Christmas message 2025

I’ve intermittently blogged about garden things on here over the years. We’ve decided to go digital for our seasonal message to family and friends, de-coupling the business of writing and posting cards with the business of writing the seasonal message and selecting some images. The cards are now in the post with a QR code to this page, so I need to get it written and published before the postie delivers the cards. The message, as always, includes lots about gardens and gardening so I’ve put it here rather than setting up a separate site.

TL;DR - 2025 in summary: some things went to plan (retiring, cooking more, baking more, gardening more, volunteering locally, going to concerts and the opera, seeing through the final snagging for last year’s kitchen build, getting the loft insulated and floored) and some things didn’t (reading, blogging, getting out, getting away, seeing friends and family more than I’ve managed, decluttering, crafting, discovering that the roof we had installed not long after we married was at imminent risk of collapse and needed almost total replacement, and PB’s slowly declining memory and the need to find coping strategies for us both).

Retirement

After 40 years in the business of librarianship, I “retired” from Imperial in February. It is in quotes because what I really wanted to do was to scale back to a couple of days of work a week. As I couldn’t be a “bit of a director”, I had to make an alternative plan. That plan was to do a bit of consultancy work using accumulated libraryland expertise and then to use “all that free time” to do more work on the garden, cook more, see more of friends and family, perhaps take a couple of mini breaks, and to continue volunteering locally. On the home front were plans to declutter, sort out my study now that it housed my stuff, my mum’s stuff, my dad’s stuff, and all the stuff I’d brought home from the office.

I’d visited a local Trust in the summer of 2024 with an offer to volunteer in their garden and whilst chatting to the manager was told that they were recruiting Trustees. I applied and was successful.  Now, less than a year later, I am now blinkin’ Chair! The origin of the trust is Tony Blair's "New Deal for Communities" (NDC) which was a £2-billion UK Labour government initiative (late 90s/early 2000s) targeting 39 of England's most deprived areas, with a focus on resident empowerment and long-term change. After the 10 year programme, our local NDC was spun out into a charity and leased a portfolio of properties (residential and commercial) from which we derive an income that enables us to continue to do good things for the community. Our home is the lush Besson Street Garden where I do a mixture of garden volunteering and all the things that come with chairing a Trust with a property portfolio. Hands up all those who thought I’d be part of a Trust overseeing a Tattoo parlour, amongst other things. Hmmm, I thought not. [PB: ‘thank goodness you didn’t come home with a tattoo….’]

Whilst most definitely not in the retirement “plan”, working with wonderful staff, volunteers and fellow trustees keeps me fit, active, challenged and humbled and occasionally just a little terrified at the responsibility. Having spent so much of my life working for large organisations with whole HR, Finance, IT & Estates departments, it can be daunting sourcing all that expertise amongst a small number of people.  If you want to read about the garden volunteering side of things, then head over to here and here.

Gardening

Meanwhile, back on Telegraph Hill, I was invited into the inner sanctum that is the organising committee for our local annual open gardens weekend (more work). Gardening means so much to me, but I’ve only really been doing it in earnest since 2015, so I was touched by the invite. However, that meant committing to opening ours this year which in turn meant that our own garden, which had been both neglected and in part wrecked during our 2024 building works, needed to be put back together so that it was fit to be opened in May. I had all those plants that had spent over a year in pots having been dug up to make way for the works, along with the proceeds of lots of lovely garden vouchers received as part of my leaving gifts to find homes for. Old plants were re-sited, new plants were planted and then followed the most insanely hot and dry summer during which they all needed to be kept alive. So much in our garden holds memories of family, friends and colleagues that seeing them suffer at all was not an option but was a huge responsibility. Happily, we’d gone big on water butts following the kitchen extension last year and most things survived after a lot of hand watering.

The Open Gardens weekend in May was incredibly successful, and we had well over 200 visitors to ours and sold many plants raising funds to support gardening projects for young people.

