Dahlias

This gorgeous summer and a limited amount of slugs (relative to last year that is) have made for a very good dahlia year indeed, so far.  Some I have lost along the way, some I have had for so long I have forgotten their names and the remainder are new ones this year.

This is my dahlia bed in early July with over 40 dahlia plants.

And this is it now.

Even though it seems like alot of plants I still feel I could always do with more.  There are so many to choose from, with different colours, varieties and sizes.  They are superb to have in a summer cutting garden and the petals are edible too!  I thought I would share just a few pics from my dahlia garden this year.



Whites

Reds

Pinks and purples

I forgot to take my compost trug when deadheading & a few over the hill blooms have been decadently tossed aside onto the path in a Henry VIII over the shoulder style!

Oranges

Ooh vin du dahlia?! This is a huge grapevine that has been in the walled garden for some years, put in by gardeners long gone.

My favourite stage of dahlias is the bud stage, from tight round ball to just before fully open.  They look like a perfect study in mathographics!

I love the detail of the dark veins

And the most popular dahlia this year particularly for weddings? The 'cafe au lait' decorative dahlia

Hopefully they will continue to flourish now until the first frosts when the challenge of storing over winter begins!











 

A Lake Break

I have just returned from a fantastic break away. I don’t normally have a holiday at this time of year as the flower season is so full on, but after three years running the business and a gap between lovely events and weddings this month, I was determine to go away for at least a few days this summer! 

Where did I go? ... to one of my favourite destinations ... the Lake District!  I have travelled abroad a lot over the years but I have never found anywhere as beautiful as The Lakes! I have been going there for some years now and when I had more time, it would have been an annual visit.  My very first experience in The Lakes was with one of my best and oldest friends, Sarah, after we finished our degree.  We went camping and neither of us had any idea how to put up a tent or what to take, but we went camping anyway, putting up the tent on the wonkiest piece of ground, which meant we had to bend an unbendable tent pole into position just because we liked the look of the spot by a stream on the campsite!  I still go to this campsite because it is in the most idyllic part of the Lake District, Buttermere.

The campsite is right next to a stream, surrounded by some of the most beautiful fells. It even has the Lakeland Herdwick sheep roaming freely over it. I have tried to make felt out of their speckled grey wool even though it's so coarse and more suited to spinning apparently but I will continue to persist.

Hiding in the grass bank

After my very first trip to The Lakes, I gradually got addicted to fell walking over the following years and I even started to wear more appropriate clothing for the situation after the same friend, Sarah, commented that a long black lacey dress was perhaps not the most ideal outfit for walking, I could barely believe it!

Pretty much every walk in the Lakes is like an adventure playground in nature and when I stay there, more or less each day is spent outside for 24hrs a day (part under canvas of course) either a day walking or kayaking on one of the gorgeous lakes.  This week with the heatwave and having temperatures higher than here in Suffolk, it was a whole new Lakeland experience for me, so walks around water, be it waterfall, lake, tarn, stream or beck were a must.  

Beautiful Crummock Water

Kayaking on Crummock Water

A dip under Scale Force waterfall

 

A stunningly beautiful view of Lake Buttermere and Bleaberry Tarn from 800 metres up on Red Pike Fell

Bleaberry Tarn a cooling rest in the sweltering heat

A beautiful stream near Buttermere, the water weed is almost like a textile and all it's missing is Ophelia!  

And did I forget about flowers? Of course not, it was a wildflower heaven up there at this time of year and the meadows were exquisite! 

Spotted Orchid

Foxgloves chatting amongst the bracken

Foxgloves by a Lakeland gate

Bog Asphodel

Heather

Wild Honeysuckle

Potentilla Tormentilla

Wild Iris

Harebells with the beautifully named yellow Birdsfoot Treefoil

Ferns clinging to Scale Bridge

And my favourite, Bog Cotton.

Close up it looks like a white poodle with mad bunches.

And then there’s the other wildlife to look out for.

I didn't know squirrels could drive with those tiny hands.

Cor ... what a view! It sums up the Western Fells completely, what a fantastic break, with flowers included!

Inevitably, like most day’s walks, it ends in a lovely country pub.