I really must thank Lyn at http://theamateurweeder.blogspot.com for kindly awarding me a Versatile Blogger award. I’m afraid I do have a problem when it comes to fulfilling all the requirements. We are asked to reveal 7 new bits of information about ourselves, I find this rather difficult, being someone from the older generation who likes their privacy, if it is not already on my blog, then I’m afraid any other information stays private.
A bit of a cheat I know, but I will list 7 of the things I love about my garden.
1. Having 59 varieties of birds visiting the garden.
2.Finding Dormice have taken up residence.
3.Feeding the robin while it is standing on my hand.
4.Photographing so many varieties of butterflies.
5.Enjoying the perfume from all the flowers.
6.Working on new projects with my husband.
7.Having success with Meconopsis plants.
We are also asked to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers – I think most of the blogs that I follow have won it a few times already and how do I possibly choose from so many wonderful blogs?
Please Lyn, forgive me for not taking part fully – I really do appreciate you giving me the award.
I’m drooling over the first photo of the long shot of your garden Pauline, I don’t think I’ve seen a big photo of your garden before, I like your list especially that so many likes include wildlife though notice not the rabbits that visit your garden!!
love the daisies in your grass, Frances
No Frances, the rabbits and the moles don’t appear on my list of loves!! So glad you like the daisies, I do too, how else can you teach grandchildren to make a daisy chain if there are no daisies on the lawn!
Hello Pauline, lovely to meet you and thanks for commenting on my blog! I like your solution to the award conundrum; it took me a long while to ‘stick my head above the parapet’ in my blog but I’ve met some lovely people through doing that. I quite agree about the daisies and making daisy chains – the grass in the communal areas of the gardens here at York Rise are mown regularly and it’s always a shame to see the daisies and dandelions chopped down. They’re flowers I don’t mind the children picking!
Thanks for your support Caro, was wondering if I would get “shot down” ! We love the daisies in the lawn and all the other wild flowers that turn up from time to time when we let parts of it grow longer, looks very pretty until it needs cutting once more.
Congratulations Pauline on the award. Oh your garden is stunning. I’m envious (in a nice way!!!) that you have such a lovely backdrop to work with. Those trees are lovely. I can’t wait for some leaves on the trees, I’m getting rather sick of staring at the houses opposite.
Thank you WW. and also for your comments on the garden. At the moment, with the trees bare, all the woodland bulbs are pushing through and enjoying the sunshine ( yes it’s sunny today!), have to admit it though, I love it when they all go green again and like you, cut us off from the houses over the road.
What is that giant dark clump of blades in the first picture? You know how much I love your garden, and seeing these long view pictures has been a pleasure. You should take more pics like that.
(to reply to your previous question it didn’t snow at all in my garden, not even today that we had 0,5cm snow in Venice, where I work. In other parts of Italy they had more than one meter snow by the way! The Venice canals haven’t been seen frozen for more than 50 yrs before today, and in the coast they found loads of dead mullets on the beach because of the cold water…)
The dark blades Alberto, are the leaves of a purple phormium. The photos were taken a couple of years ago and last winter when we had such a lot of snow and ice, we lost about 2/3rds of it. This winter it is snuggly wrapped up with fleece and netting to keep it nice and warm, hope it appreciates it!!
So glad you and your garden escaped the snow, still sounds as though you are having it much colder than we are, keep warm!!
I think snow would have caused less damage to the garden than a dry cold wind blowing for 10 days though. That phormium is soooo big! I’ve never seen something that tall!
Sorry you have been suffering with the cold wind Alberto, just hope that your garden doesn’t suffer too much damage. The phormium is still as tall after last winter but not so fat!!!
The variety of birds, the robin and your success with meconopsis (sadly I still haven’t got the hang of it) are definitely things I can understand you mention. Oh, and the dormice.
Helen
So glad you like all our wildlife Helen, especially the dormice! So sorry you are still having problems with your Meconopsis, last years seed has now sprouted nicely so hope for lots more plants this year!
Well after I read that you save this year’s seeds, meconopsis, keep them in the fridge and then sow them in Jan/Feb, I am going to try that this/next year. I’m not ready to give up just yet :-))
Good for you Helen, keep trying! I sowed my seeds in Feb during our frosty spell and left them outside, they sprouted a couple of weeks ago so now I have lots of babies to look after!! Soon be time to prick them out and move them on, hope you have success with your seeds in the future!