I’ve said before there’s a lot goes on in our garden that has little to do with me. This month’s aquilegia/columbine/granny’s bonnets invasion is just one of them. Year after year they self-seed and appear in subtly new colour variations. Sometimes the mauve palette predominates, sometimes the pink and claret. This year there are several white ones with mauve hints, and also some new salmon pink ones that have chosen to grow in amongst the Gloire de Dijon climbing rose which is just about to break into blooms of the very same shade. Makes you wonder if the Grannies have more than bees in their bonnets. I mean, did they plan this?
Out in the guerrilla garden (between our back fence and the field) the Grannies are growing in thickets. They have also crept round to front garden for the first time this year, though last year I did plant a species yellow one out there (a plant rescued from an abandoned allotment plot) in hopes that in time it might mingle with the residents and create some new shades.
And then besides the Granny’s Bonnets, there are the self-gardening Welsh poppies, forget-me-nots and perennial geraniums (which also mingle and change colour). Soon there will be foxgloves and corn cockles, and if we’re lucky, the opium poppies may visit us again. When friends ask us if we’re going away, we always feel a touch bemused. With so much going coming and going outside the back door, why would we need to?
Whenever we can, we sit on the bench at the top of the garden, stare at clouds (though there wasn’t a single one this morning when I took these photos), listen to the racketing of rooks, the keening call of buzzards, watch the jackdaws fly over, hear the garden buzz, observe the wood across the wheat field as it changes in shade and texture day by day, exchange greetings with a passing walker on the field path. And we think – this is a good place to be; a very good place.
Tish Farrell 
A very good place indeed, Tish! When the corn cockles bloom, please publish a photo(s) if you can. I don’t recall what a corn cockle is! Thanks for these photos. Sarah
Thank you, Sarah. I will definitely post pics 🙂
Marvellous!
Goodee!
😊😊🎶
My goodness…Why would you want to leave. Everything looks beautiful.
Thank you, Beverly.
Simply gorgeous, Tish. I can see why you love to be there, although it wouldn’t dull my desire to travel, just make me feel very, very blessed to have such a place to call home and to which to return. 🙂
janet
Thank you, Janet. Your photos make me want to return to France, but otherwise we seem to have lost the travel bug.
A time to count your blessings. And Granny’s bonnets. I love them and wish they would colonise in my garden!
Yes, indeed, Jude. Lots of blessings being counted 🙂
I would tend to agree – it looks heavenly. I love aquilegia in all their guises and surprises. You have a lovely selection of plants, and so nice that they have helped you design the space!
Thank you for those thoughts, Ali.
You can never have too many grannies, or their bonnets. 😀
Yay!! Let’s hear it for the grannies!
Smashing.
I love the fact your property (almost) backs up against a field, and it is safe enough to have such an open fence.
And imported sunshine, too!
😉
That’s a good point about the fence. We take the quiet rural life for granted; would come over all ‘disgusted of Wenlock’ if it were threatened. Some people don’t know they’re born do they 😉
As high walls and electric/spikey fences are de rigeur over here – for reasons real or imagined – it is a mindset that is dead set.
I once sat with my crew over lunch discussing the possibility of creating some sort of moat around the property – or a least a ha- ha
When my mum first visited we were living in a flat and when she walking on to the lounge (sitting room) she said:
”How do you live with all these bars on the windows?”
But to tell the truth, we hardly noticed them. Not then or now.
When in Rome etc. Bars, razor wire, gate guards, alarms, security lights – it was how things were in Nairobi and Lusaka. And if someone wanted to car jack you, they just waited for your guard to open the gates on your return home and followed you in. All pretty bonkers.
With our spring so far behind right now and everything soggy wet from the incessant rain, I’ll admire your pretty flowers and dream of warmer, sunny days.
Wishing you some sunshine, Joanne.
Thanks Tish. We need it .
Fabulous photos, once again, Tish. Indeed, why would you need to go on holiday, to tear yourselves away from such beauty, on your own doorstep. We have similar feelings too, but not such a lovely garden! We claim the local surroundings as our garden 😉 haha!
‘Borrowed landscape’ – I think that’s a great idea. No mowing or pruning necessary 🙂
We love Grannys. They are very beautiful. Thank You.
Have a good day!
Happy day to you too 🙂
How enjoyable sitting on a bench watch the beautiful nature in front of you. Beautiful photos, Tish!
many thanks, Amy.
Yay for Grannie! 🙂 🙂 (And daughters! Mine has loads of these. She regards them as free gifts, filling up the borders and saving her money 🙂 ). I’ve shared that wonderful peaceful moment a time or two, Tish. Wonderful to do it here with you.
So happy you could join me, if virtually 🙂
A good place to be, regardless of whichever side of the fence you are on. I seriously miss having a garden and appreciate the opportunity to linger in yours for a bit. Looking forward to watching it cycle through the season.
Thank you for coming to my garden, Lisa. I’m just now mulling over your latest post about Victoria Falls, and the sense of missed chances, what with the weather and limited visiting time and all. I remember trying to take a decent shot on the Zim side – fine weather too, but the sun on the spray made it pretty impossible. I think you’d need to know the terrain really well – at all hours and seasons – to pick your spot etc. And even then…Perhaps one of those places that is far greater than the sum of its photo opportunities 🙂 🙂
Having the luxury to explore the terrain at Vic Falls deeply would certainly make for better photos …and even if the photos turned out to be crap, the memories of time spent exploring there would more than make up for it. I laugh now at my Vic Falls ‘drama’. It was a really good lesson in getting ‘real’ and being thankful for the life I am living. You said it best ‘Vic Falls is one of those places that is far greater than the sum of its photo opportunities.’
Beautiful post, Tish. What a lovely place to dream and think.
Thank you, Patti. A lot of cloud watching going on today. Housework, what housework 🙂