SUMMER SUN AT LAST

It certainly was a wonderful weekend weather wise, Saturday and Sunday were glorious and I spent most of them outside making the most of it. The picture above is of my marvel-of-peru (mirabilis jalapa) which was just starting to open in the afternoon sun. It is one of my favourite plants, mainly because it opens late afternoon so you have the blooms to look at in the evening, and flowers quite late in the summer - or at least it does where I live, so out lives many other plants, and long after the flowers have died the leaves live on so you still have some nice greenery.


The plants are just starting to make their seeds now, and I have collected quite a few, so if anyone would like some please send me an e-mail - (uk only I'm afraid as I don't know the procedures for sending seeds through customs).


I am not a great expert on gardening, but I believe that the seeds and parts of the plant are poisonous so perhaps not suitable for gardens with small children. They also seem to be very drought and flood resistance and like the full sun. The plant is very generous and will give you extra plants every year if you don't deadhead before the seeds appear. I started off with 10 seeds 3 years ago and have left the plants to do what they will in a bare corner, they have now filled a 2m x 3m patch, with their heights ranging from about 6 ins for the first year plants to 4ft for the 3 year old plants.

The hens also enjoyed the weekend sun, and I caught a group of them dozing by our fish pond, happily sun bathing. They like to drink out of the pond, even though they have water left out for them, I'm not sure what the fish think of this though :)

Autumn must be coming as the hens are putting themselves to bed whilst it is still light. In the summer they are still scratching around the garden at 1o o'clock. I'm not sure what the significance of the season makes to their bedtime but it must be something. You can see Lily using their house as a platform to fly into the tree.

CONFUSED FUSHIA

This morning I noticed one of my fushia plants has broken out in bud again. Since the other plants have all but lost all their flowers this cheered me up no end, I just hope that some of my other plants decide to follow suit.

The chickens and ducks were enjoying the glorious morning that we had today, with the chickens escaping into the garden before I had chance to open their gate. Harry Houdini had nothing on them, they use their house to jump upto the tree where they roost in the branches (the house is a bit rustic, and i love the colours, but they only use it for laying and to sleep in if it is really windy). If I dare to be late letting them out in the morning i.e. after dawn! they simply fly over the top the fence and let themselves out.

Bertie, Bassett and Jemima, our very timid trio of ducks. They are quite happy running around their pen, and swimming in their little pond, they occassionally even have a visit from one of the chickens who fly over their fence to 'share' their food. We tried taking down their fence to let them share the garden with the hens, but they didn't like that idea at all and wouldn't come out of their house until we put it back up again :(

Camera shy - these hens all turned their backs at the moment I took the photo, obviously they hadn't done their makeup. Phes (so called because she looked like a pheasant chick when she hatched) the tan hen on the bench went so far as hiding her head under her wing, she must have been having a bad hair day as well!

This bench was a favourite spot for me to sit and read in the summer, but it seems to have been taken over by hens. The last time I used it, I had a hen on the back looking over my shoulder - don't you just hate that? - and two others staring at me from next to me on the seat as if to say "what do you think you are doing!"

The lovely red crested cockerill is Jasper, he is beautiful, if a little stupid - when we moved the gate on his run it took him nearly a week to find it on his own, just standing outside crowing until we went out to show him the way in.


Have a lovely weekend all.