Over the ensuing summer our new raised kitchen bed near the house proved incredibly productive and what we couldn’t eat as it grew has been processed either for the freezer or in jars. It has been a bumper year for basil, chillies, tomato, sage, dill, rosemary, mint, beetroot, courgettes, cucumber, apples, blueberries, lemons, strawberries, raspberries and figs. The rather large freezer that we installed as part of the kitchen works last year is now full! My robin helper continues to forage close by as I work and additionally, now comes and demands to be fed, feeding now out of my hand which is simply adorable.  PB has named him Robin’ Banks and a cute image of him is at the end of this message.

Times to remember

Since 2020, during which he had covid very badly indeed, PB’s memory has become increasingly unreliable. He has now been “in the system” (brain clinic and neurology) since 2021. In addition to what appears to be slow progressing Alzheimer’s disease, one of the experts suspects that he may have had a tiny stroke during that bout of covid. The net result is that he sometimes struggles to form new memories, has forgotten chunks of his past life, and is uncertain about his way around London and other previously familiar places.

Memories of childhood, school and university appear largely intact. Those of much of his working life and much of our time together are patchy. Fortunately, I’ve been an avid taker of pictures since my late teens and so when PB declares he’s never been to [insert the name of one of the many places we have visited], I’m able to show him that he has, mostly apparently enjoying himself. I and my photograph album are now a big part of his memory. We are finding ways of coping, including keeping a daily written diary of things we expect to happen, e.g., my meetings and other activities, and his various medical appointments which I attend if at all possible in order to take copious notes.

If things are going to plan (i.e. roughly what it says in the diary), then he is on an even keel and still able to play the piano more skilfully, answer increased swathes of University Challenge questions than I’ve ever been able to, and be an excellent sous chef and very efficient with the vacuum cleaner and the broom. When he gets anxious, many bets are off. I’ve found that he is naturally anxious and that the balance can tip quickly – when his medications get changed or run out, when we are planning to go out, and especially when the many parts of the not-at-all-joined-up NHS communicate with him by text, letter, one app, another app, email, or sometimes all of the aforementioned but not necessarily in the right order.

In short, we’ve not got out and away that much beyond a few day trips to friends, historic places and gardens, all captured for posterity and some featuring in this note. We’ve been talking about perhaps planning some short trips – i.e., involving an overnight stay – so that we can visit some further flung glories.

Musical interlude

On the performing side, I’m still singing with the London Philharmonic Choir and, to my relief, passed my re-audition, something I won’t have to go through again now for another three years. At my age, that’s a huge relief.

Our programme continues to be varied with highlights including Mahler 8 (Gardner/LPO) and a proms performance Delius’s Mass of Life under Elder, with the BBC SO and Chorus. Fun factoid – 40 years ago this year Elder gave me my first library job in ENO. The mass was particularly challenging for us top sops – I fear my lifetime’s supply of top Cs has been significantly depleted. But Elder made sense of the work for me and it was great to give it an outing. The Mahler was billed as being “semi staged”, a concept that so horrified PB that he refused to book a ticket until it was too late, and then it was sold out. His words “but it’s all already there in the music”. Then there was another stint with Elder, this time VW’s Sea Symphony - my first! PB did come to that one and writes 'was profoundly moved by the chance to hear a live performance of what had been a set work for his A-level  examination many decades ago', whilst also getting very irritated at the reviewer who said that the choir wasn’t balanced, asserting that “well, they should have been in the [Royal Festival] Hall rather than on a boat on the Thames”. The challenging concert of the autumn was Harmonium by John Adams. Hands down the most exhilarating and difficult piece I’ve been involved in.  As always, it is a privilege to get to perform amazingly varied repertoire with outstanding professional musicians

It all started with a weed

Towards the end of the summer we noticed a weed growing in our guttering. We engaged a roofing company to both come and extract it and, as they had to erect a scaffolding tower to get at it, we asked for a roof inspection at the same time. When we’d started on the house renovation back in the 80’s, we’d started with the roof so I fondly thought that it would see us out and that other than a spot of internal decoration, all the big structural work on the house was complete. Well, that’s not quite how it has panned out. It turns out that the mortar securing the ridge tiles above the main structural beam and hips had failed and that over the years, water had been seeping into the wood framework holding up the roof. We were shown an alarming video whereby the inspector could poke his finger through the rotting wood, and where mortar elsewhere (chimney, fire wall) had also failed. As I write, we are cloaked in scaffolding, and the roof is undergoing full scale replacement with the only sliver lining being that we’ve added “insulating and flooring the roof space” to the list of expensive things that we are having done. Ahhhh, it was nice knowing my pension lump sum for those brief few months!!!

