THE GARDEN, LATE JUNE

Down at the bottom of the garden is this swathe of what I always used to call Agrostemma aka as Corn Cockle, then it was improved to be a garden plant and renamed as something  which I can't remember - that's a good start! It also comes in a white version as well as this bright pink and self seeds itself without any trouble.

The jasmine on the bottom shed has grown so much this winter, not just the leaves and flowers but the stems, too.

Back in 'April Garden Pt 2'  I posted a photo of what I thought were going to be cones on the Norway Spruce which has gone berserk in this part of the garden. Well, the red thingys did turn into cones after all and very pleasing it is, too, to know that at last it's doing something other than just growing!

Opium poppies have popped up everywhere this year, pink doubles and red singles like these below.

There are a lot of green pinheads showing through the soil all round the garden so I reckon these are what I'd thrown around where ever there was a space and now they're all emerging at once. Since they're annuals, unlike the other poppies which I've posted in other Garden months (which are perennials) these should flower later in the year.

This is the main flower head of the sea holly Eryngium giganteum aka as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost'. It's a striking plant with stiff strongly veined leaves, the flower being a steely blue, when it arrives.It's surrounded by other, less pronounced flowers on stiff stems. It's a biennial but seeds fairly easily and the 'Mum' of this plant was bought about 15 years ago...
Miss Willmott lived from 1858 - 1934 and apparently scattered the seeds in gardens she visited, which is how it got its name!  She was a strong character (with money and influence, which helped) who spent her whole life advancing the cause of horticulture. When she inherited the family home it's said she employed 104 uniformed gardeners - a bit like mine. I jest!
When she died the garden was neglected, the house was demolished so that smaller houses could be built on the site but, because of Green Belt policy, these were never built and now the Essex Naturalists' Trust run it as a nature reserve. Just as well it's in Essex or HS2 would probably carve its way through it, Green Belt, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or whatever. Sorry if I sound bitter. Information from the book I've mentioned previously.

Coming back up towards the house there's this feathery fennel, well, two of them, also self seeded from plants which I bought years ago. They can be a bit of a problem as they're not easy to get out unless you catch them as small plants. The eryngium is on the left hand side, copper beech hedge in the background, cedar, trellis which has fallen apart and the huge walnut tree which is three gardens away. The 'tree-man' came to trim my lilac a few days ago and says you should prune walnut trees now. I wouldn't have so many little walnut trees popping up everywhere if it was cut down a little bit! Planted by the other gardeners, the squirrels.

A little while ago I posted about the mullein but well before it got to this size - it's still got time to grow some more. The flowers are quite small but they are a nice plant to have in the garden. And no mullein moth this year, either.
Just as a PS I have no end of trouble with the new editor - it won't behave as it should and even Sarah, who's my Blog expert, can't find out why it behaves as it does so has concluded my PC is running a system which is too old. It's almost as bad as the original system I began with - it's one reason why I haven't posted recently. I have a long post about a day out when Gillian and I went to Elton Hall in Northants but it took over a week to do and it's still not finished - I'm bored with the hassle so won't go back to it.

GRUMPY OLD PERSON

This morning I went out to try to buy and look at various things for the house.


First of all I wanted a replacement large rechargeable torch to replace the one given as a Christmas present the year before last. Can I get what I want? Of course not! I can get the same one again, which, truth to tell was a bit heavy and not altogether convenient to use but why would I want to buy an identical torch which has only had some 15 months wear before becoming unusable? Stuart's taken it to see if he can juggle with it for use at the stables. So, no torch.


Then, I'm gradually getting irritated with my washing machine which I bought from John Lewis on-line. It works perfectly well but has an annoying feature which, truth to tell, I wouldn't have picked up on if I'd been looking at it in the shop.


You can't tell how far through the cycle the washing's actually got. There's no indicator on the 'dashboard' to tell you whether, for example, it's still on the wash cycle and you haven't put in enough soap or whether it's gone into the rinse cycle and you just don't need any more soap.


There's one expensive model which counts down the minutes to finishing - so what good is that? You still don't know which cycle you're in. I want to be able to stop during rinsing and spin so that I can go out...


Then I thought about updating my almost 6 year old laptop - silly me to think I can get what I want. I bought a Fujitsu about 4 years ago as a stopgap when this HP went away for repairs but hated Vista so much - AND the shiny screen which reflects everything behind it - that it's lived on a shelf in the workroom almost since I bought it. Oh, and it didn't have any way of turning off the integral mouse, which I loathe! So, that idea came to nothing, too.


Why do we have to put up with manufacturers who decide what's going to be 'out there' for us to buy, with no choice offered?


One last grumble, which has been on-going for several decades - I like round-toed shoes with flat heels and consequently have decent feet for my age.

I bought these 'Desert Island' shoes more than 25 years ago at Hampton Court flower show, while I was still teaching. They cost about £30 a pair and the children, sitting on the carpet in front of me, loved them too. They were made by a pair of hippies who worked in Glastonbury and these were the only ones in my size at Hampton Court.

Some time later I was on a coach trip to Glastonbury, found the shop they had opened in the meantime and ordered a pair of shoes in the colours I chose - a sort of cyclamen for the heel part, turquoise and purple for the upper and the toe cap was, originally, red and yellow with white stars. Those wore off with all the polishing! I had them resoled about a year ago which cost almost as much as the shoes since women's replacement soles don't fit and men's repairs are much more expensive.

So, why can't I buy round-toed and colourful shoes in a shop?? I usually wear trainers as they are at least comfortable but I won't entertain women's shoes in the shops, too cramped in the toes and such boring colours...

There, I feel better now!

So, what irritates/annoys/frustrates you when you're shopping? Some things you just can't buy on line, you need to try or handle the goods. Let's have a few grumbles from you!!