Reflecting on my week #85

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I think I’ve said before how much difference a three day weekend can make. i definitely think we should have more of them, though I think this week I’ll be suffering as I’ve an even shorter week than the rest of you. Our weekend started off well with dinner in a relatively new local restaurant, Copper & Ink. It’s in Blackheath and describes itself as “a modern British restaurant with influences from classic French and Scandinavian cuisine” and is a great addition to the restaurants in our London village.

As ever looking for the easy option on the menu and when we’re spoilt for choice we opted for the tasting menu ,and it was a great choice. As well as the food, my favourite part about the restaurant was the bookcase, with real, proper books. And many recipe books which I have too. The other nice touch was that the Chef Patron, Tony Rudd, the Masterchef finalist who lives locally served the main course of the five course menu. That and the fact that there was two puddings, which is always a good thing in my book.

And with a start like that, the weekend could only get better. I’ve been trying to implement a new Bank Holiday rule, which includes cocktails each evening. MOH got on board with it two nights out of three, my favourite was the Aperol Spritz, which always tastes better in the sun. And in big glasses!

It was one of those weekends were we tackled lots of jobs, and many of the jobs that have been hanging around for a little while. Like finally getting the dead and dying box topiary balls out of our tall pots, though that was trickier than it sounds. Last year we’d chopped one back completely in the hope that we’d prevent the spread of the box caterpillar. Earlier this year we realised we hadn’t been so luck and the second of our boxes was under siege by the stripey foes.

Almost resigned to the fact, and seeing the state of the box in gardens around us, this weekend the third bush which was only part-nibbled was also sacrificed. It had quite the rootball, filling one of the larger trugs. We’ve had the plants a while, and were probably one of our first additions to the garden some fifteen or so years ago. So we’ve definitely had our money’s worth from them, and it’s sad to see them go - and so savagely - but it makes sense to move to something less attractive to the pesky nibblers, I’m not sure what yet, but I’ll know it when I see it.

We also made time to assemble the Copper Rim Fire Pit which Von Haus sent me to try. It was the perfect job for a grey Bank Holiday Monday. I’ll share more in a separate post, but of course the Bank Holiday weather got the better of us in the end and so we’ve still yet to try it out. The website says it’s easy to assemble, and that’s something I’d definitely agree with. MOH likes a good assembly job, and I’m sure had been itching to get started on this, and my role was quickly designated Chief-Hold-It-In-Place, which it seems I’m not that good at.

The solar lights that we bought recently at the garden centre made it out of the packet and onto the fence too. It really was the weekend for catching up on jobs. I’m always wary about solar lights, and placing them in a straight line along the fence, as I think quite often with our long thin garden it can make our garden appear narrower, and there’s always the concern that it might get mistaken for a runway, which wouldn’t be good. These however have been added to the fence posts and panels alongside the conservatory, so provide an element of light when sitting in the conservatory of an evening too, as well as hinting that there’s more to our garden.

As well as generally trying to tame parts of our garden - and making small inroads - one of the parts that really needed tackling was the area in front of our gabion basket seating area. The weeds had gone rampant here, despite our best efforts to keep it clear. I think there’s wasted effort in re-weeding areas when we don’t need to, and while it’s something we tackle this year, the weeds will probably be quicker than us so it called for drastic measures. Those drastic measures were empty compost bags pinned in place as a temporary weed prevention tool, let’s hope they work.

It wasn’t all toil and no glamour though - remember there were cocktails - and there were also highlights, these buttercups seem to have found themselves a new home jumping up into the sleeper bed. Many class these as a weed, but I’m applying the “it’s only a weed if it’s in the wrong place” principle to these, and they’re staying for at least a while.

The bug to get things done had truly bitten MOH as next thing I knew he was out on the conservatory roof clearing out the guttering - a novelty, as it’s the first time our conservatory has had guttering. Even just him being out there gives me the heebie jeebies, my role this time was to pull him back in through the window.

I’m really good to him, at times. I’ll remind him of that when I need to!

My garden in April

April was the month that our garden really started growing after winter, or noticeably growing that is. We’ve still to catch up with it, but it’s entirely do-able, if we can coincide our free time with some weather that’s compatible with gardening. That wasn’t always the case in April, but May is looking a little more promising. Mentioning May, we’re most of the way through the month and yet here I am only just sharing my garden in April.

As you can see it was a lush time. The sweet peas are a metre high, and the ivy is growing almost in front of your eyes. Ivy especially is something that can always be cut back in our garden, and cut back more than once a year as it goes for us.

As you can see the agapanthus had yet to be uncovered, but the parsley had overwintered well. It’s since in the process of going to seed, but I’ve harvested plenty from what was a small plant. Now it seems I’ll be trying to germinate a new plant, which if you remember isn’t my forte.

The sun did make appearances in April, and my Gertrude Jekyll rose is starting to grow, the reddish leaves venturing up the fence.

The yellow pom pom plant - or kerria - which has grown and developed from the shoots that popped through the fence, are just about done, but they’ve given a good show and lit up quite a green section of our garden for quite a while.

Elsewhere though there’s reminders that there’s still much to be done. Grass growing on the shed roof, is one of those, as is the moss on the greenhouse. I know that green roofs are a thing, sadly I’m not sure this is quite the look we should be going for.

We did tackle the forsythia, as you may remember from one of my weekly updates. For the first time taking precautions with the yucca below, we must have had an inkling of what was to come with MOH toppling off the ladder after overstretching just a little too far. There’s good news though, while we lost the most upright branch of the yucca, there’s signs of new life there so all is well - and the rest of the plant, although a little lopsided, is still going strong. The forsythia which we gave quite a severe chop, has after a worrying period, started to show shoots, so we both were quite relieved about that.

It’s been interesting looking back at these photos, as this sage-like-but-not-sage plant which I can rarely remember the name for has developed in the past month, they’re not in flower yet, but it won’t be long before it’s full of yellow blooms. And yes, that is a chocolate wrapper in the top right of the photo, I hope courtesy of the local foxes, rather than our neighbours children (although some quite large stones appeared in our garden last year - the decorative sort - so I can’t be sure).

The cherry blossom was full on, we have white blossom rather than the more often photographed pink blossom of Greenwich Park. We did seem to have quite a lot of blossom, so I’m hopeful that the amount of blossom equates to the number of cherries we can harvest in a month or so.

Over winter I ‘hide’ or store our terracotta pots in places that are less likely to be hit by frost, and one of these places is behind our gabion seating area. I’d kept meaning to check how the triangular planting camomile was coming along, and when I peeked into the space I was quite surprised - but pleased - to see a geranium already in flower.

I was less surprised to see that the forget-me-knot march had made it this far. They are pretty flowers, but we have them in droves, which can be a bit tiring and so they too, after a while, are pulled out without question.

The lilac - also white, I’m not sure what it is about our garden and white flowers - has also been flowering, and the blue skies, green leaves and white flowers are quite striking.

So in a couple of words, April in our garden was green and lush. We’re hoping to spend some time in the garden this weekend to try and tame it a little more, we’re later starting than usual, so wish us luck!

Flowers on Friday returns with a quote

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared a ‘Flowers on Friday’ post and so to kick off this series again, I’m sharing another mirror quote from the loos in The Sipping Room. Despite what you might think, it’s Monet not Elton John. But it’s a great sentiment, isn’t it?

Sometimes quotes just speak to you don’t they?

Proper, actual flowers in the next Flowers on Friday post, I promise.

But which quotes speak to you?