A birthday and two outings

It’s been HOT!  Too hot to do very much at all, apart from early morning and early evenings.  But I love it.  Our weather is far too chilly and damp far too often to complain when we do get some hot hot weather – don’t you agree?

So, what have I been up to this month?   We have two birthday in our family to celebrate in July – the first one was our granddaughter Sophie’s 17^th birthday.  She was going out to celebrate with friends, and I had my cousins stopping off on their way home.  So it was arranged that we would pop over in the morning to give her her gift and celebrate the occasion.   We had a cake – with one candle on it (I told her she would have to blow it out 17 times, much to her younger brother’s amusement).

Brian and I took a day trip to Salisbury last week – we often pop down there to meet up with some friends, but this means we do not get to look around the town much.   Tuesday is market day, which was the day we chose to go.  It was a great shame that the market was not as good as we expected.  The town square was being re-paved, so only half of the stalls were there.   

Yesterday we went to Brian’s cousins for a family get- together.   This is always a  fun afternoon.  When the guests had gone we stopped on to chat with Brian’s aunt and uncle who had come down from Norfolk for the party.  The foxes enjoyed the remains of the party food.

Visit to The National Collection of Pelargoniums

Last Sunday I was at The National Collection of Pelargoniums at Fibrex Nursery, Nr. Stratford-upon-Avon.  I had an awesome day.  I travelled up with a friend and we met up with another friend.  If you are able to I would recommend a visit - especially at this time of year.  The plants looked stunning.  

Pelargonium Species

Pelargonium Species

Zonal pelargoniums

Regal pelargoniums

Zonal pelargoniums

Zonal pelargoniums

I know, I've not been keeping up with posting pictures of my Blue Jug.  My aim this year is to keep it filled with flowers or foliage from the garden.  So, here are the latest pictures.

I hope all of you here in the UK are enjoying our summer which has arrived at last.

National Pelargonium Show and Cats

June is always a busy month for me with shows and my own greenhouse plants, and the garden.

The following week after the show at Farnborough I went to Capel Manor, in Enfield, Middlesex (North London) to Steward at the National Pelargonium Show.  I love this show, and I really enjoy Stewarding.  I always learn something new from the Judge I am accompanying.   It was not a large show, unfortunately.  The weather had taken its toll and many exhibitors just did not have their plants ready to bring along.   However, what was there was good and I had a very enjoyable day.

We watched the two BBC programmes on the Secret Life of Cats.  It was filmed in our village and I was a bit worried that my vegetable garden would be shown.  We had been asked to sign an agreement that it could be shown.  My vegetable garden, in particular, is visited by the local cats who think my raised bed are very large litter trays.  So much so that when I have nothing planted and growing well, very bit of vacant soil is covered with something to prevent the cats gaining access.  So, my vegetable garden never ever looks like the vegetable garden one sees in books and magazines.  However, I need not have worried - my garden was not filmed, or if it was, the footage was not used.  They did show a clip of a pheasant by my front gate post!

On Saturday we were invited to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of some friends.  It was a lovely day for a celebration.  We had a surprise visit by 'Elvis' who entertained us for an hour.