Auntie June's Hebe

This monster hebe bush was originally a teeny tiny cutting from my Auntie June's and Uncle John's hebe from their Epsom garden.  Sadly, Auntie June and Uncle John are no longer with us, but, every time I see this shrub, it reminds me of them - especially when it's in flower.  It is pretty much the entire focus of the left hand side of my front garden - it's enormous!

The family were all given cuttings from the original hebe and I'm so glad that I managed to nurture mine and move it from Portsmouth up to Norfolk, and then finally to this garden in Norwich.   Sadly, I haven't had very much success at all with most of the cuttings I take - an annual torment for me!  So, if I ever move house, I'm going to have to dig up the whole bush and take it with me!

The bees love it too!

Because the bottom bit is quite woody now, I've tried to disguise that by surrounding it with big pots of lavender.

I won't give up with taking the cuttings - I've had a few small successes and I really need to persevere.  I know I couldn't bear to move and leave it behind!

Woods End

We are very lucky to have the Wherryman's Way very near us - it is a thirty-five mile walk between Great Yarmouth and Norwich along the River Yare and there are plenty of smaller circular walks that can be done from points along the way.

A few Sundays back, Amanda and I did a very short stretch - not because we're lazy, but because I have recently injured my leg and my GP even thought I may have had a blood clot!  However, it turned out to be nothing more than a bad sprain - although how it happened is beyond me, I was only walking to work - the same as I do every day.  It wasn't like I was running or skipping to get there!  So, we did just over a couple of miles as part of my recuperation and building back to walking on it properly again.

And it was also raining, and we're only fair weather walkers!  To be fair, it was actually really refreshing to walk in it - it had been so hot for weeks, necessitating Finn waiting until quite late in the evening for his walks.  So we were actually quite excited to be walking along in the rain - besides, we've got very good waterproofs.  As Billy Connolly once said, there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.

The path was lovely and peaceful - on lanes, on a couple of very minor roads, through woodland, along field edges.

Predictably, we were the only ones sitting in the pub garden in the rain at the end!  The circular walk starts just past the Woods End pub, but, because it was quite a short walk, we weren't even sure the pub would be open by the time we finished.

I've been here before in the height of summer with the sun shining and it's heaving.  So it was actually really nice to be the only ones there, enjoying the coolness of the rain and having this stretch of the Broads to ourselves.

Walled Garden

Mum and Dad have been in their cottage for nine months now and are having various works done to house and garden.  While they are in limbo waiting for these things to happen, they have worked ingeniously in their walled back garden.

At the moment, it's basically a gathering of plants!

The plan is to have a gate way put into the walled garden by the summer house, so they have easy access to their garage.  But, currently, there are wooden shelves all the way along with pots and planters full of colour.  I have no idea what they 're going to do once they've got the gate in and can't wait to see what happens next.

Marley and Me

Finn loves other dogs and always makes friends wherever he goes - provided he and the other dogs aren't on the lead. If he's on the lead, he's a monster. And if the other dog is on the lead, they get annoyed because Finn won't leave them alone. It's a minefield!

However, he does have one special friend - aside from Sid (and, personally, I think they just tolerate one another!) - Marley.  Marley lives in the caravan next door to Andy with his Mum and Dad.  I have been told their names lots of times, but I just forget.  They're just Marley's Mum and Dad.  And, no doubt, I am Finn's Mum.  That's just the way it is with dog owners.

Marley is such a friendly little dog and spends quite a lot of time in Andy's caravan with him - it's fab that Andy has some company there, but Finn gets incredibly jealous.  I think he just wants to play with Marley all the time - Marley stands on the step of the caravan and sticks his nose over the stable door and then we have to open the door so they can have a charge around the paddock.  It's very sweet to watch.

June Flowers - 2015

I have no idea how many garden photos I take over the month - I come home from work each day and get really excited to see what's bloomed while I've been at work and then I start snapping away.  I hadn't realised quite how out of hand it has got.  Until now.  I've just uploaded EIGHTY-TWO flower photos for this post from June! I'm not sure I'll be using them all as there is an awful lot of duplication - eighty-two!

This rose has been so beautiful this year, but there are no more buds at the moment.  I really hope I get another show of flowers this year - and they smell gorgeous too.

And that goes for the Bridge of Sighs rose too - at one point there were hundreds of buds on it - I almost wish there weren't so many at one time and they got spread out a bit over the summer.  It's a stunner.

My foxglove obsession is getting worse!  Although now (as I type this mid-July) most of the flowers are over now, so I can move on with my life!

These are lovely - I have no idea where they've come from!  I love that they only open up in bright sunshine so, when it's grey and gloomy, I forget they're even there.  It's such a lovely surprise when they appear.

The solanum has had another burst of flower since it's been chopped right back.  My neighbours who live at the bottom of the garden have replaced the fence panel and we've both chopped this right back so it doesn't drag the new fence down.  So pretty, especially with a bright blue sky as a backdrop.

This is another plant which has appeared in my front garden - campanula, I think?  It comes back every year despite me pulling it out once it's stopped flowering as it looks so messy out there.  I don't remember it being white before though, usually I only get the mauve variety.

I bought these lupins at the Creake Abbey Plant Fair - I got pink, white and red.  The pink and the white flowered almost immediately, but the red one has only appeared this week.  I need to get them more coordinated next year!

This red rose only has a few flowers on each year, but they're so unusal - more a tomato red colour.

The Alnwick rose has been beautiful this year following a very severe haircut earlier this year.  And this one is still flowering I'm pleased to say with plenty more new buds on it.  Gorgeous.

The poppies haven't flowered for such a long period this year either - they're a gorgeous splash of colour when they're here but they don't last long enough.

The hydrangea always does well - I love the way this goes from lime green to pink all in the same flower.

We're still no further forward with the mosaic path, but that's totally my fault.  I can't bear to cut flowers when they're still blooming and we need the path completely clear before Shannon can carry on working.  And I'm just not prepared to cut anything back for access yet.  It'll happen, it always does!

The garden is looking lovely right now - I love my sanctuary to come home to.  Despite living on quite a busy city road, it's so peaceful.

And of course there's nothing nicer than sitting outside with my boy!