertilising all the plants, flower, fruit, and vegetables in the garden ~ there I could stay all day listening, eyes closed driftin' and dreamin', or eyes wide open watching them ~ a hive of industry ~ have you ever stopped and listened ~ I mean *really* listened to their music? It is as varied as any symphony you will hear, for each bee sings their own sweet song ~~~

For those of you who read my previous entry, where I baked cake, here is a little update for you.  I have now made the cake three more times and really like putting the fruit in the bottom of the pan and pouring the batter over the fruit, like an upside~down cake.  I also added a generous teaspoon of powdered ginger to the flour and made the lemon syrup as shown on the recipe page to make a yummy lemon and ginger cake.   The parish vicar was here this afternoon and he is a big fan of my Rose Geranium plant.  He was very disappointed to see it wasn't in his favourite spot by the front door {where he bruises the leaves to release the heady fragrance} I had to tell him it is currently in the process of being cut back and re~potted.  I suddenly remembered seeing a recipe where the leaves of the rose, or lemon, scented geraniums are used to line cake pans before pouring in the batter and baking so that they impart the most heavenly fragrance to the baked cake.  So, no prize for guessing what I'm baking tomorrow!  I shall let you know how it turns out.  

The soft fruit picking is nearly at an end now, so maybe I will have more time to browse the Spring Bulb catalogues as very soon the time will be upon us for planting all the bulbs that make the garden so pretty in Spring ~~~ in the meantime, remember ~~~

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

Fairies in the Garden ~~~ When Life Gives You Raindrops ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ I cannot believe that it is over a week since I posted!  By now, I have picked so many boxes of soft fruit I am starting to feel like a berry!  The first batch of Raspberry Jam was made here and boxes are now stacking up in the deep freeze, full of more raspberries, blackcurrants, and gooseberries.  I hope the courgettes crop as well as the soft fruit has done!  Oh, and there are still many more raspberries and blackcurrants to pick again!  At this time of year I feel like a soft fruit picking and processing machine ~ I also know, from the arduous job of topping and tailing why companies such as Ribena make only juice drinks!

Have you ever picked raspberries?  Did you notice how, as soon as you think you have picked the last one, you turn around and there are more?  They have a quaint knack of hiding themselves, to pop out and say "Boo! ~ You missed me!" ~~~ I have learned much about raspberries this summer and there is much to do so things will be more productive and easier to manage next summer!

I have picked the first tomatoes ~~ and eaten them ~~ with two more picks since.  I must go and tie up the stems too, for they have slipped a little and the branches are sagging, laden with fruits ~~

They are growing up against a south facing wall, in a Gro~bag and coming along very well, I think!

Here is a little update on other things growing and coming along ~~~ do you remember I said the Butternut Squash had found themselves on the menu for slugs, along with the runner beans?  Well, sad to say, the runner beans will not recover now, but I have managed to save two of the four lovely Butternut squash seedlings and they, so far, are recovering.  I will take photographs when they are looking better again!

The courgette plants are growing steadily, although two are eaten almost completely away by slugs, another is recovering, two are doing quite well, and two are taking off!  Such a difference in seven plants all sown and planted out together!   Here are the two strongest and most healthy ~~~ and I think you will agree that they are quite sturdy plants indeed ~~~

The carrot experiment continues in the bin ~~~ I have sown more seed in the gaps ~~~ a full conclusion will only be reached, though, once harvest is made ~~~ for only then will I know if the carrot fly failed and my plan worked ~~~

Here are just a few of the tiny seedlings of Swiss Chard that germinated ~~~ very soon they will need thinning and weeding too!  The twigs are there to protect the seedlings from birds and cats ~~~
I am looking forward to Swiss Chard in a cheese sauce this winter! ~~~ oh! and the seeds were well past their 'sow before' date by about four years or more ~~~ I always say the old, folklore adage of "one year's seeds is seven years weeds" holds true for vegetable seeds too! 

