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.
where the journey takes me 2 
Sorry to hear about about the eye irritant and missing the film. Hope the trip to see the gardens works out. From the sound of it, the heat is making any garden work pretty intolerable. Hard to believe that there should be such consistently hot weather in the UK. I know there is very little air conditioning in most places, so no way to escape. Here’s hoping for a nice breeze…or ten.
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A breeze would be lovely – we are by the sea here and there is usually a nice breeze but not at the moment everything is dead calm. The sea is the most beautiful silver blue colour though but with so much sun is too difficult to capture a good photo.
I for one would not mind it a degree or two cooler, a few clouds passing over and the odd refreshing shower!
We are giving the garden a miss today, giving in and going out!
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I’m glad your eye is OK. The little hospital sounds lovely and I’m sure you’ll get to see the film another day. Yesterday must have been a day for mishaps – I fell down the stairs!
It’s a good job you put up the ‘before’ photograph of the path. I wouldn’t have known it was there! The plants are growing so fast at his time of year but the garden will look great with all your hard work. X
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Take more Gin with the water is always my DH’s answer to a fall! Seriously though I hope you are OK – it is sometimes the shock that gets you and a day ot two later you can start to hurt and bruise in places you didn’t realise you had knocked. Best to go and relax in the shade in the garden to fully recover and not push yourself too much.
My eye much better now – everything so dry here even the soil, so I think it might have been a tiny particle of something – at least it is not continually streaming now – I looked like I was crying from one eye before!
The Campion has grown to about 5 or 6 feet in places but is easily pulled out. The garden goes on a bit of a rampage when we are not here – like the rabbits! Take care x
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Thank you for such a lovely post.
What about Griselena (sp?) or the basic purple Hebefor your hedge?
Both stand quite a lot of salt spray where I live.
You sound as though you are enjoying the “holiday” despite it
being hard work!
Sue
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Hi Sue, I will bear these in mind – both are quite tolerant I believe – I might not put a hedge back as such but a mixture of shrubs like in our trellis border – this was once a huge Escallonia hedge too but was badly frosted one year at -16C and never recovered – now we have mixed shrubs instead with the hope that not everything will suffer at once!
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I’d forgotten the frosts. here we don’t have any, just ferocious storms!
Sue
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My goodness, that path certainly was overgrown but how pretty it is when cut back. How’s the eye now – no residual soreness, I hope. xxx
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I like the Daisy path when the Daisies reappear about a week or two after the strim – it is really pretty then. I have a picture somewhere but cannot find it at the moment – it might be on my previous blog I will have a look and repost it. I actually quite like daisies – it gives the path a really old fashioned cottage feel.
Eye much better thank you and the continual streaming has now stopped. I think it happened whilst gardening as everything so dry and dusty here. I long for a little cool shower and not just one in the bathroom LOL!
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