Traditions

For the last few years we’ve ditched the computer generated labels for cards that we send, thus slowing down the process of card writing so that we can reflect on what friends and family mean to us.  We also continue our tradition of not opening cards received until Christmas day itself, enjoying them at leisure with a glass of bubbly and some smoked salmon.

And finally, our game of continuous Rummy, started during lockdown, continues. At the time of writing, I’m winning but only after a very long stretch on the losing side – exactly as was the case in 2024!!

We wish you and yours a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

CB, PB and Robin' Banks
December 2025

Six on Saturday - 24th May 2025

Six on Saturday - it's been a while!

Goodness, my last #SixOnSaturday was way back in September 2023. A lot of life has happened since then, including a big life decision - to retire; another big life deicision - to press ahead with a major build at our house to give us a better view of the garden, a new kitchen and an all important utility/boot room along with the future proofed added benefit of completely flat access from the street to living space, a not inconsiderable challenge on this hill. Then, an encounter with a young lad in a hire car in a massive hurry nearly put paid to all of the above. As we were crossing our road near our house he sped down and pulled out of a side street into our path, swerved to avoid my husband, hit me and flung me in the air.  I'm recovered. I'm "retired". I have a lovely new kitchen/dining/living space with a wonderful view of the garden. But it has been a year and some! The garden itself is recovering from major excavation, all the rain we had last year, the builders hut, and, well, the builders! Recovering to the extent that I managed to open it last weekend as par of our lovely local Telegraph Hill Open Gardens 2025 weekend. I take so many photos of the garden with the intention of posting a Six, and then I get sidetracked into gardening. This time I'm determined to break that silence. 

One: The King's Rose

Well, get me being bang on trend with a first edition rose! The first edition bit is the librarian in me equating the first selling of a new rose, now out of "print" (aka supply). It is the new David Austin King's Rose, as seen at the Chelsea Flower show. I ordered it there and then. It arrived two days ago and was planted the same day. It flowered immediately. Even the two tiny buds that got knocked off when I planted it have flowered in a little vase in the kitchen. 

Two: Wisteria, flowering at last

We've been in this house since the early 1980s but I've only really been gardening in the last ten years. This wisteria has been in the ground all that time. Until a number of years ago, it was completely untrained and had shot up through an ash tree - itself a seedling - and occasionally threw off the odd bloom. I've "rescued" it from the ash tree and gave it a jolly good prune. It spend a good few years sulking. I've been giving it the 7/2 treatment that I first heard about from Adam Frost on Gardener's World. It has repaid me by finally flowering. I'm hoping we'll get along together from now on. 

Three: water, harvesting thereof

The new build, a wraparound extension to the side/back of the house meant that I had to relocate what were a couple of daisy-chained utilitarian water butts from the side of the house that were filled from the roof via a rain diverter. The only place for replacements was on the new back facade of the house - no room for daisy chained butts, or anthing unsightly. So I went posh and big and got two huge (380l) butts with inbuilt planters. Hands down, "where did you get those?" was the most frequently asked question at last weekends Telegraph Open Gardens event. The answer is here. I went for the muted sandstone to blend with the london bricks. You can also choose from some joyfully coloured ones. I've kept their predecessors and those are now connected to the roof of the summer house and the shed. Even so, with the recent dearth of rain, all were practically run dry until the very welcome downpours here in SE London over the last few days. 

