Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

This is my Green Man, he watches over and protects my garden. I bought him the first summer I lived in this cottage. He is looking slightly weatherbeaten now, and is situated on the back wall of my garden. This photograph was taken last autumn and as you can see dead leaves like to cling to him. I think his aging gives him a venerable air and he is looking over at my moon gazing hare, who ignores him as she is so intent on studying the moon.

We have finally finished off laying the bark chippings and the paths, I think it makes my garden look beautiful. I can already see possibilities for more plants in pots around the table and chair area of the chippings. Too late to fill those spaces this year, but if I see any interesting pots or containers, I will buy them and save them for next year. Photographs have just been taken today of the finished project.


My lavender is blooming and attracting the butterflies and bees, here's an early morning visitor to it. The weather is still very hot and humid. We went to our local town to our favourite Italian restaurant for a meal tonight and were lucky enough to have the window table. We had just ordered our meal when there was a down pour of rain and thunder and lightning. I have a love/hate relationship with thunderstorms, a part of me is thrilled by them, but another part of me is absolutely terrified. I must admit I enjoyed this short storm as we were cosily installed in the restaurant drinking our wine, and smelling the lovely garlicky smells of the cooking. The rain saved me from having to water the garden when we all returned home late this evening.


At the beginning of June I posted some photographs of the river that is near to me. I showed the banks with the sand and the flowers growing and the little cottage on the bank of the river, that is called Ferry Cottage because there used to be a ferry there that crossed the river. These photographs show the other side of the river, where there is an old stately home. This home is in private hands and is not open to the public, but some of the terraced gardens are visible from the other river bank. This first photograph shows the back of the house which stands high above the river and is plainer than the front of the building, there are paths that lead down to the river, and gardens and a water feature. There are large sandstone cliffs on the side of the river where the house is. Can you imagine looking out of one of those top floor windows at the view below?



To the left of this photograph you can see one of those sandstone cliffs exposed. The area in which I live is on the edge of what is known as the Eden Valley, it is renowned for its red sandstone rocks, and most of our old houses are built of it. Our barn is made of red sandstone. The problem with sandstone is that it is a very soft rock and erodes very easily.


This photograph shows the tiered water feature that tumbles down from the heights to rush into the river. Doesn't it look magical? It must be lovely to own a waterfall like that, but surely the best view of it is from the opposite bank of the river where the woods are. Another day I will take you back to the other side of the river and show you what you will find if you walk through the woods on this side. Believe me, I am going to show you another magical place and and maybe I will tell you another story of wonder and enchantment. There are magical places all around where I live, some that everyone knows and are easy to find and some that you have to search for. The trick is to manage to be there when they are free of people.

To finish off I just want to show you this photograph which I found when looking through our stack of prints. Remember my last posting where I talked about the Cumberland Long House, that you could see part of in the photograph. Well I found this better image of it that I have shown below.