ABC Wednesday......

P is for PURPLE......

Lots of purple coming up in my garden. Most of this was planted by the previous owner of this house. I thought that maybe she had just been mad on purple, given the number of purple flowers. Then I read that purple and blue plants grow in the shade whereas brighter colours might not be shade tolerant: more than half the garden is in shade for more than half of the day.

I think this is Honesty.....
This osteoperum (sp!) was cut from a huge spread of the stuff in my mum's garden. This is its first flower here. I'm glad it's "taken".
This is Periwinkle......
.....it was spreading across the ground and choking everything else, so I've cut it back a lot. Now I'm trying to train it upwards. I think it looks good against the glossy ivy.
Ahh... an iris. My favourite flower. These ones are huge. And something I didn't find till I cut back some almost dead lavender. What a nice find!
Now that the weather has cheered up, I'm enjoying getting out and planting some new things. Today I'm looking for a suitable patch for some fennel. I never imagined I'd get into gardening, but I love it.

... this is what I love:

• the smell of the soil as I dig;
• the lift I get inside when I see something I've planted and looked after is thriving;
• using herbs I've grown in our cooking;
• the birdsong, and the cheeky brave robin that keeps me company;
• making two gardens in one- a tidy bit to admire, and scruffy corners and edges to keep the wildlife happy. .....P is for perfect!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

Oh, happy bee

Took this in my mum's garden a fortnight ago. I use a digital camera nowadays. I abandoned my trusty 20 yr old Pentax P30 because I'm short sighted now, but not equally so in each eye. This makes manual focus difficult.

So, my Luvbug offered to buy me a camera for Christmas last year. At first, I was a bit reticent about it being a digital. But it is so convenient. Not only for sharing on emails and blogs, but also the way you can take 15 shots of one thing, just to get one good one. You don't have to worry about wasting film in the process. So this is what I often do.

In this case though, the bee was there, and then he was gone. This was a one-off.

It being a digital, I feel I can't take much credit for this picture, but it still makes me happy, as it was so lucky to catch such a lovely scene!