Whilst sill on the water theme, we have a pond, and a few bird baths. This one sits just through an arch which leads from what looks like "the garden", to a whole other secret set of garden spaces beyond. It is regularly used by our local magpies for softening carbs, usually bread or rice, all of which are added within minutes of me refreshing the water. Last weekend, I refreshed the water just as the first garden visitors were due to arrive, only to find a deposit of a new carb - Tagliatelle!  

Four: Geranium psilostemon - Armenium Cranesbill

The great thing about our local gardening club are the ideas and the swapsies. This one was doing very well indeed in Becky's garden, and had seeded itself liberally. We dug up a clump a week ago, I trugged it up the hill and popped it towards the back of one of my borders and, after looking a bit sad for a couple of days, it has really perked up and seems happy in its new home. 

Five: grass recovery

The 2023 Christmas holiday break was spent digging up as many plants as I could from the area that was going to be affected by the building works. Including all the palnts in the patio boarder which were, in the new scheme, going to be covered by the new extended building. So the bottom part of the garden turned into pot city, with all the things that I hoped would survive to be re-planted once the work was done. Then the builder's hut was errected on what would, after the build, still be a lawn area. As you can see, it looked very sad after the hut was removed. I've gone for re-seeding rather than re-turfing, not least because my lawn is not just grass and anything that was just grass would look way out of place. I reckon I mow as many daisies as I do grass blades. If I look closely I can still see the recent history of the lawn (where the hut was, where they stacked the stone for the new steps for weeks and weeks, where the rhododendron spent the summer in a big builder's bag on the lawn). But it is recovering. The daisies are back.

The reason why we want a lawn in the first place is that it is lovely to sit on the patio for breakfast or lunch, and to watch the birds feeding. The feeder has been relocated further up the lawn and right now, is being visited dozens of times an hour by Mrs Woodpecker. We've worked out where she is nesting and look forward to when the young get introduced to the feeder. Learner woodpeckers trying to feed for the first time is rather amusing. 

Six: OMG - I'm going to finish this one and publish it. My first six since 2023. 

The first strawberry. Harvested about an hour ago and eaten within minutes. We shared it atop a couple of strawberry infused white chocolates which arrived to help us celebrate our recent 39th Wedding anniversary. It was exquisite.  

That's all for this week. This is my latest in the #SixOnSaturday, a series inspired by The Propagator and currently being championed over at Garden Ruminations. Check out the participant guide here. I aspire to be as disciplined, creative and inspiring as them but for now, I'll remain pleased if I can just limp on with a post every now and again.

 

Open Gardens 2025 - plants from 101JR

Open Gardens - about the plants

You'll most likely be reading this page because you visited our garden as part of the Telegraph Hill Open Gardens weekend in May 2025. It contains some information about the plant(s) that you may have taken away with you which I hope will be useful. My garden is a haven for slugs and snails and everything here survives! I've added what I hope you will find some helpful details along with links out to the Royal Horticultural Society website where you can read more from the professionals. 

Campanula

This one is fantastic as ground cover and will grow in little cracks. It is great in the shade but also works in the sun. The blue flowers are great polinator magnets - you know it is in flower by the noise as well as the lovely carpet of blue. I found that once the first flush of flowers is done, you can pull them away and you'll get a second flush later on in the summer. There are lots of varieties but the closest I can get is this one. However, it seems not to be attractive to slugs and snails.

Crambe cordifolia

This greater sea kale produces large leaves and a fabulous quantity of white flowers on a tall stalk. My original plant came from an open gardens visit, and this year I've managed to get five new plants from the original parent. It seems only right that some should go to local gardens. The lower leaves can get munched by slugs and snails but not to the extent that it stops it from thriving. More info here

Crassula ovata

Very easy to care for houseplant. What more can you ask for? See what the RHS have to say about it here

Geranium

I think this one is "Ridsko" judging by the image and description on the RHS site. It is great at surpressing weeds and giving good reliable ground cover. Pretty pink flowers in early spring. 

Hylotelephium (the plant formerly known as sedum)

Probably this one. Great big flowers late on in the summer which the polinators love. 

