WAITING FOR THE LIBRARY TO OPEN

Isn't it strange? Sometimes you can't find a topic to blog about and then three come along at once... I was in Princes Risborough this morning, fifteen minutes before the library opened, so once I had parked in a nearby road, my usual 'car park', I walked along looking at the display of flowers on the verges (rather than in the gardens).

I think this bright mauve flower is osteospermum, such a brilliant colour. Just what's good in a quilt to give it a lift.
An odd angle for these fuchsias but that's my shadow on the right and I didn't want it to show too much. I remembered a poem about fuchsias by Thomas Hardy -

Mrs.Master's fuchsias hung

Higher and broader, and brightly swung,

Bell-like, more and more

Over the narrow garden-path

Giving the passer a sprinkle-bath

In the morning.

She put up with their pushful ways,

And made us tenderly lift their sprays,

Going to her door:

But when her funeral had to pass

They cut back all the flowery mass

In the morning.

There are lots of roses along here - the houses have long expanses of brick wall straight onto the pavement and that's where these flowers are growing. This pink rose is on a long stem, about the only one standing upright after yesterday's fierce winds.
What a lovely colour! This gorgeous apricot rose caught my eye - and I'm not a Roses person.
The bud is yellow - I have no idea of the name of this one. Wait until you see what's coming!
This is a rose, honestly! Isn't it unusual? Layers of soft petals; the plant in front shows of the colour, too.
And here's another unusual rose. Striped yellow and orange with the colour paler or stronger depending on the age of the rose.
Here's another flower on the same bush.
An edging of valerian, just for a change from roses.

Here they are again, another pretty colour. The houseowners don't see these flowers, they are under the windows, along the walls. The passersby get the pleasure of the owners' hard work.

These were some feet away and out of the sun, dahlias which have been battered by the recent stormy weather.
The other side of the road has semi-detached somewhat larger houses and this is part of one front garden - I don't like conventional planting but the bright blue made sure I saw these.

That side of the road wasn't anything like as interesting as this side - but what an unusual tree to see these days especially in a town front garden. It's an araucaria, aka as a monkey puzzle tree. It comes from the Andes, on the border of Argentina and Chile . It seems that in 1795 Captain Vancouver's ship the Discovery was visiting Valparaiso and the large seeds of the tree were served as a dessert. The ship's scientist took some back to England and so introduced them to Europe. It got its common name in 1834 after a lawyer, Charles Austin, said it would be 'a puzzle for a monkey to climb'.

That's all folks...