Preparing for the Diamond Jubilee.

This past week I've been concentrating just about all of my efforts on the walled garden preparing it for the Queens Diamond Jubilee party which the village is holding in the walled garden of the big house. One of the main tasks was to plant up the Dahlia borders. The Dahlia's obviously won't be in flower for a few weeks yet but the borders look better with some plants in and it was time to plant them out anyway so this is what I did on what I think were the warmest two days of the year so far so it proved to be quite a draining task, the best part of which was the watering in which saw me giving myself a good watering in at regular intervals. Unlike most of the other planting out to be done shortly all the Dahlia's have to be dug in with a spade so by the time I had finished it was as though I had dug over the whole of the borders.

In the picture below you can see 'The Long Dahlia Border', There are two more borders of Dahlia's in the Memorial Gardens which amount to a similar area as that of 'The Long Border'.

On turning out one of the boxes of Dahlia tubers I discovered the start of a wasps nest in among them which I thought was quite interesting, it's amazing where they choose to make their homes.

Apart from the Dahlia planting there were also a few other various containers to be planted up and a few lurking plants given a home so as to make them look useful instead of just lay-a-bouts hanging around on bench corners.

Because this part of the grounds is not usually open to the public I had to do a few things to try and avoid any accidents, one of which you can see in the picture below. The pots of Geraniums are put there to denote the edge of the steps which might not be obvious to someone not paying attention. I also had to cover the well, removing any low branches over paths so no one gets their eyes poked out and clean off the paths to avoid trips and slips.

The rest of the time was spend weeding and cutting which wasn't all that easy at times because the second part of the week was quite wet but we just about made it.

It was quite hard work at times, it's always hard work but at least having lots of visitors make it all worthwhile.

All Things Bright And Beautiful.

As promised here are some more pictures taken during our visit to Floriade. These were all take indoors where Orchids seemed to feature quite strongly in a lot of the displays. Please excuse the first couple of pictures looking a bit misty, I think the lens must have got a bit steamed up after being outside in the cold and rain.

My three companions taking a keen interest in something.

It may have been dull and damp outside but there 

were certainly some bright periods inside.

If We Only Knew.

If only we knew at sixteen how many dreams actually come true I'm sure we would value more the ones that do.

-- Sent from my HP Pre3

Floriade World Horticultural Expo.

Two weeks ago Vicki, two of her friends from church and I took a four day trip to Holland to visit Floriade World Horticultural Expo. The general consensus among our party and others we met was one of disappointment. I have to confess that I went without any preconceived idea's  and I think because of this I was maybe not as disappointed as some. I did no research beforehand so everything a novelty. Another thing that spoiled the day was the weather, it was non stop from beginning to end. There were a few indoor places to visit but they were very crowded. However coming from a country that has ten months of cold grey and wet I think we were better prepared than many seemed to be and suffered only a little dampness around the edges. So all in all I was pleased I went as I like a voyage of discovery but I feel I saw all I needed to see of this show so don't have any desires to go again - maybe I will visit the next one in ten years time if I'm lucky enough to still be here.

This is the entrance to one of the indoor exhibition places, The planters in the water took my eye., I think it's a nice way to break up the water and add some interest.

This is Jenny and Linda, Vicki's two friends from church. I think they took a fancy to the car.

A couple of shots taken from the cable car, below you can see some of the outdoor gardens and some other features that were part of the show. I'm not sure what everything was to be honest because no one had much enthusiasm for close inspections.

One of the gardens from ground level. I'm sure it would have been a nice place to sit and relax awhile on a better day.

I think I will leave it there for this post, I will show some more pictures from inside a couple of the indoor places in my next post.

Grape Hyacinth and white Tulips.

We've just landed back in the UK, just waiting to get off the ferry.

-- Sent from my HP Pre3

Orchids

-- Sent from my HP Pre3

Orchids

-- Sent from my HP Pre3

Holidays are very tiring.

I had a good sleep last night but seem to have woken up feeling quite tired. Just had breakfast and we are now awaiting the coach to take to the 'World Horticultural Expo' for the day. Being someone who goes for long periods of time by myself in  my own little world all this sort of carry on is lmost overwhelming. Just getting in to the hotel room is a challenge, we hardly ever lock the door to our house but when we do we use a key and not a card as we do here in the hotel. Breakfast is usually spent with the dogs in a quiet and relaxed manner, here its a mad scramble that puts me in mind of the sheep at feeding time, for sure taking breakfast with the dogs is more civilised and calm. Well I had better go or we will miss the bus.

-- Sent from my HP Pre3

Trip to Floriade.

Tonight I did this little video for you so hop on board and we will take a trip over the hills to the mill with a load of grain.



Me and Vicki are going to be away for the next few days visiting here http://www.floriade.com/ so I will see you when I get back next week, hopefully with some pictures to show you.

Haulin' Grain To The Mill.

Tonight I did this little video for you so hop on board and we will take a trip over the hills to the mill with a load of grain.