The weather has not been brilliant ~ lots of thundery showers, sticky and humid ~ you know the sort ~ and with the wind too, some of the flowers are going over more rapidly than usual.  However, always one to be on the lookout for something to snare with my lens, I took these ~~ they are my Fairies in the Garden photographs!  I hope you like them, I think they are quite fun ~~~ take a close look, see if you can guess what they are and I will tell you later on ~~ Remember ~~~ when life gives you raindrops ~~~ take photographs! ~~~

As well as Fairies, we have fairy clothing, or gloves for foxes!  They say foxgloves are so called because foxes wear them to soften the sound of their padding paws, but I rather fancy them as little hats for tiny fairies dancing in the pale moon light as it casts silvery shadows across the lawn ~~~ there are volumes of folk lore attached to these beautiful, elegant spikes that line our hedgerows and paint our gardens ~~~ freely seeding, I have never been without foxgloves in my garden ~~~

I love the green caps that hold the glove to the stem ~~~

I love how close the gloves are to each other ~~~

~~~ and I love the spots inside and the tiny hairs that point the way for bees to gather honey ~~~

For those of you who are fans of Tasha Tudor {as am I, she is a particular heroine of mine} you may know that she had much of this in her garden ~~~ Rose Bay Willow Herb or Fireweed ~~~ and I have much of it too!

I am pleased to say that the Evening Primrose is still seeding around my garden, and I found some growing on the old stone hedge ~~~

I took this for reference, because I love how the colours and textures all work together ~ well, I think they do ~ I love the frothy white oregano flowers, the purple lavender spikes, and the bright acid yellow of the oregano leaves {Alchemilla Mollis would work well in this group also} It is important, when planning, to keep a record of things you like, things that work well together, and, very importantly ~~~ things that thrive in your soil and situation ~~~

I love this purple Clematis bloom, softly moistened with early morning dew ~~~

I have dead headed pots and tubs of flowers on so many evenings this past week ~~~ an arduous task but must be done ~~~ put your portable radio on with some good music and switch your mind off from the job ~~ then set to work with your tiny snips removing all the spent blooms before they set seed ~~~ for soon you will be rewarded with more flowers and fragrance ~~~ the trick is to fool the plant into thinking it still needs to make seed ~~~ it will make more flowers if the already fertilised flowers are taken away ~~~

Here is the view from my cottage, across the early morning fields, bathed in a swaddling mist of night ~~~

Here is the same angle, with those fields in the distance, showing the Elizabeth roses that bloom in profusion outside my window ~~~ what a sight to wake up to each Summer's morn ~~~

Am I blessed, or am I blessed?  I am very blessed indeed, and I give thanks for this each day when I look out across The Shire ~~~

Did you guess what those Fairy photographs were of yet?  Well, here they were just a few days before ~ the seed heads of a tiny Willow Herb that I captured as it broke open ~~~ quite feathery looking with that row of black seeds just waiting for the right moment to fling themselves into the wind ~~~

Unfortunately for them, they picked the wrong day!  They sprung forth from their spring~loaded pods straight into a nearby spider web and then it rained!  I just happened to notice the fluffy, dew~covered web and put my camera to work immediately!  Seren~dipity~do~dah!  ~~~

Then, the sun came out again and left them high and dry ~~~ still trapped, forever, in a spider's web of doom! {shudders} See how different it looks ~ yet you can see exactly what it is too ~~~

Finally, here is a little hover fly drinking nectar from a purple Verbena Bonariensis ~~~ a nectar rich plant which does well in the Garden, seeding everywhere, standing up to the winds as it bends on whippy, elegantly long stems, providing colour, structure, and nectar for the butterflies and bees ~~~

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

I know I said ~~~

Gentle Reader~~~I know I promised not to deliver more than two blog entries a week, but the photographs are starting to pile up, and being a person of minimal organisation skills they get lost in the ether of cyberspace {did I actually use that word here?} or the darkest recesses of my hard drive, along with the other few thousand pictures {yes, you read that correctly} that infest my computer where they remain unnamed and unsorted, catalogued only by the date they were taken.  I know this is very bad practice indeed and I really should sort myself, and the photographs, out.  Life was so much easier when all was on 35mm film and the temptation to shoot everything that poses or stands still long enough did not exist, or was simply too expensive.  Imagine taking over 200 images a day on 35mm film!  My bank manager would never understand or give me an overdraft facility for that!  I would have to lie and tell him the money was for new tyres for my car ~~~ which as I do not own a car would be a bit of a stretch! {giggles}

