New coloured lanterns - jangold

Hi Girls

It's a lovely day here in the UK. At long last we have had some good weather - some last week and more to come this week - in fact they predict a heatwave ! For our two weeks Wimbledon tennis contest this has been bliss and to date they have not had to use the new roof only to put some shade onto the Royal box :-)
I treated myself a few weeks ago to a several sets of lanterns to go on our dividing trellis in the garden as I had a poor clemetis that died there. So this is a picture of four of the lanterns - very bright and Summery and in the evening you can put in a tealight to light them up even more. As the Summer nights are already starting to draw in I will do this in a couple of weeks. Hope you are all having a good week - what did you do for SYM ? I had lovely nectarines with my cereal for breakfast.

Hugs Jan xxx

Orbs - jangold

Well another sunny day here in the UK - who's complaining - not me although I got burned through leggings over lunch. I had my friend Kerry up for lunch and we had a lovely pasta salad with garlic bread then for dessert I made strawberry waffles with vanilla icecream - very scrummy.

Gave me time to get some more done in the garden - so I got out my 6 orbs (3 pictured) you can see the reflection of the top part of the garden with the two chairs Kerry and I had been lazing on :-) Now if I can get all the solar lights to work - that will be another matter. Bye for now Hugs Jan xxx

As the sun goes down - jangold

At 5pm the skies started to clear the grey away and give way eventually to lovely blue, clear skies. They have given out a 'heatwave' for Britain this week - so let's see how it goes.So by 8pm when I'd just finished work here I went outside with my camera.The garden at the back doesn't have any sun on it now at this time of day - but the front of the house is beautiful.I took this picture of our lovely hanging basket in the setting sun. It is so warm and peaceful here now at this time of day - I hope I wake up tomorrow and it has not gone.

Hugs Jan xxx

How Spookey - jangold

Well what a coincidence this is.

I keep on my laptop a folder of pics to post to my blogs and to Polygirls and in it I had this photo of the same bird of paradise flower that Xena posted !!

Mine was taken in it's native South Africa at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town which I visited in Oct 2007. They are beautiful gardens which I have not visited before on my previous two visits and the part where this flower was found was a special area dedicated to Nelson Mandella and had been specially opened by him. As Xena said the meaning behind the flower is freedom therefore this flower was adopted by the black South African's as their national flower. I have some beautiful pics of those gardens and of the sculptures in there - I will post some more in the future.

The rain has cleared - jangold

Hi girls

The rain has cleared at last after over week of very nasty storms. I have had to go out daily and empty about 1/2 inch of water out of each of my planters.

The handbag planters will now need some encouragement and good weather as some leaves started to rot.

But at last it is here and I believe is going to stay for the weekend at last. Unfortunately, I have another book chapter to write by the end of next week - then again as I have electricity inside and outside the Summer house - I may just plug in and carry on in the garden.

Hope you are all having a great Thursday - one more day 'til the weekend starts.

Hugs Jan xxx

New garden pails - jangold

Here are the decorated garden pails I was telling you about the other day.

They are about 7 inches wide at the top and just over 8 inches tall.

I have planted them out now and hope they bring more colour and joy to my garden. If you want a closer look, just enlarge the picture. Hugs Jan

Flower handbags - jangold

These are the flower handbags I mentioned the other day. On Monday I just couldn't resist going back to the garden centre where I first saw them and as I couldn't decide on which one I bought them both as they were just under 10$ each. BUT then I saw some beautiful little decorated pails and had to buy them too. Same problem - four design - but which one? Ok you guessed it - one of each. So then I ended up with two handbags, four pails, more compost and more flowers of course to fill them. I'll take some pics of the pails tomorrow if the weather is good. I am amazed at the details on the handbags (click to make bigger and see) and they are crafted on the back as well - lots of fake stitching and the 'metalwork' of the bags has been painted gold and silver. Anyway, they are now sitting on a post waiting for Lee to find long/strong nails to hammer in and hang them properly. Clouds are movinig in here fast but I hear the weekend is going to be good again. Happy Tuesday to you all Jan

Self-discovery - jangold

This is a picture from a few days ago of some of my gardening work, literally lining up for me to do ! I have discovered through this blog that I am fanatical about taking pictures of rows of things - is there anything you have found out about yourself since joining this blog?

