Saturday 6 May 2017

Peachy







Stolen lilacs. They're just so gorgeous. The tree is in a playing field near here. The local authority hacked it right down a couple of years ago and now it is more bushlike in form. It had quite a few blooms this year though, so I filched a few. The rest of the flowers are from the back lane. Clematis, cow parsley and hawthorn.

It's been a busy week here, but not in a particularly productive way. Lots of rushing around. Lots of instances of me telling people to get ready and then finding that they are still not dressed and it's time to go. You have ten minutes somehow translates to It's perfectly fine to carry on lolling about, you can of course get dressed, pack your stuff and get your shoes on in twenty-three seconds. Lots of cricket, it's that time of year. I went to my first match of the season on a lovely village cricket pitch. Swifts were flying overhead, there was a slight evening chill and the gentle thwack of leather on willow, you know how it goes. Slightly marred by a cloud of midges, but I found that when I moved away from the gathered children it was fine. The midges were sticking closely to the small people.


On the way home there was the most spectacular sunset. The whole countryside was lit up in pink. The apple blossom in gardens and orchards was glowing white against the warm evening light. Stone walls were a soft pink. There was a gap in the clouds just above the sun and shafts of pink light were dropping down to the horizon. The edges of the clouds were gilded with rose gold. As we drove we spotted the sun just behind some trees. It was absolutely enormous and a flaming apricot colour. Even the children were impressed. I didn't shut up about it all for a good ten minutes. The middle boy said, "Mum, d'you think this is why you get lost all the time?" Could be, could be.

I finally sat down to do some work after lunch yesterday after a ridiculous morning of chasing my tail. I'd only been there a couple of minutes when there was a dull bang. I stuck my head up like a meerkat and listened for a bit. Nothing. I happened to glance out of the window and saw a pigeon sat on the little patio wall looking a bit sorry for himself. He must have flown into an upstairs window in the high winds. I watched him for a while. He could walk perfectly well but looked a bit sleepy. In fact after a few minutes he settled into a doze. Of course, I kept looking up to check on him every two minutes. Eventually he woke up again and walked up to the other end of the wall. I started worrying that if the children saw him they'd insist on a full dramatic rescue. I started googling injured pigeon and RSPCA. Luckily the next time I looked up he'd flown off. Phew. Drama avoided. But of course that was most of the afternoon gone.

In the garden, bees have been working hard for weeks pollinating the blueberries. I can see them from the kitchen, there are at least a couple out there at any given moment.


The great tits are working equally hard feeding their chicks. I shall miss all this spring life when it moves on, although hopefully they'll all still be around somewhere.

Surprisingly there are quite a few peaches on the peach tree. I don't bother hand-pollinating it any more, but I have lifted the crown of it so the peaches will hopefully be further away from flying footballs/cricket balls/tennis balls/frisbees.



The peach leaf curl is the worst it's ever been this year though. It's a fungal infection that appears on the new growth.


The dry weeks haven't helped at all - to avoid it the tree needs to be out of all rain from November to mid-May. In the past I've picked off the affected leaves, but for a couple of years now there have simply been too many. I'll just have to hope that the tree stays vigorous enough to produce peaches.

The garlic is looking slightly odd.



It has lots of fine grass-like growth popping out of it. Is this something to do with flowering I wonder? No doubt time will tell. I bought new garden shop bulbs to plant this year and I'm growing it at home because there's been terrible rust down at the allotment for the past couple of years. Hopefully the new healthy stock and a change of location will help. Rust is another fungal infection which will also weaken the plant and lead to small or unformed bulbs.

Finally a little garden triumph.


My white wisteria has flowered at last. It was a tiny plant when I bought it, and it's still fairly small in the scheme of things, but there are two or three flower stems. I have grand plans to train it up the back of the house. At the moment it's headed up a fence so a job for this weekend will be redirecting it. The winds have also knocked over the hazel tripod that the tayberry is growing up, so there's that too. And the grass. And, oh, you know how it is out there at this time of year, it's all going on. Wishing you a good weekend with a little garden or outdoor time. CJ xx

28 comments:

  1. Wonderful photographs! The colour of the lilac is glorious, I don't think I've seen such a dark one before. It is so exciting when a plant you have nurtured from a baby rewards you with flowers. I love the images you creat from your description of the cricket field and sunset. Have a good weekend.

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  2. The lilac is a gorgeous colour!!
    The fact that midges prefer little people explains why I always get bitten to death.
    Peach leaf curl is the reason for moving our peach and nectarine into the greenhouse where they can suffer from aphids instead.

