Out with the old..............

........and in with the new.

After our Indian summer it seemed such a shame to lift all the geraniums in full flower.  The hot and dry weather has meant that watering has continued to be as necessary now as it was back in July.  For once, the forecasters seemed to have their fingers on the button so with the promise of storms and plummeting temperatures, it was out with summer bedding and in with bulbs, cyclamens, irises and violas.  The geraniums were cut back, potted up and put in the freshly cleaned out greenhouse for winter.    After a riot of so much colour so late in the season, the pots and tubs all look a tad bare now but, hopefully in March, they will all spring into life once again.  I have layered the different bulbs in an effort to prolong continuity of colour.  Well, that's about half of the containers done...............!

Good enough to eat?

Rosa Moyesii in flower...

...and a Moyesii hip

Aren't these rose hips just amazing? Definitely much to be said for not deadheading and I love the flagon shape of the Rosa Moyesii.  Sould I be making rose hip syrup?  They certainly look delicious and I do remember it tasting positively yummy.

Shameless and Nameless!

So many colours in a single Geranium leaf!  It also flowers prolifically and is full of fiery colour for most of the year.  I wish I knew its name!

Wild & Really Wildlife

Down by the pond.

There are dragonflies at the bottom of our garden! 

OK - so there are lots around the pond and some of them are really big and sound more like Chinooks but there's one dragon fly whose home is at the end of the Fernery Path and he sits on the hammock arch in silence whilst drifting around in the breeze and balancing on his nose.  We encourage all sorts of dragonflies here!

.

Rainbow Eggs

As I said in the last post; each of our girls lays a different coloured egg and after egg collecting this morning, here's the proof!  

Now all you have to do is put each egg with each layer! Mmmm.  That reminds me: I must make some quiches!

Chicken Chat

The girls were obviously well looked after in our absence and have been laying really well since we arrived back.  They are enjoying all the fallen apples and pears as well as their usual layers pellets and mash - to say nothing of special tit bits such as bacon rinds and meal worms.  Yummy!  There are several dirty beaks and, in some cases, very dirty faces!!  Dirtiest of all is Cicely!
 Now that all girls are laying, it's very interesting to see who is (and isn't) laying.  The very distinctive and variable egg colours is a dead give away and they vary from a very dark brown, shades of cream, white and almost blue.

Two autumns in one year!

Winning Dahlias

Top Lawn Border

After all the gallivanting, it's good to be back home and to catch up with some garden work.  We came back to beautifully tended plants as Liz came over from Switzerland just to care for the hens and look after the watering!  How lucky were we?  She had very obviously been doing a first rate job deadheading as the day we returned, I was able to select 5 Dahlias which won 3rd prize at Stoke Bliss Agricultural Improvement Society Show the very following day (yawn!)  It was all a bit of a scramble - what with the usual Saturday jobs, serious jet lag and no preparation time, it was a surprise to win anything!  Whilst in Alaska, we were well into autumn and had the pleasure of enjoying all the golds of the birches, cotton woods & aspens; it's nice to return and enjoy the beginning of another autumn with all those colourful pleasures yet to come for a second time! The Sedums are opening for insect business and the rose hips shining red in the September sunshine.  The Top Lawn Border is a riot of colour and the Michaelmas daisies are full of buzzing insects gathering both nectar and pollen.

Just too many insects for 1 photo!