I’ve placed a towel over the delicate Cyclamen for the past few nights. Yes, it comes off as soon as sunlight hits the spot, and back on again mid-afternoon. I’m doing an experiment. One other Cyclamen remains uncovered. In fairness, it looked drab even before this cold snap.
A neighbour’s outside tap burst. This towel may help mine. Either it will or it won’t, as the fella says.
After breakfast the glasshouse was barely above freezing. During the night it dipped below. There are pots of Lysmachia that are still frozen. My work may have been in vain. No actually, work isn’t in vain when I learn from it. 🤔
This week I’ve got camellias and kalanchoe; also nandina and rose hips. It’s been an ideally cold week to warm up outside.
It all kicked off last Sunday. Been waiting for a long time, I had. Months, in fact. How are you when you’re waiting that long?
The weeks of dreary rain ended and thus began a very cold week. To be sure, the wait was worth enduring, and extra clothing layers were duly donned for daily walks, good gardening and some cycling. Purely on health & safety grounds one cycling trip was abandoned. As I was already in my cycling longs and thermal tops, it seemed the perfect gardening attire while I spent time pottering in the potting shed.
In conclusion, it was a cold beginning to the week and midweek was colder. Well worth waiting for, I said to myself.
Looking around the cold garden, there are some items of interest. Here are just six…
1. Kalanchoe
I’ll begin with Kalanchoe, my Christmas indoor kitchen window gift. It came in a tiny pot as part of a snowman scene, so I got it to the potting shed for an upgrade. It’s now back inside, the best place to be this week.
2. Rose Hip
Out in the extreme cold, the blossom on the rose has moved on to old-age reality.
It was a beautiful rose. Still beautiful, in a different way. Old age and death is part of the cycle.
Featured several times over the years, this time it’s got something ugly in front of it. A dead something-or-other. No matter.
4. Another Nandina
This one is Nandina domestica. I guess you can deduct I like them in pots. No doubt they’d do better in the ground. No matter, they’re OK as they are. What do I like about them? It’s the mixed leaf colour. This cold weather will bring on the redness.
5. Camellia Again
Buds appearing on the Camellia Spring Festival. Two years ago I wondered if this plant was ever going to do its thing.
6. Lysmachia
I loved the light-green trailing habit of Lysmachia from last July onwards. I have it on my seed order wish list. To my surprise, it rooted profusely in the patio cracks. It is not hardy, so I’ve got dozens of offspring sitting snug in the glasshouse. That’s saved me a tenner next summer. More importantly, I’ve a sense of satisfaction that I can’t put a price on.
Summary
Lysmachia, rose hip, camellia, Kalanchoe and Nandina x2
In Other News
Not exactly the best time to display the ice cream signs. I cycled 70km during the week. Cold but exhilarating. Ice cream: cold but I wasn’t tempted.
Pop over to Jim’s Site to discover more Six-on-Saturday updates. Until next time, I hope you get to enjoy some time in the garden.
About the author: Páraig likes camellias and collages. He also likes Nandina and rose hips, but not winter ice cream. It’s been an ideally cold week to warm up outside.
This week there’s a garden book and a plant for the kitchen window. Also included: feeding the doves, but not raking away fallen leaves too early.
During the week I put together what I think is a good piece about our beautiful world. Despite horrific world events at a political level I focus on the beauty. War is a tsunami that destroys life.
Reinforcing my firm belief that it’s a beautiful world, here’s my garden and my wider natural landscape garden to remind me of such beauty. Thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations, for hosting Six on Saturday. Pop over to discover updates from participating writer-gardeners.
I was with my garden for a full afternoon on Thursday. Plenty to do, despite my resolve not to tidy up too much just yet. As OffTheEdgeGardening would say, shall we shake a leg?
1. Gorse
On a recent forest walk on Corrin Holy Hill near Fermoy to shake a leg and the holiday cobwebs, we came upon this in full flower. Our day was brightened.
2. Metrosideros
Photo is a bit wonky. I deserve no more than 4 out of 10 for effort.
Notes FROM the RHS: A genus of around 60 trees, shrubs and vines, most commonly grown for their showy, tufty predominantly red bottle brush-like flowers, which can also be orange, yellow or white.
So, this much I know… Mine is definitely one of sixty. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t narrow it down to specifics. No matter, it’s on the kitchen windowsill and it’s very dainty.
3. Skimmia rubella
Greenery and budding flower. What’s not to love? Featured regularly. I think it may appear again in the months ahead.
4. Sedum
Sedum (or rather the unpronounceable updated name that was Sedum) is finished. In recent years I would have cut this to tidy it up. Now it stays although it is decaying. I’m letting nature just be.
5. Feeding Time
I never fail to appreciate this view. There’s a lot going on. My garden chair is under the eave of the roof outside the back door and part of my morning ritual is to sit and watch.
6. Reading This
There’s a short paragraph for every day of the year within. I recommend it highly.
Summary
Pop over to Jim’s Site to discover more Six-on-Saturday updates. Until next time, I hope you get to enjoy some time in the garden.
About the author: Páraig’s likes garden books and plants for the kitchen window. He also likes feeding the doves and riding the bike, but not raking away fallen leaves too early.
Páraig likes wine and winter flowers. He also looks forward to 2024 but not squatting and stooping to photograph the hellebores.
I do hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours here in Dungarvan. The weather outside was frightful and several attempts to go cycling with friends were abandoned easily, bar one. Storm Gerrit breezed through on Tuesday night into Wednesday and there was very little time to grab a few photographs that would prove I actually did get outside.
Gaultheria
Featured recently, Gaultheria procumbens is a dainty little thing.