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  3. Beautiful photos as usual! I'm determined to rid a patch of soil from creeping buttercup and docks before planting...and soon will be lifting all the bulbs we planted last autumn to clear that also...one day it will be beautiful...one day...we also have more building work to do so I'm loathe to plant shrubs only to have them trampled and building rubble dropped upon them. x

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  4. oh but this was such a wonderful read.....and glorious photographs as usual. i've fancied a wisteria for quite some time but get warned off by the dire predictions of needing Sturdy Support...they imply a trellis, which i haven't got, nor do i have the handy-skills to build one -- but then i see them climbing up walls.....i assume this is fine, they just need somewhere to rest? hmph!

    the lilacs are poised here...any minute now. once the rain stops i imagine, it'll be all Go. i dread the biting insects this year, they're going to be epic.

    xoxo

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    1. No sturdy support here either, I'm relying on a very spindly wire tentatively attached to the wall. Once they've been there a while they thicken up, in fact the base becomes tree-trunk-like. But I think just a wire usually does the trick for support. They are quite light to start with. I love to see them in the Cotswolds grown out of tiny gaps in the stones outside houses. Yew trees are grown the same way. The actual hole might be maybe a foot wide and six inches the other way, and almost entirely filled with the trunk, it's astonishing. Lovely though, it means you get greenery on the front of your house even without a garden. I'm wishing I put mine in the ground when I got it, but the root ball is a bit too big to stuff down into such a small hole now. CJ xx

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  5. Oh, those little furry peach buds, so gorgeous. I absolutely love your lilac arrangement - the colour is so intense and goes beautifully with the clematis. Our lilac is paler and bluer, if you know what I mean. The scent is glorious, isn't it? Gorgeous photos all round as usual. I love your son's comment about getting lost. Just the sort of thing mine would say. I've never grown garlic so I can't offer any insights into the grassy growth; hopefully they'll be fine. Well done on the wisteria - it's lovely. I hope you manage to get everything done that you want to do this weekend and find some quiet time for yourself. You're right, it's all going on out there! Sam x

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  6. Hooray for your wisteria. Ours has flowered once in ten years. But at least the goldfinches nest in it. Everything is looking and sounding rather wonderful in your neck of the woods xx

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  7. The lilac you "borrowed" is gorgeous. I only wish I wasn't allergic to it. There's lots I could also borrow on my walk to the lake. :-)

    I just popped out the door to check my garlic. It's a bit behind yours in growth, but some of them have that growth coming out of them, although in my case it's just one stalk per plant. I'm thinking it might be the scape starting to form, but that doesn't make sense in your case since there shouldn't be multiples.

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  8. Your flowers are so pretty I thought it was a painting. Never heard of white wisteria before, but it sure is pretty.

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  9. Wow, gorgeous photos of the lilacs.. yours are at the same stage as ours but we've had some rain trying to ruin them. I do have a massive bouquet of 4 colors of them on my table now, though. Your writing in this post was wonderful, full of humor and insight. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  10. I have been reading your blog for a while, relishing your beautiful photographs and appreciating your words and thoughts about nature. Today I feel I might be useful, concerning your peach tree leaf curl disease. Try a few egg shells tied in a small net in the middle of your tree... it sounds a bit simple, it is what we call here a "grandmother's remedy" but it worked on mine ! I began trying it two years ago, I can't say the disease completely disappeared, but it is very, very much less than before, and my small tree has many peaches (that is, will have if the wind decides to stop...).
    Thank you very much for all you share, it is a very beautiful blog

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    1. That's an intriguing tip Catherine, thank you. I'll definitely give it a go. And thank you for your lovely comment as well. CJ xx

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  11. I love the colours together, CJ - and even better that they were all - ahem - foraged. There's a nice low growing lilac bush in a nearby local garden and I'm very tempted to slip my nippers into my bag next time I'm passing ... Well done on getting the wisteria to flower, it will be fabulous when it really takes off, such an absolutely gorgeous plant! Glad to know the explanation for peach leaf curl. There's a pathetic twig of a tree at the allotment with no fruit and curled scabby leaves; I'm so tempted to dig it out and chuck it but apparently it's grown from a stone thrown into a compost heap so its provenance has forced me to stay my spade!
    PS Have been catching up, love your Cotswold photos; what a gorgeous area to live.

