FLOWERS - AND A CAT

I've been wandering up and down the garden taking photos of flowers which have arrived in the last week or so, so here goes.
I must be forgetting how to crop photos as I'm certain I deleted the bird feeder on the left hand side - but what the heck! These are the first of the large poppies to emerge with plenty of buds still to pop open. Some of the alliums have self seeded into the path too.

Here's a closeup of an allium head.

Aquilegias of all colours seem to have sprung up from nowhere - white, pale pink, dark red and these two-coloured flowers which have self seeded into the edge of the pond. They always remind me of those pleated knitted tea cosies which were so fashionable many years ago. The word 'aquilegia' is from Latin 'aquila', an eagle, as the spurs on the flowers were thought to resemble an eagle's talons. (This photo is another casualty of Add Photo not working.)

Another name is columbine, which means a dove. The flower is mentioned in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. The beech hedge was very slow in unfurling its leaves then, suddenly, it was there in all its lovely summer colour. The poppies are just in front of this and there's a clematis growing through the beech though not flowering yet. One derivation is that Buckinghamshire is named from the Anglo-Saxon word Bucceen meaning beech trees.

This is a clematis montana, Broughton Star, which I bought the year before last - I think. I hope it'll spread itself into the rowan on the right hand side of the photo.

These are quite dainty flowers compared with the clematis montana grandiflora below...

This is about two years old as well, growing up one end of the clothes line, if you see what I mean. The twiggy trellis has worked quite well and isn't as heavy-looking as the basic trellis so I bought another piece which son Stuart has laid from the top of the post across to the shed in the background and I'm hoping it'll grow across to the roof where it'll join the jasmine and Chilean glory vine. I think I'll need the walking stick to persuade it to do what's wanted, though, as it's already leaning towards the sun, ie, over the fence!
Another clematis, this one is Multi Blue, an inspiring name...It's in a large pot and trails across a Cornus. I need to cut back the greenery to show how many buds there are this year. It's amazing what a handful of fertiliser does! Do you get the idea that I like clematis? I tend to buy a new plant then have to find it a home... These lily-of-the-valley plants were given to me years ago and because they never did anything I dug them all out, well, thought I had! They're round the bottom of the rowan tree.

Cotton grass growing in a container in the pond - its name is really Eriophorum angustifolium - a bit of a mouthful. It's like little tufts of cotton wool just popped on top of the stems. Gillian calls it bog grass, as she lived in Ireland for many years where it was common. The netting is to stop next door's pedigree kitten from falling into the pond as he doesn't seem to have any fear but is fascinated by the goldfish, naturally. There's a black cat with white socks, who visits from time to time, who liked fishing last year so it stops him, too. The pump in the background was waiting to be picked up by Stuart as it's no good in the pond now - it picks up too much silt and I can't cope with cleaning the filter every week so it's gone. Another job I've relinquished...

Weigela 'Victoria' is a small plant compared to the one that was here when I came to this house. It's only 4' tall and won't grow any larger. Weigela is named after a German botanist from the 18th/19th century whose name is Christian Ehrenfried von Weigel...

I've done it again - well, done something - and can't get the very last photo downloaded. I seem to have locked the Add Image icon so no cat after all... Perhaps it'll right itself after it's had a rest. Ho hum. (I don't know about posted at 12 o'clock, it's now 20 to 2.)