primula freedom

I was taking my usual close ups and when I viewed them on the pc I noticed the stamen showing up and magnified it, wow nature!

angels

These angels are in groups of four at the top of amazing picture windows in Dunblane Cathedral. The buildings were made into a cathedral in the 1300's and were built upon from that time with the most recent being 1889.


I liked this carving of a Lion and Lamb, there are whole rows of these carvings depicting various animals.

I was in Dunblane for the Stirling Rock Garden Show, where I took no photographs as it was quite busy and I didn't want to get in peoples way kneeling on the floor! I admired all the exhibits with some jealousy and bought several plants to ooh and ahh over when I returned home. I bought Erythronium Denis-Canis, Crocus Barrs Purple, Sorbus Reducta, Primula Freedom, Primula Allioni, Snakeshead Fritillary -not all for me, some for presents as its Mothers Day tomorrow so Mother is getting Crocus and Fritillary- and Fiona, being an expectant mother asked for a Mother-To-Be-Day present, which she is getting for the cheek of asking!! probably Erythronium for her then. I had parked near the cathedral so went in for a visit, amazing architecture and stained glass windows. I took photographs of the same things on different settings to see how they came out(the computer displays all this information as you view the photo) its good to get to know the camera a bit better.

inverkip walk

Its too cold and windy today to go outside although I may venture out to the garden centre later. These were taken on Monday in the woods behind Inverkip Marina, I think they are mostly beech trees. Some of them are massive old things, a lot with hollow bases and branches. Its a very peaceful place.

robin

there he is, sitting still for once!!

whatever the weather

Dwarf daffodils, a welcome brightness.
Hellebore, being fascinating.

White crocus which were hiding in the cold frame, I have put them on the doorstep now so they can be seen.

This morning in the garden I finished off the 4ftx4ft plot, it is now edged and covered. I planted out a hellebore, cyclamen, snowdrops, ranunculus, foxgloves and a cotoneaster which were all 'lurking' in various pots and buckets waiting for a place to go. There is to be a path to be made of stones around the front(I can see it in my minds eye. . .) it was edged last year in red brick and I have now started at one end with stones and its going to take a lot of stones. I had four bags 'lurking' and they have just done the first corner.

The row of bricks in the middle leading to the tree is the origional line of border, I will take it out when I have enough stones to go all the way round and the tree will be sitting in its circle. I cant find a photograph to explain why its laid out like that, but it looked marvellous in my minds eye at the time. After finishing tidying up to go in for lunch it started to snow which quickly turned into sleet showers, so I retired from gardening for the day.

Primula 'Marie Crousse'

yesterdays photograph

hospital corners

I have dug over the three beds in my garden, covered them and tucked the edges in, there is a lovely photo of this but it will not upload. Two beds still to dig over here and then to check the other plot during the week sometime. It has been a nice weekend, bar the biting breeze, and its been nice to get outside but its definatley not 'sitting in the garden' temperature!

too many seed trays

A photograph of the greenhouse when it was 'new to me', oct '04. It seems to feature a lot in my blog and that is because I think its great!! Also it is easy to lean out of the door and take its picture!

Greenhouse temp at 0C last night, baby onions(they look like blades of grass) are covered at night time and left open during the day. The lid of my small coldframe has broken under the weight of snow, it is plastic, so the two bits are only half covering the remaining plants. The cold frame will need to be emptied and the lid fixed for when stuff needs potted on from the greenhouse. I had a lot of garden pots sheltering in the greenhouse so they are being decanted outside and covered with fleece.

seeds planted this month so far are ;;
Herbs;; Basil, Parsley, Dill, Coriander, Chervil, Cat-nip
Vegetables;; Rocket, Lollo Rosso, Broad Bean, Butternut Squash, Broccolli and Calabrese, Cabage, Cauliflower, Spinach
Flowers;; Erythronium, Dodecatheon, Cerinthe Major and Minor, Viola, Anemone, Dianthus, Scizanthus, Aquilega and loads of Sweet Peas .

Lots of seeds still to plant but I like to plant a lot of stuff straight in. I am re-using plant labels and a lot of last years dates(when I plant something I put the name and date on) are end of April. Also still to get potatoes, they were put into the other garden last April and it is more sheltered than here, I might use it for potatoes again this year but that is not good rotation management!

and it snowed

10 inches of snow fell last night! It is melting round the edges so it may not last long, just after I took the photograph most of it slid of the greenhouse.

cats

I was just looking through photgraphs and this was Tansy the day she arrived from the Cat Protection League, she looks like a wee scared thing. I think you can tell from the second photograph that she has settled in nicely. Then there is Daisy, looking fluffy, and her tortoise-shell sister Lily, who went missing.

seed trays

just as you can never have too many seeds surely you can never have too many seed trays. this leads to the greenhouse never being big enough of course. . .

flowers today

cyclamen coum, one of the darker hellebores with slightly smaller flowers
a dwarf narcissus, amazing how the raindrops are sitting on its edges.

roofing progress

front elevation,
rear elevation, nearly done.

