Summer Scents

Kenju, over in her blog Imgine mentioned the scent of her begonia bush. I don't have scented begonias, but I do have honeysuckle, and Mock Orange (which is often called Syringa, but isn't!) and two or three roses that smell gorgeous!

In the evening, it is a real pleasure to walk through the Honeysuckle arch, and past the Mock Orange, you are just assaulted by these wonderful perfumes. The roses are on another arch, and I have to get right down and bury my nose in them to smell their perfume - well worth it!

I think this might be my last post for a few days, as I have just been called in, by telephone, to have a cataract removed on Tuesday. Please think of me - I'm a bit nervous about it all!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

The Whispering of my Heart

The Whispering of my heart

Deep longings, so long unfilled, their
Ashes glowing only faintly.

Deceits and vanities,
Treacherous twins of selfishness
Honed over time.

Doubts, insinuated into cracks of our beliefs
In life and love.

Hopes, barely expressed,
for my daughter and my daughter’s children.

Happiness, that flash that lights dark corners
With thankfulness
And heartfelt gratitude to my God.

May the words of my mouth always find favour
And the whispering of my heart
In your presence.

Psalm 19 v14, Jerusalem Bible

Ladies Outing

Yesterday (Thursday) I went with the Ladies Group from an Evangelical Church (I belong to the group, not to the Church!) on our Summer Outing. We went to a Garden Centre and Farm Shop in Cheshire. It looked small when we got there, but as someone said, it was like Tardis - it just went on and on! You thought you had come to the end, turned a corner, and there was a whole lot more!

As well as flowers




there were a lot of quirky things for sale.









Some of them were very odd!














We all had a lovely lunch together, and then wandered round the Farm Shop, seeing lots of things that we couldn't possibly do without!

It was a very good day out, and lovely to be with people we knew well, and get to know those we didn't know quite so well.

Friendship is a very valuable thing.

Planting Trivia!

I enjoy keeping our rather large patio decorated with flowering tubs and containers. These will grow larger and have more blooms, but at least they are flowering!


This end of the patio is, don't laugh! my raised bed area! Superstore crates (which sort of got left behind some time ago) have been filled with compost and various seeds planted. Courgettes are growing well, radishes ditto - we have eaten some - lettuces and carrots seem to have stopped, but I daresay will get a move on soon. Climbing french beans are about to climb. I hope!

Our garden is rather too big for us, and I can't get down to do anything at ground level, hence pots and "raised" beds. But I hope to wield a long handled fork and get some of the weeds out of the shrub border. Creeping buttercup would happily take over the whole garden, given half a chance!

But weeds are only flowers in the wrong place, and I love the yellow of buttercups, so in places, they stay!

We all need to feel we are planted in the right place before we can flourish, don't we?

Blind Eyes

Sometimes you feel you are being watched!! But there is no life there.







Could this be Big Brother? (George Orwell's, not Channel 4@s!)




These birds sat, just looking. In a Park In Verona, with lovely fountains and flowers.





And this lot look too snooty to look at any of us!

I felt quirky this molrning, and decided to post these. I love looking for the unexpected, the odd and peculiar. But its not always easy to photograph them - people can get a bit irate - and there's always the possibility they might see themselves on my blog with unflattering comments.

At least the birds and the ladies with hats won't care! I think we have a duty to be mindful of the feelings of others. But today you can't seem to rely on that being the case, especially with "Reality! shows and the like.

Forgotten lives, forgotten places

I've seen this doorway dozens of times, and have at last remembered to take my camera with me! Its opposite the Library (which is the old Barclays Bank building, and therefore not all that old) and it must have once been the front door to a very grand house. But now it is locked, bolted and barred, paint peeling, cobwebs rampant. The building has been changed round at what is now the front and is used by a recruitment agency. Once the little lane it faces was an old thoroughfare, leading down the hill. But now, just a few old cottages further down - (all done up and costing a bomb!) are all that remains. And this front door.

I wonder who lived there? What they were like, was there a family? I must try to find out. So many places and people are forgotten, people who may not have made much of a mark on society, but who were remembered fondly and with love by their family.

But the families have died, scattered, and these lovely people, and the places they lived in have been forgotten, wiped off the map, left to rot.

I'm feeling a bit old this morning!

 

Its pouring with rain (though the garden needed it) so played around with some of my favourite pics.

As I am a curvy person ;) I decided that curves would be the subject of this collage. Much more interesting than straight lines!

Some of them were taken on various holidays, one or two locally. I love the curves that lead the eye into a point - a doorway, or the focal point of the curve itself. A couple of them were taken with the phone on my mobile, so not very good. But I like them, anyway, and they remind me of a very happy time!

Somehow curves seem more natural - nature doesn't have many straight lines (I know, stems!) but they have a real intention - holding a flower, or a tree up) and I bet the cells have curves!

I love looking up at the roofs of great churches and cathedrals. So much of it is unseen by the usual throng of visitors, but so much is beautiful - all carved, built and presented for the glory of God!

Just wish I could be as creative!