Camellia and Wine
The buds are appearing on Camellia, yet it’s the wine bottle that catches my attention. Similar to last week, Marion thinks I’ve lost my marbles. I have six bottles, all red, in various spots, put in place last May. Through the summer, they were soon surrounded and overgrown by annuals. Now I can see again.
3. Heather
Heather is in flower and leaves are gone to ground.
4. Hellebore
The first of the Hellebores are peeking through. As always I have to practice squats and forward stooping in order to photograph them.
5. Cyclamen
Cyclamen coum, one of the hardiest, is providing a small splash of colour. At this time of the year even a small splash is better than none.
6. Polyanthus
Plenty polyanthus flowers in bloom or ready to burst.
Summary
A quick dash around the garden and a time-pressed account to match.
Clockwise from top centre:
Camellia & vine
Heather
Hellebore
Cyclamen
Polyanthus
Gaultheria
Pop over to Jim’s Site to discover more Six-on-Saturday updates. Until next time, I hope you get to enjoy some time in the garden. Happy New Year to all.
About the author: Páraig likes wine and winter flowers. He also looks forward to 2024 but not squatting and stooping to photograph the hellebores.
Nollaig Shona from me. I wish you all the very best for the year ahead. May your spuds sprout early and your snails drown in beer.
Here’s my Christmas 2020 post again. It’s on my old unused blog, still alive in the blog cloud. While I’m cycling and having trifle, it’s here for you if you’re not.
Memory from 2020: “I include in my thoughts those who have a home but are unable to be there because of travel restrictions. Even in a world of Zoom, there’s nothing quite like pulling a cracker.”
Nollaig Shona from us here in South-East Ireland. I wish you all the very best for the year ahead. May your spuds sprout early and your snails drown in beer.
You’d never guess that in 2020 we were three years younger. So we’re YOU. In any case, we love one another better now. You see we’ve had three more years to understand how loving works and we are committed for the long-term.
This message has been sponsored by Baileys
Nath Cainte Gaeilge – Irish Proverb
Bíonn gach duine lách go dtéann bó in a gharraí.
Everyone’s kind until a cow breaks into their garden.
About the author: Páraig likes dreaming of a white Christmas and reblogging old articles. He also likes his new book and some strange satire, but not late-sprouting spuds or cows in his garden.
Do you like dry cold weather? What about evergreen shrubs and inexpensive garden ornaments? Yellow weather alerts, surely not?
Happy Christmas to one and all. I hope it will be everything you wish for.
Here on the SE Irish coast it was another mild December week with the added bonus of some rain by night. The cold front to the north of Scotland was firmly held back until Thursday, and then it let rip with a Yellow Wind Alert. Being honest, I don’t mind a cold snap. Rushing around crowded shops in mild weather is exhausting.
Thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations, for hosting Six on Saturday. Pop over there to discover updates from participating writer-gardeners. In the meanwhile, here’s my six:
1. Crab Apple
Leaves are gone and the fruits are ripening. Blackbirds have been sampling, and they will return to feed at the right time.
2. Unknown
From my mam’s garden. Can anyone shed light on what it is? Nerine, I wonder?
3. Another Mystery
I’m going to hazard a guess that this might be Bachelor’s Buttons, known better as Feverfew and officially as Tannecetum. Even if I’m incorrect, the three names are correct for the plant I’m thinking of. I do love those skeletonised seedheads.
4. Conifer
Looking for evergreens, I took a shot of this conifer. About three metres in height, it is magnificent throughout the year, and especially now. Putting a trellis on the wall will happen in the spring.
5. Ornament
Garden ornaments are expensive, so I used this disused oil-boiler flue. I like it, despite the protestations of my good wife. I remind her that it’s my garden too. Recycle: repurpose items rather than dump.
6. Euonymus & Cotoneaster
Another evergreen, Euonymus ‘something-something’ pleases me also. The Cotoneaster ‘Queen of Carpets’ is hugging it beautifully. I’ve been able to get half a dozen rooted slips from it last year and more to come soon. It can run riot, but I’m thrilled to see it climbing the wall. The planned trellis will help keep it secure.
Summary
Clockwise from top left:
Crab apple
Nerine?
Feverfew?
Conifer
Free onamental flue
Euonymus
Pop over to Jim’s Site to discover more Six-on-Saturday updates. Until next time, I hope you get to enjoy some time in the garden.
About the author: Páraig likes dry cold weather. He also likes evergreen shrubs and inexpensive garden ornaments, but not Yellow Alerts.
‘IMAGINE’ is my latest discovery. 2023 was the year that ChatGBT5 was released and quickly spread to all areas of digital life.
Now, companies are piggy-backing off it to create an unknown world ahead. I’ve used IMAGINE to create these images. I started with my Cyclamen, photographed recently…
And thirty seconds later, I created this. When I say I created it, I mean it was a collaborative effort. I stated what I was looking for.
Image generated by AI.
Perhaps that brightens up your day, or scares the living daylights out of you! Strange phrase, that: ‘the living daylights.’
Explanation:
The phrase “scared the living daylights out of someone” is an idiomatic expression that is used to convey a sense of extreme fear or terror. When someone says that they were “scared the living daylights out of” them, they mean that they were extremely frightened or startled.
The phrase likely originates from the idea that a frightening experience might be so intense that it feels as though it has caused a person’s “living daylights” to flee or be startled out of them. “Living daylights” in this context refers to a person’s vitality or life force, and the phrase is a colorful way of expressing the intensity of the fear experienced.
In modern usage, the phrase is often employed as a humorous or exaggerated way of describing a frightening experience, and it’s commonly used in informal conversation or storytelling to emphasize the impact of a scary or startling event.
The Three Hairs Garden 