The weather is simply perfect and glorious now.  I could throw all manner of descriptions out, from simple adjectives to flourishing sentence fragments, but comfortably warm to sit out, too hot to dig and weed, big blue skies, bright sunshine, contra trails not clouds, deck chairs, and Pimms {or home made lemonade} on the lawn just about sums it up.  In other words, it just feels good.  After the Winter we had it feels like a miracle!

I did dig a bit this morning, because yesterday I removed the big weed smothering covers from the veggie patch {that took forever!} and this morning I started to turn the soil over, breaking it up, ready to receive several of the courgette plants that are coming on very well now.  I went into Spider Town {aka garden shed} and brought out several of the home made cloches which will give the plants extra protection from everything that threatens them once they are in the soil, so all is ready.  These home made cloches are 5 litre water bottles that I cut the bottoms off and they make great cloches, the tops come off and on to regulate the heat inside the little mini greenhouses and I am recycling instead of adding the bottles to landfill.

So, I did say that I'm bursting at the seams with photographs to share with you ~~~ would you mind waiting just a moment, it is getting very hot here in the living room, the sun is streaming in through the French doors and I must draw the curtains ~~~ ah! that is better ~~~ ironic too!  We spend all Winter trying to keep warm, if only we could harness some of today's starting~to~be~searing heat to use in January and February!

Gentle Reader ~~~ are you still with me? ~~~ here is the reason for my digging and preparing ~~~ do you recall, a few short weeks ago when I planted my courgette seeds here and then this happened ~~~

Then this ~~~ 

and a few days ago this ~~~

 

Well, today they are even bigger and are rocketing ever up in size with the increasing Summer warm days and lots of watering on my part, so I think they are now ready to plant up.   It really is one of the best feelings in the world, to see the tiny seeds you sow germinate and grow into healthy little plants ~~~hence the digging and clearing, but only in little bits and often as it is very hot and uncomfortable working out there today, with the sun beating down on my back and almost no breeze {well, there's a change, isn't it, no breeze?}

There are runner beans too, but they are quite behind, in total I have six plants, three in the big bin and three in the tray that I planted as my 'insurance'.  However, I am confident that they will come on and give some cropping, even if it isn't huge.  Anything fresh from the garden is a treat, even if it is small ~~~

  

Across The Shire drifts a lonesome drone~~~the farmers are busy making hay while the sun shines! 

 

While back in the Garden busy bees drone as they go about harvesting the bounty of pollen from the poppies ~~~

  

Do you notice the wings are beating so fast they look as if the bee is wingless! Oh My! ~~~

 

  

 But here, you can see the blurry wings whizzing to keep the bumble bee in the air!  A miracle ~~~

  

I was thrilled yesterday to be watching, off and on, all day long two darling little wrens and here is one for you to see ~~~ 

 

Then, late last evening, one of them came flying straight at me, why! I thought he would fly straight in to me, but no, he sat on a nearby wall, close to where I fill my watering cans, and just looked at me, you know "that look" that says, well, look at me, here I am, aren't I just so cute? ~~~ Magic, and made me so happy too ~~~ that momentary connection with nature at it's best ~~~

The light was amazing too ~~~ every corner of the Garden bathed in a glorious golden rose glow as I have seen often, of late, in the Shire evenings ~~~ here are some photographs, which by no means capture it, for it is so hard to do, so it is a poor imitation of what was really there ~~~

 

 

 

This morning, the native Mullein are opening too ~~~ one of my favourites which I will allow to freely self~seed across the garden, as I feel privileged it has chosen my garden in which to grow ~~~ but see how badly eaten are the leaves? ~~~ Do you recall the Mullein Moth I showed you here?  Well, this is what the do {sad face icon here} ~~~

One final image for today ~~~ this magnificent view {after all, I only capture what God gives me} across the Shire ~~~ where the sky is blue and big, the fields are green, and hay is being made ~~~ I just had to share with you today! ~~~

 ~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~