The Birth Flower For January - Carnation

Carnation 

Carnation

Carnation

One of my many photography projects for this year, is to photograph the birth flowers. I have photographed some of them already and have the images in my archive but I don't have images for them all, so it's with great excitement that I wait for some of them to either be in flower in the garden, or wait until they are in the florists.

The flower for January is the carnation. A carnation signifies, love, pride, beauty, distinction, fascination and loyalty.

I hope you agree, they are a gorgeous splash of colour in the otherwise gloomy light we have been living in, of late.

The Winter Garden, The Great British Garden Revival and Solstice Blessings

Hazel

Buds of Chrysanthamum Anastasia

Cirsium

Skimmia

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, the sun is shining here in Dorset, after an awful week of gales and lashing rain.

I was hoping to get out and tidy up the garden over the Christmas break but unless it dries out a bit, the soggy mess will have to just stay put.

I am really enjoying the BBC series The Great British Garden Revival. There just isn't enough gardening programmes on the television these days and don't get me started on Gardeners' World having to make way for sports - grr makes my blood boil!

Anyway back to The Great British Garden Revival. The cottage garden episode was just fantastic with Carol Klein championing my favourite garden genre and although I don't have any house plants, Tom Hart Dyke was so enthusiastic, I found him really engaging. I love people with an absolute passion for a subject.

My garden has some winter colour, with some geraniums still hanging on in there and strangely my Cirsium, with it's crimson pompom looking splendid like a Christmas bauble, is still in flower.

Wishing you all bright winter blessings for the solstice and love and light for 2014.

Squashes and Succulents Take Shelter on the greenhouse bench

 

                                                                   

The squashes have now been harvested and are on the greenhouse bench so their skins can cure.

I have had a really good harvest this year, 20 in total. Maybe it was the good weather we had this summer or maybe it was the variety I choose, which is suitable for our climate, I'm not sure but one thing is for sure, they just take up far too much room, so I don't think I'll grow them again next year.

I have brussel sprouts and leeks for Christmas dinner growing and a few spring onions and beetroots, which will need to be harvested soon.

My beautiful succulents have now been moved into the greenhouse, out of the cold and wet our English winter weather gives us. These are succulents left over from my wedding last year. I love their jewel like gloss and the gorgeous shapes and colours of them, I can see myself aquiring more next year.

A Visit To Barnsdale - Home of the late Geoff Hamilton

 

No one comes close to Geoff Hamilton, when it comes to presenting Gardener's World.

When my children were growing up, they knew that as soon as the theme tune started, I was not to be disturbed, it was the highlight of my TV viewing week.

I especially loved the Cottage Garden series, so when I recently visited Barnsdale in Rutland, Leicestershire, home of the late Geoff Hamilton, the garden I wanted to see most of all was the Artisan Garden. I was not at all disappointed, in fact I had such mixed emotions, sadness at the passing of Geoff but absolutely joy and gratitude, that he had created such a wonderful space and that it was still there for us to see today.

Just beautiful.

The Garden House - Devon

I had wanted to visit The Garden House in Devon for many years and when my husband asked me where I would like to go to, on our 1st wedding anniversary, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to visit this garden.

By the time we got there, the sun was high in the sky and very hot, not the most perfect situation for plant photography but as it was a day just for me to photograph for pleasure and not for any client or my employers, it just didn't matter a jot, I just had the most wonderful time photographing this beautiful garden.

Summer Solstice at Knowlton Henge

 

This summer solstice evening was spent in the most peaceful place at Knowlton Church and Henge on Cranborne Chase in Dorset.

The Norman church ruins, is on the site of one of the greatest Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England. 

There were a few groups of people doing ceremonies, which was wonderful and the energy was beautiful.

The sun stayed behind the clouds but shards of brilliant light filled the air.

Love and light to all xx

Heading East to Dungeness & Prospect Cottage

A well earned break took us to Pett in East Sussex, where we stayed in this gorgeous shepherds hut.
For 4 days, I didn't look at the Internet or answer emails, just relaxed in the fresh air, visited Sarah Raven's garden at Perch Hill and Prospect Cottage on Dungeness, lived in by the late Derek Jarman.

I had wanted to visit his cottage since reading his book Derek Jarman's Garden, which made my heart beat madly when I saw it, as it was a little dream of mine, to visit it, for such a long time.

After, we wandered over to the shingle and towards the sea, so I could photograph the plants which inhabit the coastline for my project Against The Elements.