A brief trip away, and cats on TV

We had a lovely restful time last week when we went to Folkestone.  From my pictures you would not have believed where we were – it looks very Mediterranean.  This is a coast walk between Folkestone and Sandgate and then on to Hythe.   We have not yet ventured beyond Sandgate.  It is a lovely place for a walk and there are several adventure type places for children to climb and crawl and slide.  Also some well kept gardens and pleasant sea views.  We also took our usual walk around the harbour – always a nice place to visit.

Home by Friday lunchtime and I spent the afternoon grooming pelargoniums to take to the Farnborough Fuchsia & Pelargonium, Society Pelargonium Show.  I was up early and quickly packed the car with all my plants and set off to put them on the show benches.     I was home again by 11 am to collect a tray of plants for the plant sale, which I was in charge of.  A short stop for lunch and then back to the hall to see how my plants had done in the show and then set up the plant sale.  I was thrilled to find I had two 1sts, two 2nds, and four 3rds.  One of the 1sts was in the photographic class.

My Blue jug has been filled with pink flowers after the three weeks of bluebells.  The Aquilegias are out now and have been looking very good in my Blue Jug.   For more information about Aquilegais, see the Blog I write for my local Gardening Club here.

 Speaking of local – those of you in the UK will have seen the programme adverts for Horizon tonight on BBC2.  The programme is “The Secret World of Cats” and was filmed in Shamley Green,  which is where I live.   We had to sign a consent form that the BBC could use footage of our garden if the cats came in.  Unfortunately I have to go out tonight so we will watch the programme on iPlayer tomorrow.  My garden will be the one that looks like Steptoe’s Yard (giving my age away here) in my attempt to deter the cats from using my raised vegetable beds as a huge luxurious cat litter tray,  No matter how much I lay down to keep the cats off, they will find a small patch of earth to us, and have even ‘gone’ over the side!  Nasty!      I do actually like cats, and we have owned several over the years, I just don’t like them using my garden.

Blue Jug, the seaside and a plate.

I keep forgetting to post pictures of my  Blue Jug.  Those of you who have read my blog in the past will know that I am attempting to keep this blue jug, inherited from my late mother in-law, filled with flowers/foliage from the garden throughout this year.

When I got back from my trip to Belgium I found that the bluebells were out.  We have loads in the garden and in fact I have in the past thrown bucket loads away.  Now they are more manageable, but no doubt will increase again.    So, since then the jug has been filled with bluebells.  I picked the last lot yesterday - they are nearly finished but I managed to find some in the very shadiest part of the garden.   Notice there are white ones as well - and I even spotted a pink one in the front garden, but left that to see if it will increase.   So the jug has looked pretty much the same for the last few weeks.  The scent in the dining room when I replace the flowers is incredible - wish I could share it with you.

We are going away tomorrow for a few days, and when I come back I will have to look for something else flowering in the garden.

We popped down to Bognor Regis on Saturday - the beach was practically deserted.  Just the odd dog walker.   The tide was way out, and it was nearly mid-day when I took this photo.  We took a picnic and sat on the promenade to eat our lunch.  It was beautifully warm.

As a collector of pelargoniums, I also collect items depicting pelargoniums.  I spotted this plate on eBay a couple of weeks ago and was so lucky to win it.  Isn't it stunning?

More when  I get back from our few days away.