In the garden again

-
 
The blossom on the wild cherry is perfection in its white delicacy.
 


 
In the garden the intense yellow green sings of May,  here smyrnium perfolitatum, a triennial.



And here euphorbia characias.  If I were an insect I would live in it.



 
Or maybe in these magnolias.  Look at the thick creamy sculpted flowers.  What a home they would make.

 
Out in the orchard the apple trees are coming into flower.
 
 




And in the pots in front of the house an explosion of orange tulips: Ballerina, Hermitage and Couleur Cardinal.  Can we just hold the moment for a little longer?

Comments

  1. Janet/Plantaliscious13 May 2016 at 22:14

    It really is a magical time of year isn't it! Those tulips look wonderful, ballerina is my favourite, though I am really enjoying prinse Irene this year too. So good to see you taking such pleasure from your garden again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave14 May 2016 at 14:00

      I love ballerina too. I keep trying others but always come back to her!

      Delete
  2. Anne Wareham13 May 2016 at 23:07

    More great things will follow, too, you'll see.... XXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave14 May 2016 at 14:02

      this is the best time for us Anne but I must work on later in the year if/when I get my gardening mojo back.

      Delete
  3. Diana Studer13 May 2016 at 23:14

    Your garden looks pleased to see you, rolling out the red carpet!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pondside14 May 2016 at 02:06

    I love the thought of living in a magnolia blossom. I'd choose to live in one of the flowering cherries here that bloom in enormous pink ice-cream scoop balls. All that you are enjoying now, we have enjoyed already. We have enjoyed a very early spring, with day after day of temperatures above 20 and many days over 25. You still have the pleasures of the lilacs and early roses to come - so beautiful. I know you'll enjoy every minute, every blossom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave14 May 2016 at 21:36

      you are right. there is much that is lovely to come. but there is something about may...

      Delete
  5. driftwood14 May 2016 at 08:26

    oh those tulips just gorgeous x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave14 May 2016 at 21:37

      aren't they fabulous? I am rather addicted to orange tulips. funny Bacchae for the rest of the year there is not much orange in evidence!

      Delete
  6. VP14 May 2016 at 08:48

    I love apple blossom time - it's a special time in the garden. I never knew there were triennials, I must find out more...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave16 May 2016 at 21:01

      I don't know any other triennial than the smyrnium Michelle!

      Delete
  7. Penny14 May 2016 at 11:11

    Lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe14 May 2016 at 11:53

    Mother Nature sure paints a pretty picture.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Pienosole14 May 2016 at 11:53

    Thank you! A glorious display. Such a beautiful time of year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave16 May 2016 at 21:03

      it is probably my favourite time of year. may is just wonderful.

      Delete
  10. Elizabeth14 May 2016 at 12:03

    These are such gorgeous pictures, Elizabeth!
    I have just come back from England and those brought back lovely memories.
    The euphorbia is extra stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Frances14 May 2016 at 15:01

    Elizabeth, perhaps your beautiful photographs will help to extend the exquisite moment. I am so glad that you've shared them with us.

    The brilliant yellow green triennial is amazing. I am not sure that I've ever seen this before. If so, I somehow forgot its glory.

    xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave17 May 2016 at 22:38

      Smyrnium is a strange plant Frances. You don't see it very often but if it takes root in your garden it is with you for the long haul. It has taken me a long time to get it established!

      Delete
  12. CherryPie15 May 2016 at 02:17

    I came across you blog via Shropshire bloggers.

    Your garden flowers are looking beautiful :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave17 May 2016 at 22:39

      Great to meet you! And thank you. i can't take any credit but they are doing lovely things all on their own.

      Delete
  13. rusty duck15 May 2016 at 21:30

    Beautiful magnolia. I'm spending all my time in the garden watering at the moment. Please send rain!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Penny16 May 2016 at 06:32

    Everything looks so lush and well card for. The colours are stunning x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave17 May 2016 at 22:40

      There is something about the zing of the orange and of the lime green that really lifts the spirits. I wonder if I am getting keener on strong colours as I get older, and if so , I wonder why!

