The Race of the Roses

There I was, wondering which of my climbing roses would be first to bloom this year - it's usually the 'Dreaming Spires' and it's looking promising, covered in buds and almost ready to open -

But the 'Albertine', the one that usually flowers for my birthday in June, is a close contender this year -

But it was only while I was taking these photos that I noticed that the 'Alchemist' has quietly pipped both of them at the post!

Nobody seems to have told it that it's still only April!

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July Garden Update

With the change in the month came a change in the weather - our first real rain for weeks! In Wales, usually known to be unrelentingly wet, this first half of 2010 has been the driest since 1929 and the second driest for 100 years! So the heavy rain at the end of last week was welcome for the garden and fortunately it came in the night and  brought to an end the really hot weather, though it's still been pleasantly warm.

It's also brought with it a noticeable change in my garden with many of the flowers that made late May and June so glorious, past now their best and the later flowering plants not quite reaching their peak. I look upon it as the garden taking a bit of a rest after the abundant, almost extravagant displays of June. 

My Alchemist climbing rose went from this:

through various colour stages,

 - to this:

- and is now in dire need of dead-heading! But it's really earned its keep, not only in terms of the pleasure it brings but it started me thinking about occasionally using photos for greeting cards, something I hadn't previously done very much.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the predominant colours of the garden change with the seasons? We begin with the yellows of primroses, daffodils and crocuses and the purples of bluebells and yellow and blue irises in Spring.

Then the early summer flowering plants seems to be predominantly pink, blue and white,

while the later flowers tend to be bright reds and oranges.

 These nasturtiums in my kitchen window-box are just beginning to peep out from behind their rather over-sized leaves.

And my organic runner beans, planted rather late in a tub, are just beginning to flower - red again!

It's been really difficult to photograph flowers this year because we've had such a windy few months and the plants tend to sway around vigorously, which my camera doesn't much like!

The big white daisies are getting going -

Mine never stand up straight because the high walls mean they have to lean forwards to get the light - but I rather like the way their stems curve!

I moved my lilies last Autumn and they seem to be sulking, producing mostly just one bloom at the time -

And the self-seeded Californian Poppies are a bit thin on the ground this year.

It seems to be mostly the orange and red flowers that succumbed to the very low temperatures last winter, though my lovely red salvia that I thought was well and truly dead, has sprung a few new green shoots recently. Probably too late to flower this year, but at least it's alive - as is the Spanish Jasmine in my front porch, which looked thoroughly dead until a couple of weeks ago! I always give plants the benefit of the doubt and don't immediately remove the dead-looking ones for the sake of tidiness -  and I'm invariably rewarded for my patience.

Of course there are exceptions to the colour pattern I've described but it seems to me to be striking enough to make me wonder whether there's a scientific explanation - maybe to do with the amount of daylight available?

Earlier today I enjoyed a picnic lunch in the Linda Vista Gardens (above), celebrating the birthday of one of our Walking Group leaders. It's a beautiful terraced garden, sloping down from the edge of the town to the Castle Meadows, open to the public but as not many people know of its existence, it tends to be little frequented, except when the ABGV Borough Band puts on a concert of a summer evening. (You can see one of my pastel paintings of the audience on Red Bubble.) It's one of the most peaceful spots I know of around these parts, with a view of the Blorenge mountain, and one of my favourites places to go to take photos. Today there were still plenty of roses blooming as well as all sorts of lesser know plants and I had a field day with my camera! So if anyone needs flower photos for reference for a painting, please just ask! It's quite likely that I'll have something suitable on my poor groaning computer!

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Why do we take so many photos?

This morning I took some time off to go out with the local walking group, 'Let's Walk Cymru', the Welsh equivalent of 'Walking Way to Health'. I had missed the last three walks due to a combination of pressure of work, my son's visit and my 'iffy' back so I decided that my work/life balance was in need of adjustment and made the effort to reach the starting point in time. Not easy because I tend to work very late into the night.

I was really glad I did because, not only was it a beautiful summer's day, but it happened to be the monthly 'out of town' walk, when we have mini-buses to take us out into country - and all free of charge! By my calculations, the trip out should have been last week and I thought I'd missed it but I was in luck. We were taken halfway up Little Skirrid, the small mountain my back bedroom looks directly out towards and we walked through the woods round the mountain, rather than up it because some of our members are in their eighties or suffering from various ailments.

But rather there, in the shade of the forest, than up on the exposed mountainsides in the local area as the sun was very strong and the weather forecasters had warned about very high UV levels.

Of course, as usual, I took enough photos to get left behind at times and it made me think about something I read about taking photos a long time ago. I think it was in a self-help book of some sort and it was suggesting that, in taking photos of everything, we were missing out on really appreciating what is before our eyes, that we are preoccupied with 'capturing' the moment rather than allowing ourselves to enjoy it.

I can see that there could be some truth in this as it conjures up an image of camera-laden foreign  tourists, snapping everything in sight, rather than 'soaking up the atmosphere' of a new place and its individual culture. And sometimes I do wonder slightly guiltily whether I do this myself because I do take an awful lot of photos! On the other hand, by way of justification, I remind myself that I use my camera as a sketch book and wonder how I ever managed without it because you'd have to draw/paint very fast indeed to record the changing light, which is one of the things I find so fascinating and try to convey in my landscape paintings.But then maybe my wish to make paintings from my photos, is in itself just as 'bad' as taking the photos in the first place? It's just another way of 'capturing' Nature's wonders.

However, there's something else going on here! When I look at the way my 'Albertine' rose is blooming so abundantly this year, it fills me with awe and I feel an overwhelming desire to share it - how else can I do this other than in a photo or painting?

So here are a few photos of my 'Albertine' - which, by the way, was in full bloom just in time for me to put some in a vase for my birthday!

Sadly, placing them on the table where I mostly work brought me out in 'flu-like symptoms - I even took my temperature, thinking I was going down with something, before I realised what was going on! - so I had to move them away until the fragrance began to fade.

'Roses round the door'

 

The roses to the left, around the bell, are the 'Alchemist', just above my fig, which looks a bit thirsty! The lavender (in the bed behind the open door) is just beginning to come out and salad leaves in the little pot to the right of it are ready to eat.

And this is the back of the arch at the side of the house - my view from the dining room where I spend a lot of time working! 

 

You can just about make out the arch that leads to my dining room French Doors at the righthand side of this next picture (turn left at the potatp barrel!) which shows the extent of the 'Albertine' on the right and the 'Alchemist' on the left! Also just visible at the top is the sill of the window I hung out of to photograph the first blooms!

 

And just one more close-up - that might have the makings of a painting for a greeting card one day!

Unfortunately technology has not yet advanced sufficiently for me to add the wonderful fragrance to the photos but I hope you will enjoy these photos anyway!