Roses

I never used to like roses - I always thought they were a bit "obvious".  Just too perfect.  But a few years ago, I worked with a lady called Jenny who was coming up to retirement and was looking forward to spending years gardening and she had cultivated her own rose garden.  Every Monday morning, she used to cut me a rose and put it in a little vase on my desk - a single rose and she always chose one with a beautiful scent.  Every week, it was a different colour and came with a different vase.  Lovely lady.  And for years, I've battled the whole rose thing, but have been totally converted now.  Firstly by Jenny.  Secondly by Mum and Dad who have hundreds of them.  And thirdly by the scent.  I now have five rose bushes in my back garden - two of them planted by my predecessors and the other three have been introduced by me. 

And I have a rambling rose bush out the front garden which climbs up and over the front door - slightly cliched I must admit - but it has thousands of tiny white flowers on and the smell is heavenly when I come home. Because it's a rambler though, it only flowers once a year which is such a shame.  But then I suppose all good things come to those who wait, so I will just have to wait more patiently.  This white rose is called Rambling Rector and I was rather taken by its description, that it was "spectacularly rampant"!  I'm a sucker for good marketing!   They were right though - it's very vigorous, never lets me down year after year and I'm thinking of getting another out the back to climb over the pergola.  It's not out in flower yet, but it won't be long before all those buds open.  I can't wait!

I'm surprised everything in the garden has survived yesterday actually - we had the most spectacular thunder, lightning and hailstorm yesterday morning.   Finn was terrified and was looking for all sorts of hiding places which is quite tricky, given his size.

I summoned up the courage eventually to venture outside and drive to Spixworth to support my friend, Sarah, at a craft fair.  Although the drive was very exciting - for all the wrong reasons - when my windscreen wiper flew off in the hail and horizontal rain, which necessitated a short detour to the garage.  The craft fair was really good and gave me lots of ideas of how to dress our stall later in the year and I was extremely pleased to see that no-one else is doing the things that we do.  There were plenty of sewing stalls and bag making stalls, but no knitting or crochet.  We will corner the market!