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  12. Hey CJ,
    Always so much to do at this time of year. My week has been taken up with work, inset days and s bit of beach time. I plan unadulterated gardening on Monday. I've dreamed of wisteria in the garden forever. So beautiful. I should cut some of my lilac and bring it into the house. I take a whiff on the school run usually. My blueberry plants died, but I gave several echiums flowering, and they are festooned with bees!
    Have a lovely weekend.
    Leanne xx

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  13. I love those spring time blooms and you've captured them beautifully in these photos, but its the bee photos i love most. Do you take these photos on your phone or real camera? I can hear your frustrations this week with the chasing stuff..I'm often left wondering why I partnered with a dreamer who has no sense of time or etiquette for timliness! Ps... thanks to Catherine, Im going to try the egg shell thing in my peach tree.

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  14. Peaches! I can only dream. Although, sitting at the kitchen table with the bifold doors completely open (!!), it feels as if growing peaches should be possible. I must go and find some lilac to steal, yours looks divine and I am sure the fragrance matches the look. Enjoy your Sunday - may there be no midges. x

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  15. What an amazing bouquet - Country Living magazine worthy! :) The color of that lilac is fantastic! Great close-up of that bee. I would have been wondering if I'd have to do something about the bird also!

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  16. As always a most enjoyable post and lovely pictures. I'm impressed with the white wisteria as I don't think I've ever seen one before.
    Thanks, I hope that your weekend has been a good one. xx

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  17. I loved the post so much, CJ. I had never seen white wisteria before your photo, how beautiful. Mine is the basic purple, which is pretty, but the white is really something special. Much more delicate-looking, I think. I love your bee photo and the lilacs too. I have stolen lilacs before too. There's a house up the street that I think was empty for several years, at least nobody ever went in or out. Maybe they were shut-ins. I felt a little guilty, but they had a huge overgrown lilac at the end of the driveway and a few times I walked up and cut a bouquet for myself. I don't think anyone ever noticed. I think someone definitely lives there now, though, so no more free lilacs for me. I hope you have a good week!

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  18. Lovely flowers and all of them free! A really nice arrangement. I love lilac.
    I haven't seen a white wisteria, so I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures.

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  19. What gorgeous lilac! I've seen lots of photos of lilac on the internet recently and I'm starting to have lilac envy.Glad the pigeon was ok. :)

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  20. What a lovely wander around your garden. I confess to eyeing up the neighbour's lilac tree and wondering if they would miss a couple of blooms! And should you wonder... My 25 year old still thinks he can be ready to go out in 20 seconds and that 5 mins is plenty of time to drive the three miles to the station and still leave time to buy a ticket. Just saying!

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  21. Your photos of the greenery are just beautiful, CJ. I'm not above stealing away with a few vegetables and flowers from my neighbors!

    I have wisteria at the lakehouse. If you look on my blog sidebar, you'll see it on the front side of the house. It started with two wee plants on each side that I wanted to climb up the porch, then balcony, and finally an arbor. It has almost reached the arbor after 6 years. They do need support, but only temporary until they are strong enough to twine around something more sturdy. I used a bit of string loosely wrapped around the pillars. Up, up, up. Sadly, they also wrapped around a few power lines and we could have had a fiasco. Prune, prune, prune!!! Good luck! :)

    I love your posts dearly. I don't know a darn thing about cricket! And your expressions...just LOVE the way your writing is sprinkled with them!

    Here's to a great, new week!

    Jane x

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  22. A lovely collection of photos. There was lots of cricket matches around here at the weekend I noticed, a sign of the changing seasons!

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  23. Lovely flowers. " You have ten minutes somehow translates to It's perfectly fine to carry on lolling about, you can of course get dressed, pack your stuff and get your shoes on in twenty-three seconds." This gives me such laughs. This is my life. Time management is non existent in our apartment right now!

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  24. It must have been such a trill to see your wisteria flower, patience has paid off! Those lilacs are a wonderful colour and your flower arrangement so pretty. It must have been wonderful driving home in the sunset your words have made it seem even more magical. Sarah x

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  25. Your Spring posy is delightful and your wisteria looks to be thriving. Reminds me of the wisteria I planted in a previous garden. Turned out to be a Russian vine. Talk about Day Of The Triffids!

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  26. Good work on scrumping those lilacs. Everyone does it. I'd do it if I had a lilac bush near me. It's like when bushes or branches hang over people's gardens onto footpaths - totally fair game. :-) Lush photos CJ, especially of the bee. xx

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