Jasmine Beesianum

Great climber. Smaller red flowers in the summer. RHS info here

Jasmine (common)

Great climber. Wonderfully scented flowers in spring. More here

Jasmine (winter flowering)

This evergreen provides yellow flowers during the winter and is good for the polinators that are still around at that time of year. Tolerates hard pruning. More here

Lamium

Great for shady ground cover. This one produces lovely yellow flowers early on in spring. It will weave its way through the undergrowth and where it touches the ground, may form new roots. I find it is easy to pull up if it has strayed to where you don't want it. More information here

Mint

If you like your mint tea then this is a great plant. Because it spreads very easily, I keep mine in pots and sink them into the soil. It is easy to propagate - take some long stalks, remove the lower leaves, and then place in some water. You will soon see some roots. But don't take my word for it, read more about variteies of mint and how to take care of them here.

Pittosporum tobira

I was given two of these by a former colleague. She'd had them as standards on her balcony. Occasionally they produced small shoots and so I took heel cuttings, most of which rooted. Their flowers are gloriously scented. The RHS advice is to grow them in full sun but mine have survived in pots and with only the morning sun.

Phormium

Fantastically resilient ornamental plant that can grow quite large in the open ground. We first planted one in 1993 and it grew and multiplied into a large clump. We then dug that up, separated out all the plantlets, and put some of them back, including a couple of clumps in pots. It does well in a pot and seems to thrive however badly you treat it. In a pot, it can create a really useful screen. Individual leaves look great in flower arrangements. See what the RHS have to say here.

Raspberry "Malling Promise"

A vigorous early fruiting raspberry. I'm glad I planted mine in a raised bed as it has gone bonkers. This year I will net it once the fruits start to form so that I get more than the squirrels do! RHS advice over here

Sorbaria Sorbifolia

I was attracted to this because of its lime leaves which are tinged with pink when they emerge in spring. It also produces a lovely white flower. It is vigorous and sends out suckers with new plants along them, so I'm now keeping mine in pots so that they stay where I want them to be. Great for a pot. Seems to tollerate hard pruning. You can read more over on the RHS site here

Tradescantia Zebrina

A lovely houseplant, gifted as a birthday present a couple of years ago. Really easy to propagate - I do mine in water, simply cut off a length with a few leaves on it, remove the lower leaves, place in water and watch as the roots emerge. You can read more from the RHS experts here

Vinca minor

Ground cover. Produces little purple flowers in the spring. If it is very happy (as mine was) it will produce a carpet of glossy green leaves under which our resident toads like to overwinter! See the RHS information here

Telegraph Hill Open Gardens 2025

Saturday 17th May & Sunday 18th May 14:00 - 18:00

Local gardens in and around Telegraph Hill, SE London will be open on the afternoons of 17th and 18th May. Some will also have plants for sale and/or will serve refreshments. A lovely opportunity to meet people from the neighbourhood and to see what plants flourish locally. 

**Update 13th May: Garden 3 is now unable to open owing to illness.** 

 

Six on Saturday - 2nd September 2023

Survivors and thrivers

Best laid plans and all that - I had my six pics all ready for last week's #SixOnSaturday and then got distracted by garden jobs so it's been another fortnight since the last post. We've had rain off and on this week so the water butts have been kept topped up which is a relief as I have a lot of things in pots and continue to try very hard not to use mains water. I've got into the habit of filling up all the watering cans after I've done the watering round to make even more space available for collecting when it next rains. Here are this week's six. The purists amongst you will note that whilst there are six headings, there are more than six things as I'm taking liberties this week. 

One: rose

This started life in my company as one of those little pots of living flowers given to me by a friend for my birthday a couple or three years ago. I planted it out and it has survived. When it is in bud/early flower it is particularly pretty.

Two: Clematis Armandii - again!

I thought I was seeing things last week - a single wisteria flower and a single c. armandii flower. I wasn't. Armandii has put on a second flush of smallish flowers for reasons only known to itself. Here's a picture to prove it. 

