Kippered

I kipperized the neighbourhood this afternoon by burning the last bits of the old shed.  Seemed like a good idea at the time...

...but it got very smoky with all that semi-rotten wet wood.

Restituted Rockery

Much overgrown lemon balm and chameleon plant removed, replanted with heather, variegated ajuga, and bits and bobs, including herbs from various pots, using my traditional planting technique of 'push it in and see what grows'.

The last photo in particular is not very prepossessing, but just you wait!

Low Down and Bertie

Have you ever smelled a bee? Well I have.  

Genie and I had two goes at restoring a very overgrown rockery this weekend.  I started by weeding around a hylotelephium sieboldii, which a rather large (big enough to have a name, but not a national insurance number) bumble bee was taking great interest in, probably because it didn't have to spell hylotelephium sieboldii.  

Anyway, disturbed, the bee took off, circled once in the manner of a professional navigator taking bearings on the Sun, and flew across my face, giving a pleasing ear-to-ear stereophonic effect, complete with Doppler shift.  I got a distinct whiff of honey!  I could hardly believe my nose. But it did it again a few minutes later.  "You've been at the juice, mate," I thought. But whether that was directed at the bee or myself, I'm not sure.

Hylotelephium sieboldii is indigenous to Japan, but has found a home as an introduced species in the Baltic States where, presumably, there are a lot of happy bees and bemused botanists.   This is it (thank you, Genie, for the photo):

Since its name is such a mouthful, I'll call it 'hi-lo', and the bee I've called 'Bertie'. 🐝

Onions Assemble!

Having left the onions to cure for about three weeks, the outer skins have browned and the leaves dried, so we made two onion strings.  The sizes were very variable and none were very big in this variety.  Still, it's satisfying to have them hanging up, ready for the pot.  More onions next year I think.  Here's Genie stringing along:

Passion Flower

The passion flower on the pergola is in bloom.  It was affected badly by our early frosts this year and by the dry spring weather.  But it's nice to see it in flower.

Of all the flower in this garden, it's this one that reminds me of Glen the most.  See would have appreciated it's delicacy, the understated colours and the slight quirky, whirly symmetry.  

Dishonesty!

That's not honesty, you fool! It's a hydrangea, and you should have known it. Still, nobody pointed out my mistake.