Delightful Floral Obstructions

 We most certainly deserved a day like today after the strong winds yesterday. It was beautiful. The sky was so blue.

We approached our visit with trepidation but amazingly, the sunflowers were still standing. A couple needed restaking but otherwise all fine.

I made a start on the compost heaps, having strimmed the path first. So with the smell of strimmed mint in my nostrils, I dived into the first heap, literally. I had to cut nettles back. The contents were pretty good .... three lovely barrowloads in the polytunnel and round the garden.The pallets have rotted away so they will need replacing before we start on the next bay.

Steve removed the shading from the polytunnel and noticed that the temperature inside, went up several degrees afterwards. Overall it has helped over the hottest weeks.

We harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers.

We also picked more apples. 

Lots have fallen and the guinea pigs are having a field day.

Nearly every path is a obstructed by flowers. It is moments like these that carry us through the winter months ... pushing yourself past helianthus and michaelmus daisies smothered in bees and other insects, dahlias bowed down with droopy heads, and coming eyeball to eyeball with sunflowers, angled at 45 degrees.

 During a peaceful teabreak, this 22 spot yellow ladybird landed on me. It is very small but quite spectacular.

I cleared the water trough and removed stinging nettles from the snug area. I had some ideas for planting underneath the seat. We took Gandalf indoors for the winter.

There were a few welcome surprises for mid-September.

After picking sweetpeas and dahlias, we made our way home after a very satisfying morning.

 

 

Bees, Dahlias and Crabapples

The winds are playing havoc with the poor sunflowers. It happens every year. To a certain extent our frameworks have been more effective than the usual set-up but we`ve still lost some.

Now the dahlias are being blown around. And the forecast is for worse to come.

The grass has been growing very quickly so I had a good strim all round. Then I tidied up the edges of three vegetable beds. It can make such a difference to the look of the garden.

Every dahlia seems to have a bee on it especially on the open ones. I am always careful with dead-heading. More often than not bees are still collecting even when there are no petals.
 

Mabel seems to be saying, "Just how much longer am I supposed to put up with this shabby outfit?"

Well next season she will definitely have a make-over. We just have to find some bright clothes. Perhaps at the last boot fair of the year.

The crabapples have completely changed colour and are hanging in golden clusters.

In Annes`s bed the yarrow is contrasting well with salvia

 "Hot Lips"

At home I am well into the autumn crafts. Here are a few.

 

 

Today as I watered my own greenhouse, I realised that I`ve been watering a green stick. I thought it was a pepper stalk, in the main hidden by lush foliage. Oh dear.

 

As the season for visitors comes to an end, the garden still looks lovely in the sunshine. After the windy weekend coming, there may be some clearing up to do next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tattered Silk and Fabulous Ferns

I was thrilled to see a small frog in the pond today .... no photos unfortunately. It was too fast, travelling like an arrow under a lilypad.

But I did capture this strange looking creature. It might be a dragonfly larva.

It is worth sitting quietly on the huge log slices and just watching. You never know what you might see.

On closer inspection of the verbena boniarensis, I spotted this startling crab spider.

Amongst the multi-headed stems were myriads of other insects hiding. I will be looking again next time. They obviously find it a great hiding place.

Just before the weekend we had strong winds and lost a Teddy Bear sunflower. I was most upset as it had about 30 flower heads still to come out.  We had to make do with these in a vase.

 

 

We love to see the bunting fluttering in the breeze but I am rather thinking this may be the last year for this silk set.

Luckily it doesn`t show from a distance.
 

 

The fernery is looking superb. Our fern expert friend Nick, thinks they are all doing very well. I need to get in amongst them to get rid of some stray nettles.

The new turfing we did earlier in the year, has nearly blended in. 

We picked pears, eating apples and cooking apples.

When the pears fall it is a race to see if we can get to them before the guinea pigs.

And I am still picking bunches of statice and tiny, precious bouquets of Mammoth sweetpeas. They have long stems, wonderful perfume and flower on, well into the autumn.

 

 

 What a joy!

 

Glowing Embers and Glowsticks

We love to see the garden at different times of the day and yurting gives us that opportunity ..... as the sun rises, as the sun goes down and even in the dark, when the scarecrows take on a different persona!!!! Actually it is quite scary when they suddenly appear in torchlight. 

The Owl yurt is our favourite and we have had some very happy family times there. This time was no different.

A blazing campfire was soon lit, with the children honing their fire-lighting skills, closely supervised by Paula.

We barbequed our dinners here ....burgers, sausages, chicken (butterflied) and lamb. Most of our meat came from Sarah Whiteman at The Old Butchers Shop, Pett. 

Highly recommended.

And if you can`t face cooking on the open fire, there is a lovely camp kitchen.

(On Saturday evening we did all retreat to Paula`s house as it was windy and wet.)

The glowing fire is the focus of our time, keeping it fed, getting more logs, finding kindling, toasting marshmallows.

At all times we have water nearby.

Then there are trips to the garden for veggies and fruit.

 

A rest in the barn lounge for icecreams and table tennis.

 

A long walk to the Royal Oak through the woods and fields for a welcome drink ....

 

.... and back to the yurt for platters of sandwiches.

What more could you ask for!

What a truly great setting Freshwinds Camping is. Many campers have said so, when we have had chats in the garden. Many return time after time. Some have been coming for years.

 

Harvesting continues.

 

 

Flowers are in abundance including precious sweetpeas.

 

And glowsticks are the crowning glory.