Poppy time on my allotment plot, the oriental perennials I grew from seed last year. I’d been hoping for a range of colours, but it looks as though they are all turning out to be tomato soup red. I should not complain. This bunch are brightening the spot in front of my shed.
Otherwise at the allotment, the globe artichokes are going bonkers, arriving far earlier than expected. We’ve already polished off several. By contrast, the early potatoes are making a slow start, their green tops only beginning to sprout last week. Parsnips, on the other hand, have germinated well, this time sown in a large builders’ tub, and the onion sets are making their first green shoots. Beetroot, cauli and cabbage seedlings have been successfully planted out and the broad bean plants are flowering magnificently.
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In the home garden all is alliums and aquilegias, valerian and catmint. The apple blossom is long gone, quickly dispersed by May’s repeated rounds of wind and rain, but a few days ago I noticed there were lots of tiny apples forming – on the Coxes and the crab apple trees.
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Meanwhile around the town, all is lush in the fields beside the Cutlins path – shaggy sheep on one side, young MacMoos on the other, up to their knees and noses in buttercups. And oh yes, don’t forget to watch the sky. Looks like there’s another downpour coming:
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Nearby, on the Linden Field all is bursting green. The cricket season is upon us, the pitch well fettled, and lads in the nets honing batting skills. As ever, the Linden Walk is the favoured resort of walkers and runners and lately been proving a welcome resort out of the persistent chilling wind.
But as you can see, the spring growth hasn’t in the least minded the ongoing coolness, and it’s certainly made the most of May’s sudden spate of unseasonal downpours. He who has given up binding books for the making of small and interesting occasional tables tells me it’s supposed to be getting warmer now June’s arrived. And yes, I think at last I can believe him. Today the sun is out, and best of all, the wind has dropped. In the greenhouse the French beans are surging out of their pots and the sweet corn seeds have germinated, and up in the upstairs garden, rose Teasing Georgia is strutting her stuff. Happy days.
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The Changing Seasons: May 2022 Brian at Bushboy and Ju-Lyn at Touring My Backyard are the kind hosts of this monthly challenge. Please go and see what they have been doing during May.
Tish Farrell 
I love the poppies and your photos do just to the amazing growth in the area. When do the sheep get a hair cut? Should be about time.
June is usually shearing time – so any time now.
We can’t really complain about poppy colours I guess, but I will admit to being much taken by the blood red version omnipresent in Greece and North Macedonia. I’m glad your efforts are being generally rewarded. It’s so c-o-l-d. I’ve dug out cosy jumpers again!
Yes, I also have a yen for some blood red ones.
I should have smuggled some seed heads for you!
🙂 🙂
You can’t have lush without the rain, so enjoy some indoor things when it does rain. Lol. Your beautiful poppy photos make me miss the poppies we had in Ohio. They were that same color but as you saw in my blog post today, there are other colors, which I didn’t even realize. Your artichokes look magnificent and make me hungry. We love artichokes.
Such jolly flowers poppies. The artichokes were pretty good this evening too. Sorry not to share.
Tish, your garden is luscious. I love the orange poppies. We have yellow ones here in Prescott. Your gray skies look ominous. Everything is so lush.
Thanks, Marsha. I have yellow poppies too – Welsh ones. Forgot to photograph them.
You have so many beauties there, they get lost in the shuffle. Our pretty flowers are actually mostly weeds. 🙂
There’s much to be said for weeds. Some of them anyway 🙂
In a rainy area, they can be a problem. In the desert, we celebrate them. 🙂
Love the sequence of flowers after the shed, Tish. Reminds me of Jude’s home patch.
Great post. The colours of summer.
We just need some added warmth 🙂
I love your allotment Tish, so full of life, colour and yummyness. The macro of the bee is wonderful and you have coos as well to wander past. A fabulous Changing Seasons. Thanks for joining in 🙂 🙂
Many thanks, Brian. It’s nice to be back. I seem to have missed a few months this year.
Tish, what a bounty! I am starting to think all English gardens, if they could be transplanted, could compete in and win the Chelsea flower show.
Phew, Tracy. Praise indeed for our English gardens 🙂
I love your poppies and that rose is gorgeous – but so are all your flowers 🙂 And lovely to see that bee shot too!