roofing progress

Progress seems very slow but the chimneys have gone and the tiles have started to go on, I went to bed yesterday with two hot-water bottles, an extra quilt and two cats.
The frost on the greenhouse looks a bit like a spiders web, the greenhouse nighttime temperature was -5C, brr. . . chilly. . .
I thought birds would strip the holly of berries but there still seems a lot on this one, I think its Golden King.
I lifted up this flower to take its hidden view, such a shame hellebores always nod their heads. The leaves and flowers of the hellebore are suffering from the frosts, one dark one hasn't flowered and doesn't look like its going to. My fingers look a bit wrinkley under the magnification, this is the camera on 'super macro'.

no roof tiles

The greenhouse temperature for last night showed -4C. This time last year I started sowing seeds in the house and greenhouse but its so cold I think I'll wait for a couple of weeks. In the greenhouse this alpine primula cheered me up this morning, the flower is less than half an inch across, such a tiny plant.
In the garden this Hebe 'Pink Elephant' showing its promised cold weather colours, this plant is about a foot high and a foot across now.
The old tiles are completely off, they have made a start on removing the chimneys and won't start to re-tile until they are done. I wish somebody in charge would let me know whats happening but I always seem to miss the 'boss'.

walk at Kilmartin

On our permaculture walk this weekend we found a monkey-puzzle tree and a pheasant, neither indiginous to Scotland but both seen to be doing well. There is a sapling monkey-puzzle close to this big one but its not known if somebody has planted this or if it has seeded itself. The pheasant is probably deliberatly reared for shooting and I don't know if they breed wild. We also learned how to identify some deciduous trees by their bark formation and the shape of growth(when they have no leaves) and looked at emerging hedgerow plants, spring must be here! The weather forecast for this week is predicting -10C but I am refusing to believe this because I no roof on the house and am feeling chilly as it is!! The greenhouse themometer is showing -1C this morning.

ferry to Dunoon

On Wednesday, we decided to go for a ferry trip to Dunoon, this is the gateway across the road where you disembark from the ferry. A nice bit of colour, primulas and crocus. It was a dry but very, very chilly day.
'The Saturn'
A view taken from the ferry in the middle of the Clyde, the zoom lens in on maximum.

spring bulbs

Iris Reticulata 'Harmony',
Iris Reticulata 'Pauline', both bought last year as bulbs, I am so pleased they are so pretty.

garden gnome imitation

on the subject of what you wear when you're cold. . . after paddling the kayak over to and round Cumbrae in the rain, deciding the weather wasn't playing safe and getting the ferry back from the island; I was totally soaked through and changed into the 'emergency' kit I keep in the boat. . . thermal leggins and t-shirt, fleece socks, pertex /pile jumper, and of course the marvellous fleecy hat. I am drinking a nice cup of hot-chocolate made by a kind friend who then took this photograph.
so, on the subject of what you wear when you're cold I would have to vote for ANYTHING. ha

my inner core

No photographs as my inner core is safely under a layer of skin(and insulation, polite word for fat!). Today I had my 3rd Pilates lesson from a friend so I can get to the level needed to join her beginners class, my inner core is obviously somewhat negleted! Its nice to have the one2one to know your doing things properly. I am so unfit, still to do more practice and have another lesson. I think I've been missing the kayaking during the bad weather this winter and I've not been working regularly in the garden.
Once my legs had stopped shaking I got on my way to the supermarket for the big 'once in a while, fill the cupboards' shop(expensive, bright, busy, I hate it!). As I drove there was a heavy hail storm, once it finished I noticed the cars coming towards me were completely dry and all the ones going my way had a layer of white! Then while in the store there was lightning outside and a massive roll of thunder, followed by another great long hail storm. Being inside such a large building made the noise quite incredible and people stopped to discuss it, which must be a 'safety in numbers' fear reaction. I drove home and emptied the car in horrible sleety rain, yuck.
Right, its time to tuck into the gardening magazine and chocolate, I'm sure I've pulled a muscle in my belly button, do you think that's possible?

in the rain

a visit to the garden centre in the rain, I found a spiders web in amongst their pots for sale, I think the pots are more in focus than the web though, and Fiona borrowed the camera to take the raindrops on the twigs. no purchases made which is unusual for us but we had a nice cup of hot chocolate in the cafe.

how cute is Daisy?

the new camera, a canon s2 1s, arrived yesterday and I planned to go out and play with it today. however the weather is putting me off even going into the garden! this morning almost showed promise with a very light smattering of snow on the hills, which you could just see through the clouds, but as usual its turned to freezing rain and the hills are obscured. brrr. . . so here is Daisy, taken on macro with the light coming from the window. this is definatley not a 'point and shoot' camera, so I may be a while reading the manual!

saving electricity

I am careful to switch of lights in rooms I am not using, every little helps

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

hidden snowdrops

My morning wander round the garden found, at last, snowdrops flowering. They are under the hedge against the fence and must have bit more shelter there, also be drier and less likely to be disturbed(by me, weeding!)
This lovely Iris reticulata, Katherine Hodkins, is flowering away in the cold frame. I think I'll put it out into the greenhouse so I can see it as I walk by. This is a bulb which is destined for my spring flowering trough, the one I can see in my minds eye. . .

My gardening friend Billy has just been down for a chat, he is starting his seed planting today with courgettes and peppers on the windowsill of their house. He will put these out into a heated green house when they get potted on. I don't heat my greenhouse so I don't start as early.