Wonder in the garden

Warning, photo-heavy post!

Each time I walk into the garden something else has come to life and is looking wonderful. I never tire of just losing myself in a walk around, just touching, smelling, and enjoying all the beautiful colours and textures.

Watching the amazing variety of wildlife, hearing the buzz of insects and the birdsong gives me a tremendous feeling of calm and well-being.

It feeds my soul.

I take far too many photos every day so I've had to be ruthless in choosing which to show! First a bit of wildlife:

2 sparrows wait their turn whilst a starling has his morning bath 

Just look at the iridescent green on the back of this fly visiting Euphorbia pithyusa

Mummy and baby toad in the orchard

Sorry this is a bit fuzzy but the little ant was moving so quickly to get his prized worm home!

The striking yellow, grey and black caterpillars of the Mullein moth munching away on a sacrificial wild verbascum (I grow many of them to distract the caterpillars from the cultivated forms!). I wrote about the little blighters here.

This little chap is Algernon-the-picked-upon who adopted us a few months ago and I must tell his story in a separate post

Now for some plants and flowers.

A lone orchid which has self-seeded into the orchard. I'm hoping it will set seed and spread.

Lichen on a pear tree

When I open the front gate in the morning I'm always struck by how much seems to have sprung up almost overnight!

Just look at the size of that cardoon to the right of the gazebo (as you look at it) and the foxgloves to the left!

The papery bracts of Salvia 'Vatican White'

Looking inside

We have many different varieties of Sisyrinchium. Here are a few:

The curious cream and chocolate/plum coloured flowers of 'Quaint and Queer'

Acid yellow star-like flowers set against the vivid blue of a prostrate campanula

Sisyrinchium striatum (it seeds everywhere!)

Close-up of the gorgeous creamy yellow flowers 

Sis. 'Aunt May' with her beautiful striped leaves looks wonderful against the deep bluey mauve flowers of Salvia  nemorosa 'Caradonna'

Deep blue bells of a Campanula in the gravel garden

This little beauty always makes me smile. From amidst her pretty, stripy, and very hairy leaves she sends up a bright pink stem and then reveals a whole group of glorious flowers (I think they look a bit like angels or dancers) with spotty tops!

Saxifraga cuscutiformis in front of Hosta 'Hadspen Blue'

The dark mauve, almost black, flowers of Aquilegia 'Black Barlow' set against the yellow leaves of Hakonechloa macro

Centaurea 'Jordy' in the gravel garden

I like the side-view best!

Pretty bracts on this variegated Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'

There are foxgloves in various shades, defying gravity and towering upwards in the most inhospitable places: 

Amazing, spiky casings from which will emerge the pretty purple flowers on this hosta 'Big Boy' planted either side of the entrance to the gazebo

The warm yellow flower of the scented Rosa 'Graham Thomas' (he's prone to blackspot but I still love him!)

Glorious blue Nigella (aka love-in-a-mist) whose seedpods I dry and use in winter flower arrangements. Each autumn I sprinkle the seeds into awkward places and she rewards me with an amazing display

I have to stop now, although I could go on and on and on and on, so will end with this bright cerise flower of Lychnis coronaria. I love the contrast of the vivid flowers against the silvery grey felted stems and leaves.