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.

Shed Replacement, Phase 2: Demolition

Reluctant to start, but the shed is empty now, so demolition is waiting on me and nothing else.  There is almost nothing salvageable - just the window stay.  We got the about half the wood bagged up for the tip, and the rest collapsed down.  

Going...

Going...

Not quite gone.

Trying the doorframe for size is into the middle lawn:

Shed Replacement, Phase 1: Emptying

We empires the shed of all it's contents, then redistributed:

Bikes from outhouse bike shed to outshouse back store

Shelves, garden games, deckchairs and large tools to (ex)bike shed

Hand tools to outhouse 'potting shed'

Furniture to kitchen and sun room

The rest to the bin.

'Get some fresh air,' I said,

Get some sunlight, some vitamin D...