Happy Halloween – the black cat edition

Earlier this week it suddenly occurred to me that Halloween is coming up this weekend. Maybe I could do a Halloween post I thought and as my brain ran through a list of Halloween themes (spiders seemed to have potential) it came to black cats – bingo! Black cats abound around here. My Gardening Neighbour has two and last weekend I spotted another black cat lurking around, this one wearing a collar – oh, a stranger…

Anyway, let me introduce you to Shadow, the share-cat. He is the most un-cat-like cat I have ever met with an extrovert personality and a great hunter of birds (bad cat) and rats (good cat).

He is the recognised ruler of my back yard (even though he is one of my neighbour’s cats) keeping it clear of other cats... well, as long as they are smaller. Prior to his arrival on the scene my backyard was like the neighbourhood cat super highway, being pretty much the only dog-free yard. Once he and his sister, Blackberry, grew out of kittenhood they joined forces and ran all the other cats off. Then Shadow staged a backyard coup and now even Blackberry only manages to sneak in from time to time when he is napping somewhere.

Happy Halloween all!

A Spring Quickie

Here’s a few quick shots of some roses that I have taken over the last week or so.

This one is Gertrude Jekyll which I have growing as a climber along the fence. It isn’t a prolific flowerer at other times of the year but it puts on a great show in spring.

It’s being a little swamped this year by Heritage, also grown as a climber next to it. That’s probably my fault since I tend to favour the Heritage over the Gertrude Jekyll when I’m pruning since GJ is so incredibly thorny. I will have to let it go a little more.

And finally a shot of Abraham Darby. This rose is taking a long time to grow for me but it is beautiful and superbly fragrant. I do what I can to encourage it – maybe it’s the spot, maybe it’s that particular plant.

Happy gardening!

Ahhhhh - Spring!

The leaves are fresh and green, the skies are deep blue and the temperatures are, for the most part, very reasonable. I’ve been lucky enough to have had the last couple of weeks off work to potter around the house – it’s been great!

The first week was all about spring blossom as all the peach and nectarine trees were out.

The bottle brush was out as well. I have three cream trees down the western side of the house.

Then some of the roses started blooming.

Pat Austin

              

Skylark

Kathleen Harrop

And Seduction. This is my climbing one – after 4 years it still hasn’t got as big as a shrub of a similar age.

I spent part of the time building a couple of slightly dodgy structures to support my weeping standard roses.

Here’s one for the Lamarque.

I have my fingers crossed but it’s already leaning heavily towards the north with the back feet lifting. Time will tell, but I am making back up plans.

The other one is for the Red Pierre. I have a lot more confidence in this one.

Happy Spring!

Sue