An Orchid to brighten the day

I thought I would post some photo's of my Orchid that is flowering again. It's so beautiful I just had to share these with you. I think that orchids are amazing value. I know that the price is high to start with, but they flower for such a long time and certainly last a lot longer than cut flowers, and if you are lucky ( I seem to be so) they flower over and over again for years.

What a work of art, nature never ceases to amaze me with it's colours and patterns.

It snowed again last night and just as the snow had been slowly melting it's now thicker than ever, and this is what the garden looked like this morning. When will it end ? I was a tad bored staying in so we managed to clear the snow from the car, and drove very slowly to the Garden Centre. I looked at the seed potatoes, but didn't buy any yet as the bags were to big for me, so I will share some with my daughter.

Last year being sentimental I grew some 'Nicola' potatoes as that's my daughters name, and I am glad I did as they were so tasty and stored well, so I will definitely grow those again this year. I did buy some 'mangetout' seeds and also some 'Sutton's' 'Bedford' brussel sprout seeds.

I got fed up with runner beans last year so I am only going to grow French climbing beans and 'mangetout' . I still have pea seeds over from last year so may grow a few, but I have to say I HATE podding them.

I have also been teaching myself to crochet, it's all the rage don't you know ? The woman in the newsagents couldn't believe the demand for the new weekly magazine that's now in the shops, 'The Art of Crochet' it's actually good value, well the first issue is anyway. You get 2 balls of yarn, a crochet hook (although I already had 3 from edging knitting in the past) a beginners guide to basic stitches, some patterns Oh and a DVD. I haven't watched that yet, so can't comment on it. Anyway all that for 99p, Bargain !!! I haven't found out how much future issues will be.


Below is some photo's of my first attempts, and I am quite pleased with them.

The weather forecast mentioned rain, so hopefully they are right and then we can get rid of the snow, it's getting a bit boring now and I am worried about my wallflowers that I planted on the allotment. I really must get up there to have a look at whats survived.

A leisurely day at home !

I would love to report that I had a busy day at the lottie, but the true is I haven't ! I had my sister and brother-in-law come for lunch, so apart from watering the seedlings and hardening off the garlic that I had growing in the lottie greenhouse, that's all I have done with gardening today. Oh ! and planted a few more seeds, more about them at the next post.

It's nice to have a break though and we had a lovely day, with good company and a glass or two of "Pimms" hic ! I did take a couple of photo's that I thought I would post, ( not all taken today) The first one is a comfy corner of my Summerhouse, the second is of one of my orchids blooming again at last! The third is my hyacinth before it flowered (sadly dead now) I love it when they are fresh and green before blooming. Last of all is the lavender that I grew from seeds last year. They were going to be a lavender hedge for my plot, but I think they have all died during this cold winter. If they grow any more leaves I will be delighted, but they look dead, (not in this photo) and when I broke a piece off it didn't look at all green. I will have to be patient and wait and see.

Photo's from RHS Wisley Gardens

This is just a few of the many photo's
that I took in the glass house on my
visit to "Wisley Gardens" today, I will
post some more on Flikr. It was a lovely day and the gardens looked
full of the promise of things to come.
There were buds on trees and shrubs
and bulbs starting to emerge through
the soil.