It is twenty past ten at night here in Scotland and the sun is only just sinking on the horizon. Each day seems hotter than the one before and today I really found it hard to work for any length of time in the garden even in the shade.
The lane beyond the blue gate is always shady so I decided to tackle the border that runs along side it. At its widest point it probably measures 3 feet but the back of it drops down steeply into our garden below and it is heavily shaded by the two Hawthorns and a large conifer, which suffered with the salt spray from the sea this winter and is in recovery at the moment but still a sickly colour of brown.
Most of this strip is wild flowers – pink campion and bright orange Crocosmia which grow and spread like weeds but nearer the gate I have pink Geranium, Aquilegias and Harts Tongue Ferns and I am slowly introducing Foxgloves.
Elsewhere in the garden I have a particularly pretty pale pink one so I will scatter the seed over this border when it has finished flowering. I keep transplanting tiny Holly bushes into this border so that eventually we will not be quite so overlooked from the lane.
Meanwhile DH tackled the Daisy path with the strimmer – this is how the Daisy path usually looks…
But this is what greeted us when we arrived!
… this really was overgrown and I am surprised the postman has ventured down our path to bring our TV license reminder letter. It is generally the only mail we get up here. We don’t have a TV at the cottage but we still get a reminder once a month and sometimes the threat of an official visit – come anytime is what I say for I know for certain they will not find one!
Beside the Daisy path we have some very dead Escallonia bushes which formed a lovely hedge when we first bought the cottage but it died on us after one of the bad winters. Only one of the bushes has sprung back to life and the others need digging out. I am not sure what to plant here but it will need to tolerate sea spray.
This strong sun does not make it easy to take pictures. I will take a few more of the ‘transformation’ in a day or two. Tomorrow I think we are having a day off and perhaps going out to see Castle Kennedy gardens.
Yesterday’s trip to the pictures in Newton Stewart didn’t quite happen. I got something in my eye during the morning and by the afternoon it had not moved so we went into town to get some Optrex so I could try to rinse it out but the pharmacist insisted I should go and have it checked out at A&E.
The local hospital is quite tiny and only 3 of us waiting. I must say I felt a bit of a fraud as it was hardly an accident or an emergency just irritating and my eye wouldn’t stop watering. However, the staff were very pleasant and on first name terms with the locals sat in the waiting room quite different to our much larger and busier A&E in Huddersfield where they are very brusk at times and more matter of fact. After a bit of a wait for the eye doctor he did manage to get out whatever was causing the irritation but by this time we had missed the film.