Unbought Delicacies: In the garden

Sunday 27 July 2008

In the garden

These are the only runners I grow now, Sunset. Beautiful peachy pink flowers and the sweetest tasting beans.

This is lovely, but I will need to curb its enthusiasm, and really try and find out what to do with it - I think the roots are used. Lovely flowers, though, the inula family.

A very beautiful shrubby plant this, which I grew from seed several years ago - flowers of purest white, cut away to reveal the fresh green calyx underneath.

Wish you could smell these..........the plants have done very well this year, must have been all the rain! I've picked dozens of bunches so far, a few still to come yet. One of my favourites, especially the bicolours.

These seed all over the garden; not the fuller's teasel, but the other one. I love the flowers, and leave them for the finches to eat the seeds come the autumn; very stately and grand looking, adding good height around the place.

2 comments:

A Green and Rosie Life said...: They are beautiful flowers - I have good sweet peas this year (although they have refused to climb!) and some really tall sunflowers planted by the boys. I have also got some fantastic morning glories and have grown dahlias for the first time. Next year I am planning a cutting garden as I love flowers in the house but don't like buying those that are likely to be imported and full of chemicals.; 27 July 2008 at 13:55
Libbys Blog said...: I have noticed loads of teasels this year. I too have had loads of bunches of sweetpeas they are such a beautiful flower!; 28 July 2008 at 08:10

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Sunday 27 July 2008

In the garden

2 comments: