Thursday, August 6, 2009

Surprise Phone Call, Whizz Round the Garden Wednesday

Builders

We had a bit of excitement today. Martin the builder drove the digger from home to ours to level the ground by the extension. Joe, his Dad, has actually bought this JCB and it's enormous. I took a 'before' photo:

It's a bit bright as it was actually sunny this afternoon. As you can see, it's a bit of a mess round the back. Joe was giving Martin hand signals in the digger:






































Jim doesn't seem to have changed position at all! Joe puts one more plank on the digger before Martin takes the wood up to the yard. At the end of the day, the digger is parked up and the ground is much more level, but there is still some to do:
Nasty Neighbours

We heard our neighbours walking up the road and they looked at the digger as they passed. Jim wondered what they were doing and it turned out they were taking photos of the road! Ye Gods, what is the matter with these people? I, in turn, took a photo of the road too.
Presumably they were taking photos of the 'damage' caused by the digger. Eeerm, it's our road, not theirs, they only have access to their property. Maybe they think they cannot drive over the tyre marks! I can laugh but it really upsets me. I cannot understand why they would do this and what they hope to achieve except to irritate us. We have a large pile of bits of wood from the extension building and I had said to Jim earlier, 'It's a shame we can't give this to the Parry's for their wood burning stove'. It seems they just want to cause trouble and be as nasty a they can.

The Garden

Anyway, I took lots of flower photos to cheer myself up, though it's still rankling now.

We had had a quick shower of rain, too, so you can see the drops on it in the sun.
This day lily is slightly out of focus but I love its colour.
Aren't these sunflowers glorious? They're not the huge sort, but they are so pretty:

Geranium
Old Fashioned Marigolds - I love them.
A gladioli, with more below:
A close up
Jim and the gladioli bed in the front garden.
The sweet corn plants on our allotment.
Sweet Pea. The little fly just flew in as I was taking the photo.
I got a bit diverted by the butterflies on the buddleia bush.
Two butterflies! A fritillary and a Painted Lady.
A bee on the Rose Bay Willow Herb
The montbretia is at its best now.
Some of the roses out today

Beautiful dahlia.

I have to stop there as it appears I have exceeded the amount of photos I can put onto my blog this year! I have purchased more space but it can take 24 hours to get through. Hey ho!

I think you have plenty to look at today.

Surprise Phone Call

Last year Jim and I were on the Gort Show committee. Gort is the nearest town to us. We had a bit of a disagreement with the Chairman so didn't go to the meetings this year, nor had we intended to enter anything into the show, which is next Sunday, August 9th. Well, a lovely lady who we used to give a lift to, to each meeting, Mary, rang me and asked if I would be so kind as to judge the Cake baking and brown bread section! How bizarre is that. The old chairman has gone so all is well on that front. I said I would love to. HELP. Does anyone know the 'right' way to go about this? lol. I'll just cut large slices from each cake and eat them I think. Sounds a blissful job for me. LOL. The judge who was coming had let them down apparently. Posh suit, free lunch, sounds good to me.

Another night out.

Tomorrow night Jim and I are going to see the Irishman Brian Merriman's 'Midnight Court'. This is an incredibly long poem but very famous around these parts in particular as BM lived nearby. He used to teach at one of the 'hedge schools' in the hills above us and the story goes that he was sitting by Lough Graney and thought of the idea for this poem. It has been set to music and is being put on at Caher House, a rather splendid residence overlooking the Lough. I read the poem on line so was keen to see it. This starts at 8pm, then at 10pm there is a separate music concert. So I decided to book for both. I'm really looking forward to it. It will also be a good opportunity to have a look round Caher House.

Right, that's all for now. Hopefully my photo space will arrive by tomorrow.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your flowers are so bright and cheerful. I especially love all the glads. Too bad about your neighbor...things like that make me mad! Nice to see the progress being made around your home. You sure do have a lot of nice windows in the new space.

Bea said...

Wow LOVE to those sunflowers. Wouldn't they make wonderful fairy skirts?
The roses are beautiful. What fun to be taking a picture and have two butterflies get in the shot. LUCKY YOU!!!
Hmmm, people can be very strange. Neighbors can be difficult.
But eating cake for free well that just beats all. :)Bea

Penny said...

Sorry I cant help with the judging, I think it has something to do with texture and lightness if a sponge and texture and smoothness on top if a fruit cake!
I didnt know you had to buy extra space for photos. I love your garden flowers it all looks so lovely, a bit bleak here today.

