It’s been a busy week for me, after a lovely long weekend away avoiding the jubilee.
I’m not a monarchist. (More on that later, if you care to read on.)
But, first, Six on Saturday, a charming and wholesome garden blogging meme, which celebrates six garden highlights each weekend.
- Roses in a vase, with honeysuckle, daisies, pinks and snapdragons. This is a wonderfully scented bouquet, picked from the garden earlier this week. I love how it fills the room with its sweet perfume, as well as looking lovely. And I’m pleased with how the roses I’ve planted out are getting established and flowering generously…
2. Honeysuckle: There’s a splendidly sweet scent from this mass of delightful honeysuckles in our garden, near the back door….
3. Cherries in rainbow organza.
I did eventually get around to netting the cherry tree, using a yard of rainbow organza that I purchased in the bargain remnants bin at John Lewis haberdashery in Oxford Street almost 30 years ago… I knew it would come in handy one day.
So far, it’s doing the trick of keeping the birds off our cherries, and it looks fabulous!
4. The new rockery. This was recently planted by my lovely husband, by the honeysuckle clumps. It features some of the succulents from our collection, with stones and bits of pottery we found around the garden…
5. Bistro Fountain: I’ve mentioned this before as a highlight, but that won’t stop me listing it again!
Our raised pond now has an upgraded solar powered fountain, which includes a battery that powers it through overcast days and dusky evenings, extending the opening hours of bistro fountain, a fine spot for supper. When we got back from our weekend away we had a lovely quick dinner of sardines on toast with tomatoes.
My 6th highlight has to be these three waterlilies in the raised pond. It’s the most flowers we’ve had from this lily so far. They’re so beautiful, we almost wanted to stay home to admire them rather than leave for our weekend away…
However, we did drag ourselves away for a weekend with friends. We went all the way to Devon, a couple of hours drive from our home in Somerset, and we had a super time in Drewsteington, visiting Castle Drogo (a fabulous castle built in the early 1900s) and enjoying the forest trails.
In work news, the next episode of ‘Wood for the Trees’ is out now!
I’m proud to co-produce this project, a series about the future of our forests.
The latest film asks if we can plant enough trees to save us from a warming planet.
Spoiler – the answer is ‘NO.’
But it’s not quite that simple, and we have some beautifully animated facts and figures to consider presented in this film. The targets pledged pre-election were to plant 30,000 hectares per year. The actual tree-planting last year covered under 900 hectares. And even if we did cover every scrap of the UK with trees to sequester carbon, it’s futile to do so unless we also rapidly reduce carbon emissions.
Some of the comments are supportive, others less so – including one which said we were part of the NWO “burning rain forests for Bill Gates”. Before I could consider how to post a rebuttal, or find out if the commenter referred to New World Order the conspiracy theory, or New World Order, Hulk Hogan’s wrestling group – the comment was removed by twitter. Next time I see Bill Gates I’ll pass the message on… 😉
But before I get back to being a corporate shill for the NWO, here’s a lovely update on how my hometown Frome wants YOU to help its pollinators, and why an unmown meadow is a marvellous thing – with a bit of history on the manicured lawn became a status symbol
And finally, if you’ve chosen to read thus far, here is my jubilee opinion, and why I wanted to escape the whole shenanigan.
Though I’ve a certain respect for the symbolic and unifying national treasure (Paddington Bear) and I quite like picnics, bunting and eccentric parades, I also think it’s mad that we still have a state funded “royal family.”
Let’s nationalise the palaces and rewild the land. And fuck the jubilee. (Note that this link takes you to a song that’s VERY RUDE ABOUT THE ROYALS!)
Anyhoop…
I’m off to the Shared Earth Learning site this morning for a team meeting. They’re usually lots of fun – honest!
I hope your plans and plants are growing nicely
J x
Doing The Plan 
I love the little pond – if I ever add such a thing to my garden, I would need the water to circulate to prevent mosquitos from becoming unbearable, and would have to drain it in winter – that would be a bit of a pain, so better I just enjoy pictures of yours!
I find the concept of a state funded monarchy a little bizarre. On the one hand, there is some tourist trade related to that, though you could keep the buildings and crown jewels and all on display and still have the tourist trade.Honestly, seeing the tower of London and crown jewels was not the highlight of my visit to England. I enjoyed more attending a concert at St, Martin in the Fields, and visiting Burrow Hill cider farm among other things that left a more lasting impression. I have a sense that many people love and respect the Queen, but I do wonder if there is a future for the rest of them once she is gone. Time will tell.
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Ah, honeysuckle and rose, how American! and those roses even look like good old fashioned hybrid tea roses! RAD!
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