Dusk, Wordless Wednesday 27th February 2013

The perfect Monday wake up!

Should, I'm guessing be something along the lines of flowers and breakfast in bed but not in our house.

It's been cold the last couple of days; lovely, with bright sunny days and snow flurries, but biting Artic winds cold.  You can't completely escape it in the cottage, especially in the bedrooms, so it was a welcome surprise, when Megs' paw landed on the bed, to wake up this morning all lovely and toasty.  The dogs, however, were cold.  Toasty bliss lasted all of a nano-second as Finn sucker punched me in the chest, jumping over the boyf to burrow down under the covers beside me.  He is a mole masquerading as a small, scruffy mutt.  Megs, instead of her usual dobe-appropriate spot at the end of the bed, curled up, all of a shiver, on my pillow, stuck her face under the duvet and hugged my arm with her paws.  And there we stayed till the alarm went off, snug as bugs in a rug.  I haven't yet lost the smile from my face.

Now if someone could explain to my beautiful dobe that chicken coop poop or, for the purposes of the photographic evidence, the woodshavings in which they sit, is not a good look.... at one point I think her whole head was in the bucket!

Fruit, glorious fruit!

A guilty pleasure of mine is flower and seed catalogues: luscious pictures, exuberant descriptions, a good catalogue is gardening porn!  My favourite two always arrive in January and I can while away many a happy hour with a cup of tea making all sorts of fanciful plans.  

Following our trip to Wisley, I couldn't resist a quick trip to the garden centre and came home with a magnolia, blueberry bush and apple tree.  I've never attempted to grow fruit before, but following my dismal beans and tomatoes last year, I decided, on a whim, to try fruit in the growing bed by the garage.  It's amazing what you can fit in a Smart car with the roof down, I have the weekly shop in there as well!  

I have to admit to loving the idea of growing fruit, it looks the perfect combination of beauty and use... that's if the fruit will grow!  I have had a happy and productive week learning a few new things; my apple tree is now sat in a copper-lined membrane to restrict it's root growth and improve its crop and the blueberries are mulched with pine needles from our Christmas tree, which we are leaving to dry for burning next winter.

Back to my catalogues and I have found both my apple tree and blueberries.  I was picking through the old stock at the garden centre (they're good, so you know the plants are good, just maybe not exactly what you're getting!) and had only a couple of pretty faded labels to give me any clues.

The blueberries are Bluecrop: hardy, practically unkillable (though they've not yet me yet...!) and bountiful.

The apples are Katy, don't they look lovely?  A "very attractive cross... bright red fruits... firm, finely textured flesh."  Noted for being "Sweet and very juicy... with a hint of strawberry... excellent for juicing as it produces beautiful pink juice."  I could go on...

See, what did I tell you, gardening porn ;o)  

Orchids at Wisely

And last, but not least, the Orchids.. I am passionate about Orchids. They are, quite simply, magnificent.

Enough said!

Wisley Butterflies

The butterflies were just stunning!  Walking into the exhibit, you couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder as you stepped into a sea of colour and movement... they were fabulous, huge, stately creatures who seemed utterly unfussed by our intrusion and cameras.  When they did settle, long enough to pose, I didn't like to get too close for fear of scaring them away so relied on my lens and am blown away by the depth of detail that it captured.  Sorting through the photos was punctuated by all sorts of murmurings and mutterings: "But just look!  Look at the detail!  How does it do that?" All much to the amusement of the far more technically minded boyf!

See what I mean?  I was 6ft away!  How does the camera pick up that level of detail?!

On a more prosaic note, we learnt that butterflies both poop and have sense a humour ;o)  If you ever get the chance, they are well worth it, the Wisley Butterflies.