Less is more?

The simplicity of a single Geranium! 

Only a man!

We  have an Arabian Jasmine (Jasminum Sambac) growing in the conservatory.  The perfume from a single flower is just incredible!  I wish I could upload its perfume - that's a hint for Googlers to work on! These are the flowers used in Jasmine tea and, along with its more common  relation: Jasminum Officinale is grown for the perfume industry.  It flowers reliably and I even managed to propagate a cutting last year which is thriving in the greenhouse but has yet to flower.  In the winter, the one in the conservatory had a real problem with Woolly Aphids and many of the leaves turned bright yellow and died.  This however, has not prevented it from producing these delicious flowers.  For such an exquisite plant, Linnaeus really didn't give it much of a name did he?  Even as far back as 1753, I think I could have come up with a better name than Sambac!  It's not even an Arabian native but originated in Bhutan.  Still, he was only a man!

Even better.........

Mirror door

Orchard gate.

The mirror door looks even more convincing when the surrounding hedge is in shadow.  The other picture is a gate opposite (which doesn't have a mirror!) on the orchard side of the garden.  There's not that much difference between the two.  I'm just considering whether to attempt to make a path leading up to the mirror door a tad more prominent somehow. The other possibility (which already crossed my mind) would be to make a partially opened 'door'.  That is; an angled panel partially obscuring the mirror which looks like an open door.  

 ......Or,  I just could leave well alone. Who knows?

Summer evenings at Pear Tree Cottage

The old pump

Wisteria tendril

Broad beans

These long hot and humid summer days have been ending with some pretty spectacular sunsets. Because of all the rain and recent thunderstorms, the lawns are all still lush and green and not the usual parched summer brown.  

We picked picked all the remains of the broad beans and whilst sitting podding them all with a glass of wine, I just had to photograph the evidence.  This is the first year we haven't been able to keep up with our bean crop and eat them as fast as they've ripened.  I grew a heavier cropping variety from our usual Aqua Dulce and have frozen the excess beans for future treats!  Having finished podding, it was nice - just for once, to sit and watch the swallows dipping and diving for insects and then, as the sun set and the light faded, watching the bats flitting around after moths and listening to the owls with the occasional distant hum of a combine harvester.  My literary skills can't really do justice to the scent of Jasmine which hung heavy in the still night air but hopefully, you get the picture! Summer Evenings at PTC

Genever Genius

How to prevent a door slamming.

The perfect answer for a door restraint.  This garage door doesn't lend itself to either a wedge at its base or being hooked open as it needs to be restrained at 90 degrees.   Designed and hand crafted by one esteemed builder, the door slides beneath the simple wooden drop hook which then drops down securing the door firmly.  To close, simply lift the hook - PERFICK!

Door to nowhere!

The Nowhere Door!

Today, Chris managed to pick up and deliver our new mirror in one piece - despite obvious worries! In a north facing dark yew hedge, it's very effective.  We shall probably grow the hedge out further so that the door will be set back deeper.  It's our very own version of a little trompe l'oeil - all made some left over stone, a couple of square fence posts, a decking board, some ply plus a little time, imagination and Chris's help!

Greenhouse Make-Over

During....

...and after!

We've had the greenhouse since 2005 and the brick path I laid back then had started to topple into the trench I dug (and filled with potting medium) for the tomatoes.  My private jungle of Spider Plants and Tradescaniums beneath the staging was a little out of hand and the entire wooden structure was in need of more preservative.  Enter Chris Genever!  Having already moved out the plants; in no time at all, the staging was removed, the jungle dug out, the bricks all lifted.  We did a little shopping at Lanes returning with sand, cement and a few concrete slabs and then it was cleaning the old mortar off the bricks and relaying them against slabs on edge.  No way will this path subside!  Slabs were laid where once had grown my mini jungle and the interior was treated with preservative and the glass cleaned.  Even the staging was treated prior to re-erection. Actually, I should mention a little rill which Chris sculpted in the mortar beneath the staging.  This was a brilliant idea as any excess water is now channeled into the soil around the base of grapevine whose roots grow outside the greenhouse.All in all a very pleasing result and a refurbished and preserved greenhouse that should last for years to come!