Nothing particularly cerebral today, although I was reading the Henry Williams biography this morning in the car, and am now on page 50 and find it hard to put down. He is beginning to sound like a man who wasn't very confident (and indeed that is just how he looks in the frontispiece photograph of the book, when he was 19 and just going off to war) and so talked himself up a lot to compensate. So much in fact that he believed his own rhetoric in the end. It mattered so desperately to him to make it as an author, and to gain the approval of other - famous - writers. I will see how right I am as I progress through the book.
I took myself out for a walk at around 8 a.m. this morning - not far, just up to the junction and back, but I am pretty unfit as I haven't walked regularly for months. I am going to walk daily again now and hope to get my fitness levels back to what they were a year or so ago.
I spent two hours this afternoon painting the front of the former chicken shed, and the bottom half of the cart shed. OH then climbed the ladder and did the top half, but Sod's Law being what it is, ran out of paint when there was just a section about 6 feet x 4 feet to do . . . As he worked, I then dead headed/cut right back all my Alchemilla mollis which had been totally over the top with the sun and then rain. It will make fresh growth and hopefully soon it won't look quite so bare out there.
Whilst we were in town buying paint, I also bought a Verbena bonariensis which came about £1 cheaper than its marked price as there was a 20% discount. It has filled a very obvious gap where I had cut back a flopped Californian poppy and the purple of the flowers absolutely glows and looks even better because it is planted beside a Heuchera with deep red- purple leaves.
Tea has been made and eaten - a spicy risotto with turkey breast, frozen mixed veg. and curry paste, and now I am yawning . . .
I hope it will stay fine tomorrow morning as there is a Fleamarket on down on the showground, and that is always so much better than the actual Antiques Fairs they have. I am hoping to find some Henry Williamson books of course . . .
I know what you mean about alchemilla mollis - I dearly love it. I have about a dozen self-sown ones and suddenly one of my roses popped up in the middle of them. It was a deep pink and looked absolutely lovely surrounded by a sea of lime green. Like you I now feel it needs cutting down and allowing to rejuvenate, otherwise I shall have a million plants if I let them go to seed.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a busy day. Your weather must be better than ours as its never stopped raining.
ReplyDeleteIts set in for the next few days ahead too.
The interior shots of the house look positively elegant.
ReplyDeleteMy alchemilla has given up the ghost along with the delphinium. I can only think the summer weather is too much for them.
Books are a nice place to retreat when one has worked very hard.
WoG - I didn't realize quite how OTT mine had become until the agent put a photo of the garden on taken from an odd angle and one part of the garden looked like an Alch.m. convention!!! I have millions of them . . .
ReplyDeleteSharie - We're always busy here as of late (like the last 4 mths!) - and the rain has now caught up with us, so that will mean the Fleamarket is much depleted this morning : ( It's the outdoor stalls we like best too . . .
MM - The house can do elegant when I keep it tidy, which I am determined to do now in the hopes we may have some viewings. Agent apparently useless - AND blind - though . . . What sane agent would use the WORST photos to advertise a house - including one of the hall with pots of paint and boxes of rubbish in it? These two photos are two I sent to them yesterday to use instead of theirs. Hah - and we are meant to be paying THEM if it sells!
Interior photos of your house are lovely, let's hope the agent has the sense to use them! I'm another alchemilla fan and mine will need cutting back soon as well, I'm a bit behind you I think. Won't be today anyway as it's pitching it down atm.
ReplyDeleteRowan - we are paying THEM - there will be no choice in the matter!!
ReplyDeleteYour hall looks lovely and I would love to sit in one of the carver chairs by your stove x
ReplyDeleteOh, what a lovely scene by your stove, the brasses and the beams.
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