{a garden post}

 More grass confetti Nola?
I can't tell you how much this little one loves all things green... or brown and muddy :)



And flowers... She says the word flower all the time. I love the way little ones just pick off the head of the bloom, never a stem, not even a little one...



My number one, right hand garden girl Fina has taken great pride in rummaging through my flower beds this last week to do her "weeding."

"Fina can you see all that bindweed?"



You may have noticed that I like the natural look in my garden :)



We leave our grass quite long. And when it is really time to mow it down some because it is becoming raggedy and yellowed Tani will still often leave a couple of circular islands untouched. Which the girls will invariably make into nests, or run around in figure of eights till someone skids and gets grass burns...



I find the dandelions, clovers and daisies that grow among the lawn grass delightful additions, and of course my girls do to.
I also love the delicate fully grown grasses that go to seed. They add a real romantic, ethereal quality to the garden especially when the sunlight sparkles through them.



I really look forward to surprises of the self seeded variety too, such as Aquligias, Poppies and Forget-me-nots, as well as the odd so called "weed " that makes itself at home such as this little Herb Roberts or Wild Geranium pictured above.



We have also been really lucky with dog violets, periwinkles and a beautiful climbing wild rose which came from "who knows where" to decorate our tatty old back fence with the most brilliant, pillarbox red blooms till all that rain came and washed them out :(



I love how the colours of the forget me not change from bud to bloom. Every kind of lilac, purple, dusty pink and of course, bright, Midsummer sky blue!



I love the starlike yellow Jasmine flowers that dapple our rather boring old fence.



What is so delightful Nola? Everything in the garden is a delight when you are one years old isn't it!



Another primula for the water filled eggcup on my kitchen windowsill then.



I have bought a few old variety Polyanthus this year. They have a subtler colour than many of the more commonly, cultivated varieties.
I have fallen head over heels for them and hope to raise more for next year. They give a wonderful woodlandy hue to the garden. Their colours also change quite magically with the light throughout the day.

 

The girls planted our vegetable garden a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted some "Anya" potatoes which are tiny and so flavoursome they need hardly any cooking at all. I usually boil them only a few minutes before draining and throwing in a little butter and roughly cut parsley. Sadly our local nursery had sold out. Guess someone else is onto Anyas. Eventually we decided upon wild rocket, courgette, rhubarb, raspberry canes, and a mini cherry tree which was a gift from a friend's allotment.





Fina usually just tries to tip the whole  seed packet out in one spot and then give the soil a good cathartic thump and soaking with a bucket of water tipped straight on top ( not really the way to grow happy vegetables, but you know all good experience :) We'll see if they'll respond to the tough love.



Can you see Tilly's face in this pic. Oh I love that girl so. It was all over a bit of rhubarb root that Emmy planted  without realising that it was Tilly's own very, completely, utterly special rhubarb root.



I love how positively diverting  babies can be. Nola always offers a little light relief. I notice that if there is a bit of a scuffle the girls will automatically turn their attention to Nola. She has this great ability to lighten the atmosphere. Except when they squabble over who gets to cuddle, carry, play with her first etc...Hey ho.



Apparently Bluebell is now a farmer and as fitting for a farmer has to have her own farmgirl dress.
One of Emmy's china dolls is now a little chilly and ... naked.





Aquilegias are my favourites of all the garden flowers I think.
 Especially the light green/pink/white  fairy bell kind.
 




And this is where I like to be ideally, Sitting in my chair, preferably with a cup of tea and my knitting basket close at hand.
Doesn't always happen that way.
These chairs are so rickety!
Tilly found a spiders nest under one of these chairs the other day, It was like a little capsule of spun silk.
Another reason to neither replace nor clean the garden furniture then.
Till that day comes I'll call it the rustic look.



The grass seeds we planted are growing in our fairy garden! Yey!