a second detour, this time to an English garden

post #192
       Every time I go to England to be with my stepmother I get to visit with close friends Bill and June. This time, ten days ago, we had our visit in their garden. It's not huge but it is always amazing. At the end of our visit I took ten quick photos, and they all came out well!  Now that is also truly amazing. Good vibes and good light and the copious English rains must have helped. I want to share these photos while spring is still in the northern hemisphere's air.       
       Thank you, June, for the help with identifying your beautiful blooms and for giving the back story on Mr. Frog. What commentary there is in the titles, however, is just me.

allium -- loud and proud

clematis  --  the gorgeous social climber

bird sugar water bottles, a gift to them brought from South Africa.  At the end of this post, I hope to add a photo June just sent me showing the bottle in use.

Solomon's seal - which even I recognized because here in Appalachia it is a wild flower. Fun to see it surrounded by emerging peonies!

Mr. Frog, who used to have a whole garden "pool" to bask in and float around on. Now he is on an extended dry out!  Hard to believe that at first he was just a joke.

delphinium

June writes that this is a Siberian Iris, either a Wisley White or a Dreaming Yellow.

      On the way back to my stepmother's I was in a hurry. However, I could not keep from stopping along this back (and narrow) road to take photos of the blossoms on the rapeseed plants (used to make cooking oils) and the general lay of the lovely land. It was raining off and on at the time, and I was running late, so this is all I managed to take home with me: 

It was all in all a beautiful time of year to be in England.

 

          p.s. June sent me this photo of hers -- a blue tit drinking out of the sugar water bottle. She says all the birds really go for it.