      Delete
  15. Anonymous16 May 2016 at 16:42

    Sumptuous blooms. May is a wonderful month in the garden. Gorgeous tulips – Ballerina is one of my favourites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave22 May 2016 at 15:54

      I love ballerina too. I keep trying various others but it is hard to beat both the swooningly orange colour and the elegance of the flower.

      Delete
  16. Amy at love made my home16 May 2016 at 18:42

    Isn't it wonderful to see the blossoms and flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  17. materfamilias19 May 2016 at 17:08

    Sighing and sighing over the beauty of your garden, of floral spring in general as well . . . yes, would that we could hold on to it a bit longer...

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Quirky Bird Gardener19 May 2016 at 22:00

    Gorgeous colours, especially in the sunshine, isn't spring great :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Procrastinator extraodinaire31 May 2016 at 09:16

    We have a beautiful white magnolia in our newest garden and it will be staying unlike most of the other plants. I love them despite their shortlived display. Reading your last post was so pertinant. I have recently been reading View from a high Peak another of those original CL bloggers who kept it up. Having regrets and would love to have been able to look back on a similar diary myself but sadly can't even access my earlier stuff, technology and a disjointed life got in the way. Xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Musgrave31 May 2016 at 23:05

      How good to hear from you again! I am glad I kept it up too but haven't quite got back my sense of what I want to write since my dad died. I'm hoping that at some stage it all falls into place again!

      Delete
  20. Wisewebwoman23 June 2016 at 12:48

    Grief and it's impact make far reaching changes to the psyche. If we wait long enough the changes can be remarkable. I've been asked to grief counsel othersnow having been through the Grief wringer myself. Astonishing really.
    You ask us about the contract. I do believe you could be slicing chunks out of the phone book and I would read you. You write from the heart. Your devoted readers require nothing less.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are the best thing and the conversations they produce are the whole purpose of blogging for me. Do tell me what you think!

Popular posts from this blog

Making lined curtains

-
Image
While Ian was away I decided it was time to make the new curtains for the cottage.   I have been putting this off for at least four months, maybe six.  First of all I couldn't find any material I liked at a price I could afford so that was a fine excuse.  Then I read a recommendation for Textile Express  on Annie's blog.  Textile Express has a fab website but when I realised it was only forty minutes away in Oswestry I had to visit.  Wonderful choice, great prices; material purchased.  Then I carried on putting the job off because I was a bit daunted by the fact that two of the curtains are full length ones for doors but there is nothing like knowing you have a few days to yourself to make you feel you can get your teeth into a project. And amazingly, now it is done.  As I have been thinking of nothing else for about a week I thought I would share with you my own advice on how to make lined curtains.  I am not a supremely talented sewer but I have made loads of these over the
Read more

I love November

-
Image
I always used to hate November: greyness, wetness, short days and dank, dark nights.  It felt to me as if the world turned inward and the light left the sky and as the days darkened my energy dropped and so did my mood.  When did my feelings change?  I am not sure.  My mother died in November and my father two years later in December.  I think that these losses combined with my own growing sense of how fast time runs away with you have shifted me towards wanting to make the very most of each day.  I can't afford to discount three or four months of the year.  How many more years are there?  I have no idea but I should make my days count. And lo and behold! It is possible to change the patterns of a lifetime!  It is possible to find things to love in November and to be energised and excited, just as much as in Spring.  Over the last few years I have found lots of ways to feel good in November and for me that seems to require some particular things to shape my day: Going Outside Far a
Read more

This year's tulips

-
Image
I love tulips.  For a while in my gardening life I struggled to create the effects that I wanted until I had the blinding realisation that the problem was that I was not using enough of them.  Isn't it wonderful when the right answer is the exciting answer?  Now I buy in bulk.  I plant new ones in pots, some new ones in the ground and, when I can get my act together, some of the ones which were in last year's pots into the ground too.  This is the  counsel of perfection as usual and doesn't always happen.  In the autumn of 2010 I remembered in time to get quite a lot into the cutting garden.  Last year I lifted all my bulbs, failed to label them, left them to die down and failed to remember that they were hiding in a big pot in the kitchen garden. When I came across them in November when I was planting out my new ones I found that most of them had rotted or been eaten.  Some did go into the cutting garden and into beds in the kitchen garden if they looked to have any signs
Read more