Gardening Leave

April

April

April

April

April

 

May 

June

This is my first post since February. Where have I been? Well mostly in the garden. It’s been a busy spring of sowing, planting, weeding and weeding some more. Now that the garden has reached its full summer peak, the pace has slowed a little so I’m catching up. Here’s a round up of my spring:

1. A trip to Ireland back in April.

I travelled with a friend who’d never been to the North and we stayed for a couple of days in a holiday home not far from my home village of Ballyronan. She saw the country at its best - the sun shone the whole time we were there. We went to the Seamus Heaney HomePlace and did the exhibition - she’d been an English teacher too and was keen to do this. And we followed the OpenGround trail visiting locations where the poems were set. Some of these very familiar to me like the site of the bombed out Magherafelt bus station. My favourite which I’d never visited was a walk along The Strand at Lough Beg on a beautiful still sunlit evening. I love that poem - a very sad one about Heaney’s cousin who was the victim of a sectarian shooting in the 1970s. 

We also went to Belfast and did touristy things there such as going on the hop on/off tour bus and visiting parts of the city I had never seen despite living there when I did my teacher training. These were generally no go areas back then but now the murals on both sides of the Peace Wall are tourist attractions. We also went to the Palm House and the Tropical Ravine at the Botanic Gardens and honestly they are magnificent. Just as impressive as Kew which I also visited recently and completely free to enter. We had a drink in The Crown and then caught the train to Lisburn from the swanky new Grand Central Station. My friend was astounded that it was the first train I have ever taken in NI - no railway at all where I’m from - we travelled everywhere by bus. Met my sister in Lisburn and spent the evening with her. 

2. A visit to The Chelsea Flower Show. 

I’ve watched the TV coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show for the last couple of years and so was keen when another sister Diane, the one who lives near Brighton suggested going. The big draw was seeing Monty Don’s ‘Dog Garden’ and as I’ve said before I am a big Monty fan. Sadly neither Monty nor his dogs were there on the day we visited but we did see the garden. The lawn looked a bit scruffy yet nowhere near as bad as mine which has got many bare patches and some holes the puppy has dug. As you can see from the photograph, there are three of us there. This is because Pamela, my youngest sister, had a hospitality ticket to the show. While we had only purchased afternoon tickets - and they were pricey enough - she had a free invite through work and had spent the day being wined and dined. By the time we caught up with her she’d had quite a lot of champagne. I loved Chelsea especially the floral marquee - the David Austin Rose strand was spectacular. The show gardens were all very different in how they were designed but I thought the planting was quite similar in many - a lot of foxgloves and some of them looked a bit weedy with buttercups etc. The on-trend plant seems to be Geum TotallyTangerine especially when paired with a blue salvia. I decided to copy this - see below. 

Monty’s Dog Garden

My on-trend planting

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My Dog Garden complete with dog and patchy lawn.

3. A visit to Kew Gardens 

Kate came to meet me in London after the flower show as it was half term for her. On the Saturday afternoon we went to see Les Miserables. London was heaving with tourists, especially around the theatre area. The production was very slick and impressive - I’ve only ever seen a school version. Then we headed out to Kew where we’d booked an Airbnb for a couple of nights. It was actually a ‘garden room’ at the back of a house in a quiet street - well quiet except the noise of the aircraft heading for Heathrow. Lovely little place and it was good to be away from the crowds in central London. The  visit to Kew was originally planned for my birthday four years ago and had to be cancelled because it was forecast to reach 40C that day. That Sunday was perfect - sunny and not too hot and it was really beautiful. My favourite garden was behind Kew Palace - I think it is called Queen Charlotte’s garden. It was quieter than other parts and full of roses. We explored the Palace too. Kate seemed to know quite a lot about it, not entirely because of her history degree - more from watching Bridgerton. 

Kew Palace

4. Writing

I’ve not been writing any blog posts but I have been writing. I now have 80,000 words on my story. Now I just need to write the ending.