Three: the plant formerly known as sedum

I know they are very common and very easy to grow but at this time of year they bring a bit of brash joy to the garden. This clump are only just starting to colour up but even so, have been attracting bees for a couple of weeks now. Perfect timing as the nearby lavender has just received a trimming so there's something for the bees to move on to. 

Four: survivors

Yes, it's the apple tree again but humour me: it lost its second bough in December 2014, it is now hollow half way down, and home to gazillions of anty & beetly creatures, and yet it is still producing apples. They are cookers and we've rescued the remains of the crop from the clutches of the squirrels and they are making a jolly nice addition to the breakfast museli at the moment. The apples that is, not the squirrels. I fully expect to wake up one morning and find the trunk on the ground as it is already very wobbly indeed. Also surviving and thriving is a begonia that I thought was lost to last December's exceptionally cold weather. Not a bit of it. 

Five: harvest surprise

I mentioned the courgettes in the last post. They are still going strong and I'm still picking them when they are small, generally getting a couple a day. These are this morning's. Also in the trug are blueberries, some tomatoes - semi-ripe as I'm finding that some critters are availing themselves of the crop as it ripens - and a long aubergine. Finally, a nice surprise. I'd failed with cucumber seeds this year and so bought a young plant from I can't remember where. It is now creeping around the greenhouse and producing fruit which are nothing like those pictured on the label. A brief consultation with #GardeningTwitter experts and I find that I'm growing what is most likely Cucumber Crystal Apple. They are exquisetly sweet and flavoursome. Thanks to the responsive folks over at the Royal Horticultural Society for warning about discarding them if they were bitter. Happily they are anything but. 

Six: Japanse anemone honorine jobert

These are standing about six feet tall this year and are flourishing. Over the years they've produced offspring which pop up tens of feet away. I can forgive them for that given the long show they give me and how very undemanding they are. 

That's all for this week. This is my latest in the #SixOnSaturday, a series inspired by The Propagator and currently being championed over at Garden Ruminations. Check out the participant guide here. I aspire to be as disciplined, creative and inspiring as them but for now, I'll remain pleased if I can just limp on with a post every now and again. 

Six on Saturday - 19th August 2023

Remembering mum

Nine years ago today, mum passed away. It is partly through her that I gained my love of gardening, and her legacy funded the hard landscaping and fencing in ours, so this post is dedicated to her memory and to the daily pleasure and theraputic uplift that the garden gives me. For a walk around, hop over to the video that we made during the 2020 lockdown. 

It has been eight weeks since my last post during which the garden has become a veritable jungle. Having had the swealtering heat of June, we've since had a warm and wet July, and a slightly less wet August. Out there in the jungle are three prolific courgette plants. My first sowing of seeds came to nought. Four seedlings emerged from the second sowing, three of which I planted. I'm now picking the fruits when they are young although there was the hillarious moment when I found a "hider" which weighed in at nearly 800g! I'm currently picking three or four each day and they are variously feeding us, neighbours, and garden club members. Then there are the bees. The garden is absolutely alive with them at the moment, particularly on the lavender and salvias. They come in so many different patterns, sizes and degrees of fluffiness!

Anyhow, on to this week's six planty things going on in our little haven here in south east London: 

One: Rosa Gentle Hermione

Hermione has responded to pruning after the first flowering with a second flush. The scent is utterly heavenly and it is liked by the bees. 

Two: Geranium Rozanne

Another bee magnet, and a fantastically long flowering plant. It does wilt somewhat in the heat, but has been very well behaved during July and August. 

Three: Clematis "Princess Diana"

Diana does well in the shade although I've probably not been feeding her enough. I don't recall getting around to pruning her last year so it is a wonder that there are any flowers this year!   

Four: Canna tropicanna black

I thought this one was a complete gonner. I'd rescued the pot and put it inside a greenhouse when we had the plummeting temperatures last december. Happily, whilst the outer rhizomes did not survive the sub zero temperatures, the centrall one did and here it is putting on a really grand show.   

Five: Clematis viticella (probably)

I've mislaid the label to this clematis which I only acquired earlier in the summer. It is possibly Viticella and has been slow to get going. I've planted it so that it can clamber over an arch.  