Happy to please on so many fronts, Sarah 🙂
Time for colours to come out…
“Gentils coquelicots mesdames…”
All well, Memsahib?
We are fine, thanks, Brian. Hope all is well with you.
Mzuri sana kabissa. Asante sana.
kwaheri sassa.
(Reading Berryl Markham’s “West with the wind.” Nice)
I love that book – whether she wrote the actual words of it or not, the experiences are all hers.
Are you the one who recommended the book to me? I know it was a blogger, but I just can’t remember… Shame on me.
I read something about whether she’d written it or not… Sounds to me like the typical “how can a woman write so well?” (Mbaya sana kabissa). The English is superb. I’ve only started it, but I am transported. Names like Athi, Machakos mean nothing to the rest of world, but to you and I they do don’t they?
Kwaheri sassa Tish.
I may have recommended it, Brian. I think her 3rd husband, writer Raoul Schumacher laid claim to the text, but in any case so much of what is described could only be described that way by someone who knew Africa from the inside. The experiences of flying alone by night and over Tsavo are rivetting. I dare say Raoul did some copy editing. And yes those words – Athi, Machakos. So many dreams ago!
You might. I don’t much see who else. I did read about Schumacher… There’s a difference between editing and writing.
Yes, magic words: Magadi, Malindi, Ngong, Muthaiga club, Mara, Nakuru, Hannigton… Those dreams are still alive…
Take care rafiki.
Have you read ‘True at First Light’ – Hemingway’s last work (edited after H’s death by his son Patrick the white hunter). The blurb describes it as a rich blend of autobiography and fiction and it covers 1953 when H was semi-official game officer camped out in Amboseli with 4th (?) wife. Also having relations with a young Akamba girl, Debba. As all the general circumstances and European characters in the text are real, it would be interesting to know which bits are supposedly fictional (!) It is thus a puzzling but evocative work. I’m on the 4th re-read.
True at first light? No I haven’t… (I see I’m not the only one to re-read N times. Amboseli sounds nice. Made a note of it. See if they have it on Amazon.
Asante sana Memsahib…
Will be intrigued to hear your take on this. The premise of the title: what is true at dawn in Africa is lost in the equatorial light/heat of midday. Or something of the sort. But I gather much of the original text has been cut, but whether for reasons art or family embarrassment I guess we’ll never know. Hemingway was in two near-death plane crashes at the end of this trip. He burst his way out of the second crash using his head as a sledge-hammer. Which may account for much of the pain and trauma of his last years…
I’ll have to find the book. Hopping to London this summer. Briefly. I’ll see if I can still find a bookshop open…
(Not sure what he means about the light. But it’s interesting. Anything about Africa is.)
I will let you know.
Brilliant photos. I had an artichoke last night. It looked nothing like the one in your garden. The cottage, the sheep, your Linden walk, the tall grass, and buttercups. All of it lush and wonderful. Hope the rain is brief so your walks and your gardening can continue. Loved all of this Tish.
Thank you, Donna. You made me smile 🙂
I saw my first poppy growing in a garden last weekend. What a beautiful flower. They’re larger than I expected. I love your photos, especially the poppy emerging from the pod.
That emergence is rather epic isn’t it. More like a hatching 🙂
Yes, a hatching! Do poppies spread, or just bloom where you planted the seeds?
The perennial oriental varieties bulk up each year so you can split them to make new plants. They tend not to spread by seed. Annuals will die but if their seed was well spread there may be new plants the following year. You never can tell with annual poppies.
Thank you!
I look upon your images (with envy, if I can be honest) and imagine the feast for the senses and your table. I am particularly taken by your artichokes – beauties! Brings me back to a summer long past n the Ardèche where we must have had artichoke every day for 2 weeks – those were luxurious days! We hardly see fresh artichoke in Singapore – before that summer, I had only artichoke hearts from cans or jars. As we know, not the same thing at all!
So happy to have you at The Changing Seasons, Tish!
So sorry you haven’t got artichokes in Singapore, Ju-Lyn, and to tantalise you with mine. But so happy to part of the Changing Seasons gang. Thank you.
Tantalise away, Tish! vicarious living at its best!
🙂