Deepest darkest Winter - flowers in July

It is the 25th. My day to walk around the garden and remind myself what is catching the eye this month. First the same old same old. Japanese flowering quince, a bush we inherited, halfway down the driveway, always blooms for my birthday. And for Anna's, who planted it. Usually blooms on spectacular bare branches, but this year, there are still leaves ...?

Roquefort garden or sourdough garden

(If you are a foodie, didn’t they tell you – this is a bring-your-own-sandwich-picnic. It’s not About The Food!)

Our neighbours almost all have Roquefort gardens. What the German language so efficiently calls Edelpilz. And English calls noble rot. Botrytis for Tokay wine. I don’t want to eat/drink rot, no matter how noble it is. Noble rot AKA lawn. No other plant is allowed to mar the sterile monotony of the lawn. No fairies may dance in inches of Oxalis, dressed by central casting in apricot, cream, peach, fuchsia and lemon yellow for the great ball scene. No caterpillars, bugs, bees, nor even earthworms (they leave those nasty little piles of soil!) One neighbour goes so far as to spray his patch with weed-killer twice a year. The It’s-green-it’s-nasty-make-it-go-away school.

We have a sourdough garden. With four open hands held out, we accept everything nature brings us. Except Paterson’s Curse, tho I’m glad to have seen caterpillars working on that plant too. And the mountain ash trees give us hundreds and hundreds of seedlings. If you don’t catch them while they are young, the battle becomes desperate. The Ungardener wages a POLITE war against anything green that comes up in his gravel paths.

Stroll thru our garden with me

It is Saturday morning and you’ve dropped in for a quick cup of tea.

Bury your nose in pink Perfume Passion and deepest red Black Prince. See, the fig has lost its leaves, leaving a few tiny second crop figs, which will fall to the ground. The hoopoe, from niece Claire, came with us from the last house in Hoopoe Avenue. Where we saw no live hoopoes, to this town where we usually see some on our rare walks. We’re out in the garden, come thru the open garden gate.

The Web of Life_____www

One morning in June, after rain, when the early light fell, just so, the Ungardener captured this picture for me. Now how can I use this image? Can’t spin out the spider story. I didn’t meet her.

At the top are the consumers, devourers, users. Us and the cats. Top cat looking down on the rest of the world? But most feral cats have a short, nasty life. Chocolat found us.