Six: Augergine "moneymaker"

This is my first year growing aubergines. I've grown some long ones from seed and this one, moneymaker, came from a generous neighbour. All are doing exceptionally well and I anticipate searching "1001 things to do with a glut of aubergines" to replace the current courgette search.   

This is my latest in the #SixOnSaturday, a series inspired by The Propagator and currently being championed over at Garden Ruminations. Check out the participant guide here. I aspire to be as disciplined, creative and inspiring as them but for now, I'll remain pleased if I can just limp on with a post every now and again.   

Six on Saturday - 24th June 2023

All things blue and beautiful

A whole five months since my last post and I've not even managed to get it out on a Saturday! I did actually start writing it early yesterday morning and I started with  "It's a beautiful morning". Then, all the jobs that I set myself to get done before heading out for a day of singing took over, and that's as far as I got. So, now it is Sunday afternoon. Let's see how far we get this time. 

It's a swealtering 29 degrees outside, Sunday afternoon 24th June  2023. At times like this I'm really grateful for the shaded areas of the garden and earlier I took full advantage, sitting right down at the bottom writing up my diary, and completing this week's column in my gardening five year record book, something I also started earlier in the year. In fact the record book is possibly the reason for not getting back to the blog as by the time I've written that up I've thought of a thousand things to do in the garden and then, before I know it, it is not Saturday anymore. 

It's the time of year when all the learner fledglings try out the bird feeders. A new one this year has been a young greater spotted woodpecker. For a couple of weeks now it has followed its mother around the garden,  calling after her and landing slightly ginergly, sometimes ending up suspended underneath a feeder and apparently trying to work out "what next". Today it was alone and a lot more confident.  Also out and about are a large number of damselflies. Earlier in the week there were at least four pairs, hooked up in tandem, the rear female dipping her tail in the pond, presumably laying eggs. And after some refreshing rain, rain which filled two of the four water butts, I saw at least two toads. I'd been worried they'd all disappeared, especially as it looks as though this season's eggs did not survive a March frost. 

Anyhow, to planty things going on in the garden here in south east London: 

 

One: bright blue Hydrangea Macrophylla Zorro

Last year Zorro's flowering season was brought to a juddering halt with the insane 40 degree heat that we had. I pruned it earlier in the year and it is coming back very nicely indeed, and still nice and blue. It is in its own pot, planted in ericaceous soil, and watered with rainwater with added fortification. I don't think the flowers are quite as large as previously but there are a healthly number of them, all on gorgeous dark, nearly black, stems. 

Two: beginning to go blue

I've been giving Mum's hydrangea the "Zorro" treatment. I've had it since she passed in 2014 and it has been pink most years. It certainly has some blue tinges now. Come back in another year or two to see if I've been successful in turning the pompoms blue. 

Three: blue bee heaven

This is one of several profusions of campanula which are dotted around the garden. The bees adore it if the buzzing is anything to go by.  

Four: bicycle blues

Dad gave me this last year and would have loved to see it planted up like this. He and Annie had had it in their garden in Lincolnshire and it had become completely overgrown with brambles. We extracted it and realised that it could still be used as a rather quirky planter. Here it is tumbling with lobelia and geraniums. 

Five: Salvia "amethyst lips

I've discovered Salvias through our local gardening club. Seven are in flower at the moment with only Amistad and Black and Blue waiting to take off.  

Six: fortification

The air was blue the other weekend when I realised that the squirrels had taken all my figs and most of the nearly ripe strawberries. I have now acquired this cage into which I've put the strawberries, the lemon tree - the blighters took all those last summer - and a blueberry bush. A determined squirrel will probably get through but I'm hoping this will be a sufficient deterrant for now and that I've secured it sufficiently so that the birds and the toads don't get tangled up in it. 

This is my latest in the #SixOnSaturdon ay series inspired by The Propagator and currently being championed over at Garden Ruminations. Check out the participant guide here. I aspire to be as disciplined, creative and inspiring as them but for now, I'll remain pleased if I can just limp on with a post every now and again.