Tiny Flowers and The Royal Wedding

I must admit I do love a wedding and I'm getting quite excited about the big occasion tomorrow, it's so nice to turn on the news and hear positive joyous news and there's certainly a buzz around with union jacks being displayed in peoples windows and cars.





Loving flowers as I do, I'm also curious about the wedding bouquet, when I got married the fashion was to have a huge bouquet and I had around 15 white lilies, lilac coloured freesias and gypsophila, now I would probably pick a smaller simpler bouquet. I look forward to seeing what Kate chooses.







I have a lot of small flowers in my garden they cover the ground and produce a mass of intense colour to an area.






This tiny clematis is Clematis Montana, its flowers are tiny and they cover an arch I have at the back of the garden where its slightly shady, it brightens the whole area with a mass of flowers.

Blue Bells

Its almost the end of the month already, where did April go? Anyway it has been a gorgeous weekend here and we made the most of it with a family barbecue, lots of chocolate eating and walks along the beach. I still had time though to gather some blue bells from the garden for Jane's, over at smallbutcharming, in the house flowers link up part today. Jane was my very first follower and I must say has been kind and supportive throughout my first couple of months finding my feet within blog land.

My garden is full of blue bells at the moment in fact every year I bring in as many as I can to prevent them spreading.

The're such a beautiful dusky blue and particularly lovely against a white background in a rusty old enable can.

and an Anemone, only one this year, even though I planted a quite a few last year this is the soul survivor.

I do seem to have a thing for blue flowers.

Oh yes and Easter cakes, the children still expect them and quickly picked off the viola even though I assured them it was edible.

A Little French Shop

Its Good Friday here and we're planning on having a barbeque today so just doing a quick post on a visit I had yesterday to our city centre, Norwich.

Of course I had to have some flowers going on in this post, this lovely Wisteria looked very old and was beautiful, it was planted all around an old church.

About 10 minutes walk from the town centre is a lovely French shop, called, The Bell Jar, the owner paints some pieces herself but they are all sourced from France. Unfortunately I chose the wrong day to visit as the owner had shut early for the day so these photos were taken from the window.. I was a bit disappointed but I will visit another day.





Apologies there are a lot of photos but it is such a lovely shop.

Such a cute car.... Happy Easter.

I'm linking today with Miss Mustard Seed

My Garden in Spring

I have waited till now before showing my garden as the different textures and greens are particularly good at the moment. Being a small garden I have tried to create interest throughout the year and have something in flower most of the time but I believe the garden is at its best in June, the colours are softer then.

I suppose it's a cottage style garden as the majority of the plants are cottage favourites and I grow food among the flowers such as strawberries, asparagus and shallots I also grow salad leaves and tomatoes which I grow in pots on the patio.

Before last year there was a small oval lawn in the middle of the garden now in its place is a path made from old roof tiles.

Its not a very neat garden I let things seed themselves and I grow organically so you will see holey plants but I don't mind this as I would rather see lots of wildlife. I use my own compost to mulch/feed and make Comfrey liquid feed for pots.

Comfrey flowers can be slightly insignificant but this plant is a particularly lovely purple variety.

We have a big snail problem in this area, I've tried beer pots berried in the ground which works but then you get the nasty job of emptying the pots which is really unpleasant, so now I just don't grow plants the snails like to eat, the only downfall with this is that I can't grow those beautiful vivid blue Delphiniums which I love, so I have to make do with Larkspur.

See the snails around here are just blatant.

I can honestly say I'm never a hundred percent happy with my garden I'm always changing it but this little corner at this time of year works quite well, I like the contrast of colours and textures, plus it covers my black plastic compost bin, slightly ugly but I find essential.

I have a particularly sandy bit near the patio area and its here I gown alpines, I like the tight round textured forms they create. There's also a small Euphorbia which is particularly lovely this time of year and only gets to a foot high and a purple Iris at the front.

I have a few box ball's at the back of the garden and of course herbs are everywhere, great plants, wonderful flowers, lovely scent and the added bonus you can eat them.

This Acer is over ten years old now and growing slow and gracefully on the wonk! ...I can live with this though.

I have a few peony's in my garden, a lovely ruby red one which is so old I cant remember its name a few pink Sarah Bernhardt's and this tree peony, it flowered for the first time last year and the blooms were the size of dinner plates.

This herb is Marjoram, which has a slight citrus flavour, it forms a low mat of green this time of year and I love how the viola has intertwined with it.

This Euphorbia is the first plant I see as I come out of my kitchen door, its quite a tall one its about 3-4 foot tall and it really glows.

A strawberry pot but I found the strawberries never did very well here so I now have alpines and succulents growing in it.

I'm linking today with Sara over at a beach cottage for Good Life Wednesday

Textures

I have had a lovely weekend here the weather again has been dry and sunny and I got a lot done in the garden tackling the little jobs you tend to put off, for instance behind the shed. In a neighbouring garden they have a very large tree that is lovely because we get lots of birds visiting and lovely bird song but it does create quit a bit of shade which so far I haven't utilised, so I thought I would use this part for shady plants such as ferns and foxgloves.



On Saturday my daughter and I did a bit of shopping and had a girls day out, she like me appreciates vintage pieces but being a fashion student prefers clothes. So she knows me well that I can't pass a skip without having a look inside and it was Chloe who spotted this weather worn mirror, it was broken but I don't mind that.



So it now sits here on my mantel with other lovely textures.



This plant is Dicentra Alba or as I call it Lady in the Bath, called that because if you turn it upside down and pull the petals apart it looks just like a lady in the bath, this is from my very tiny front garden which is north facing, so I will take a cutting from this for the shady bit in my main garden.



Today I am linking with Boogieboard Cottage

Forget Me Knots

Sarah over at Modern Country Style is having a link party, as you've probably realised I enjoy this part of blogging it reminds me of school and being set a project, anyway Sarah has asked us to define our blogs.







I've only been blogging just over a month now but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to keep it simple and just focus on the things I love.









Looking back at the postings I have done so far and I see its a bit of a mixed bag of my interests, a diary of events going on at home and sometimes me going on about the weather but predominately this blog is about my love of nature, the seasons and bringing that into my home to enjoy.







I grow in my garden flowers especially to cut and bring into my home, occasionally I will make posies and flower rings because then you really get to see every detail of the flower, expecially the tiny flowers such as these Forget Me Knots.

Woodland Flowers

We are having the most wonderful weather here, clear beautiful sunny skies, people wearing shorts and shades, families on the beach just like it was summer.

I usually take my walk along the beach but took a detour for a change to a long narrow disused railway track, the track has been replaced by a pathway but either side of this enclosed area there is grass, woodland trees and plants, the place is teaming with rabbits and birds and has such a wonderful feeling of calmness.