Yesterday because it was such a lovely day I trimmed and shaped all these buxus plants. The front one is in situ at the entrance to our back garden - the other two are to go in tall zinc style pots in the front garden. We are just about to go and get some stones to weigh the pots down so that the pots do not go walk abouts with our local youth.

We have beautiful blue skies again today and tomorrow it speaks of being even nicer. Happy weekend to you all. Jan

Gardening at last - jangold

The sun is out at last here and forecasts it will be around for the weekend as well ... quote Sunday will be a 'scorcher'. So it's to the garden at last - lots of things to tidy up and things to plant and get out of the shed. I'm also going to create some aluminium style tubs at the front with some buxus plants which I have just cut into shape. So I predict the noise of lawn movers around 5pm this evening ... now what do they say about mad dogs and Englishmen? Have a happy Friday and weekend girls. Hugs Jan

Of time spent and turtles - jangold

Beautiful day here in this part of the UK for the first time really this year. So I managed to take a few photos outside. This is one bush - but I do not know the name ?? Gwyn - anyone do you know ??

We spent most of the day in Nottingham about an hour from where we live and Lee's parental home. Good to see my father-in-law who always has some kind of craft idea or item to give me.

Today it was Kilner jars which I am going to paint in different colours - wire up and use as outdoor lanters with tea lights.

We had a lovely lunch down by a lake and fed the geese and ducks.

Today is World Turtle Day - please see my set on Polyvore http://www.polyvore.com/world_turtle_day_23_may/set?id=8904191 in support of this. Hugs Jan

Everyday garden - jangold

At long last there is some sun here though clouding over already. But I got up early and popped out to take some photos. The Summer House shed roof must be on a rota for the local cats - though a double booking today with both a ginger cat and black cat occupying the space ! I dare not take a photo or they would run. This picture is one corner of our garden with a new bench we put up last Summer but never got chance to use. I read in the news that we are in for a massive heatwave and the Government are recommending us to paint our houses white on the outside - then again who would believe a British MP at the moment :-) Hugs Jan xxx

Large flowers - from jangold

In the continuing weather in the centre/northern part of the UK I've been forced to post outdoor pics from other places. I loved the 'large' flower that Gwyn posted, therefore, I wanted to share these two pictures with you. I took these in Mauritius and are from the famous Pamplemousses Garden there. The one on the left is from the lotus pond and the one on the right is from the more famous giant water lily pond. The pictures do not do these justice and many of these lilies are up to 2 feet in diameter. If you want to see more pics from the garden please check out: http://www.travelmauritius.info/pamplemousses_garden.html Jan

New Cat in the Corner - jangold

My hubby's cutting back of the brambles and branches is paying off. Yesterday I noticed a 'new kitty on the block' that I've never seen before and especially not on our Summer house shed. I don't know if it's a he or a she - but whatever that cat certainly spotted me !! Let's get the camera poised for the next little kitty Hugs Jan

Spring Rain - jangold

Yesterday it rained here for a change ! So I went out into the garden anyway and took these pictures. I thought how artistic the rain drops looked on the leaves after the rain had come down. Art is really everywhere. Hope you're all having a great weekend. Jan

Cat's Corner - jangold

At the weekend Lee, my hubby decided to cut back the brambles growing over our wall towards our fence. We both love cats, but with our hectic lives we cannot justify having any pets at present, therefore we are 'foster home' to many cats from around our area. We have have a Summer house in the corner of the garden and cats love to go up there as it slopes towards a large bush so they can hide and be cool in the shade. In these cooler times they love to lie further out though and soak up the heat held in by the roof. Anyway, all efforts were rewarded today as one of our favourites - 'Fluffy cat' we call him/her returned to the roof to appreciate the sunshine. I wonder how long before the rest start fighting for this piece of turf ? Jan