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Great photos as usual. LOVE those sunflowers. They almost down look real. wow.
Bummer about the neighbors. To bad they have to be so snotty. Maybe they thought the road was lovely. LOL
Thanks for the nice comments on my blog posts. The heat wave finally broke and now we are down to the 70ies.. MUCH MUCH better.
108 degrees was unheard of here. Hope we dont ever hear from it again!! :)

Stampmaiden said...

BT, I sit here in water drought Los Angeles upset after going out to look at my sad garden earlier today. Less water = less blooms. I was in heaven during springtime but now it's so sad to look out there. It's depressing to see that only one Naked Lady has bloomed. In the past there have been at least 7 and they pop out at various times throughout early August. I've decided the only way to make me feel better is to continue taking "walks" through your garden. You have such beautiful blooms and I absolutely LOVE that rose bush with the streaks of pink on white petals. Is that a Tiger rose? Or something like that?
Do you have to pay to put more pics up on your blog? Can't you just delete some of your older posts to make room? Gosh, I thought blogger was free forever! LOL!! Guess I was wrong, huh?!
Linda

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Your project is coming right along. Too bad you have cranky neighbors. Your flowers are gorgeous. Have fun at the performance tomorrow.

Arija said...

Your garden is so full of magic, no wonder you get two dozen butterflies on one flower! You really have gone forward in leaps and bound in this last year.

We have been having rather large eathworks here as well what with huge watertank and foundations for a 20'x 30' shed.

Heckety said...

Well I once was assistant Knitting Judge and another time assisted the embroidery judge, but we didn't get to eat the entries...I think you're in for a hilarious time! Try grading them by who you could serve it to with maybe the Queen at the top, and Buster at the bottom? Not that Buster hasn't good taste, but our Ben likes everything except pineapple so he isn't too critical!
And please may I use your sunflower and lilies in the Timeless Treasures blog? Please please? They are such joyful flowers I think!

Heather said...

You're right about the JCB - it was huge. Saved a lot of man hours though. The flower photos are beautiful -my favourite is that gorgeous pink lily. I'm typing this with the cat on my lap and leaning on my left hand! Enjoy the judging and the concert.

Jason said...

Oh dear, sorry about the mad neighbours, bummer.

Hows the JCB getting on?

How was the poem?
x

Ces Adorio said...

Oh dear dear BT! I will have to go there too to take photographs of the road, the house, the garden, the beautiful flowers and everything so full of life and beauty. Forget your neighbors. Of course there will be tyre marks. What did they expect? That you lift the digger to your property? I know you are a strong woman but I don't think you can carry that digger over your shoulders. Those neighbors of yours are what I call "jealous" people. Keep on digging, planting, photographing! Go go BT!

BT said...

Thank you Ces. I'm afraid you are right about our neighbours. They are very jealous so are trying to get back at us any way they can. It's our road for goodness sake!! lol. So glad you enjoyed the photos.

Oh I can't believe I haven't replied to the comments. Will do so tomorrow. Thank you all.

BT said...

Thank you Mildred. Neighbours can be such a pain and we've tried to be pleasant to them. Now we've given up!

Bea, indeed those sunflowers would make lovely fairy skirts! They are so lovely. 2 butterflies - a bonus indeed! Oh, sad news on the cake front. On the same evening that Mary rang me, her friend rang an Irish lady who has judged before and is judging the jam, so she is going to do it. But Mary left 2 complimentary tickets for us at the post office.

Hello Penny, someone else had told me about the photos, so I had been warned. It was cheap though, £13 for 10GB, so that should last even me the year!

Cris, 108 degrees. How ghastly. Hideous, I'd have to hide in a fridge! So glad it's more reasonable now. I'm happy you like the flower photos.

Oh Linda, I'm so sorry about your garden, it must be so depressing. I will find out the name of that rose. We do have all the packets so I must write out some labels and stick them in the ground!

I wouldn't really like to delete any of the photos or it would spoil the old posts. I don't mind paying, it's not much, £13 for 10GB, seems quite cheap to me. I love taking and posting them so it's ok.

Thanks Lisa.

Gosh, Arija, that's a big big shed! It's a nuisance but will be worth it in the end I'm sure, for both of us!

Heckety, please use any of my flowers, I'm honoured. Thanks for your info on judging but now I'm not needed after all that! Ah well, my moment of glory gone. Snatched away!

Heather, cats are most helpful when you're trying to type, aren't they? Mine used to do that but now I hoof them off! Glad you liked the flower photos.

Hi Jason. The JCB is still sitting there. I think they'll do a bit more levelling next week, while the plumber's busy indoors. Then it's the cement for the floor. Lots of mess on the road. Oh NO!! lol.

DK said...

grr horrid neighbours!!
Amazing flowers, loved the sunflowers :-)
Fabby fun re being a cake & bread judge, you can wax lyrical about taste, texture and substance!! LOL