A Few More Garden Photos, Swallow Parents 25th June

The Garden

The flowers seem to be opening almost as you watch them with all this sunshine and heat. We've even had to water! I took my camera around the meadow and back yesterday and found another orchid, a very pale lilac, almost white. Butterflies teased me but when I approached they flew off.








the single pale purple orchid, it is just beginning to fade a little. The larger one with multiple heads is now past its best. The little white flowers are 'stitchwort'.















The sun has almost whited this one out. These sort come on rather thin stems and are prone to falling over occasionally.













The grass is at its best now in the meadow. There was a light breeze and the grasses waved to and fro. The path is one of Jim's mown paths through the meadow.















I had to trample down the grass around this little pine tree as I could only see the top shoot. It was about a foot tall when we first moved here.



















some of the meadow grass against the amazing blue sky

















Another grass, but one I haven't noticed before
















lovely rust red sorrel and meadow sweet, not quite in flower yet





















This meadow sweet is almost fully out


















Purple loosestrife















Purple loosestrife close up




















A sun kissed fern at the side of the allotment. Some of our ferns are ridiculously huge!

















amazing daisies on the allotment


















The fuchsias flower all summer long

















A meadow sweet with the blue water butt behind. Love it!














wild flax, one of the wild flowers I have sowed and below is another one but I don't know its name!
























The first two dahlia flowers have appeared
























Buster







Buster enjoys running through the long grass and discovering lots of new smells.












Buster got too hot and flopped down in a heap

















He doesn't realise he's far too big to sit on Jim's lap now!


















what a couple of softies.






Swallows

As we sat having a cup of tea, we noticed a young swallow sitting on the electric wire. Then it started flapping and one of the parents appeared and fed it. This carried on for ages, so I went and fetched the camera. Here is the result:
Sometimes it seemed to have to wait ages and looked around for a parent


Here you can see the fledgling fluttering its wings as the parent approaches.

Isn't that just so sweet? The parent would whiz past in seconds so I had to be prepared to shoot quickly.


Studio in the Garden

It was so dusty inside from Joe knocking out stones and concrete that I took my 'studio' outside:
The table was a bit small, but I managed.

Slugs







It's amazing anything is still alive in the garden when you see this lot having a party!





Cats and Boxes

Cats just love getting into cardboard boxes, don't they? Here's Sandy inside 2 boxes in the garden:









At first, he lay on his back and attacked the sides of the yellow box!






Amazing Skies
I took a few sky photos too, some over Lough Graney and some towards the hill Maghera.






What a sky. If you click on it you can see the wind farm.













This was in the other direction and the black clouds billowed up





















The lake turned pink and the water looked glass like.

Art

I can't post the art I did as it's a surprise for someone. I'll post it when she receives the parcel.

Afternoon Tea

I took my parcels to the post and called into Mrs Broderick's house on my way back. Ann is the lady who runs the 'Mountain Cafe' as a charity. All food provided is for a donation to her sister's charity for children in Zimbabwe. Ann's sister is a nun and spends most of her time caring for the many orphaned and under privelaged children in Zimbabwe and every 2 years she has 3 months off. She is currently on her 3 month rest and was at Ann's, together with one of Ann's daughters from Dublin and her 7 month old baby, a delightful little girl called Jane.

Ann immediately invited me in and made me a delicious cheese and ham sandwich, a cup of tea followed by a gorgeous slice of rich fruit cake. What a treat. It was wonderful to meet Margaret, the nun. She was quite lovely and you wouldn't believe she's 65. No wonder she needs a rest every 2 years. We had a wonderful discussion about religion of course and laughed and chatted for over an hour. I do hope I see her again before she has to return.

Sad news today of the death of actress Farrah Fawcett from cancer and then the sudden death of Michael Jackson, aged 50. He was an odd character but I loved his music in the 80s and 'Thriller' was an all time favourite of mine. He was also one of the most amazing dancers I have ever seen.