Picture bonanza

While cooking our Sunday dinner I suddenly saw just the 5 girls from the oldest hut lying down near the house, no sign of the drakes or the other ducks  - it looked as if they'd been cast out and told to keep themselves to themselves:

Our Sunday dinner turned out well, John said it looked as good as what they served up in the best restaurants - so I had to take a picture of it, didn't I ... it tasted great, too!

(apart from the free-range chicken, all home grown by John -
2 types of beans, 2 kinds of potatoes, carrots, peas, courgette and cabbage)

Late this afternoon all the ducks from the top huts seemed to be together again at the bottom of the frog pond, maybe Captain managed to chase them all away from the big pond, he was certainly on his own with Anke, only Honey was left behind - she came out from under "her" bush when she saw me:


                                                                                                               





The first fruit on the medlar

At the frog pond three brown girls were having a wash&preen party at a well-used bucket,

 





and when I went to take an up-to-date shot of Dotty she was already in her hut.  I noticed that she's been swimming better recently, not so lopsided, and this if the best I've seen her standing.  She doesn't seem to hold her left leg so much to the side.

At the the side of the frog pond there was a sudden commotion - one of them had caught a frog and was being chased by a number of others.  I'm sorry but I didn't get a clear picture - poor frog!

 


So much of the ducks.  I took the camera for a walk around the garden again and took lots and lots of pictures, there's so much that pleases the eye!

 

 

  

                        

 
This mad rose "Kiftsgate" opposite the garage and rebuilt conservatory got so wild that it smothered everything underneath and around it.  So I chopped it down to about 30 cm and that little area looks like this:

                       

                                  The red rose "Barkarole" is flowering now - the others are on their second flush.

 







The plants I ripped out at the wrong time of year and planted elsewhere are doing well, peach tree on left, rose   "Congratulations" on the right. 

 

    

Another happy transplant was this Circicum which is about to flower.  All 5 "cup and saucer" vines in this container behind the sun lounge had been eaten by the slugs and snails [our ducks can't get in there], so I thought I'd put prickly thistles in there to see how they liked them!

 

We could brew our own beer now [if we liked beer] as our first hops have appeared.

When you clear a patch of weeds you sometimes have 'happy  finds': 8 little lots of pink and white cyclamen I thought I'd lost when the cherry tree was felled.
                                                             

This "Shoo Fly" plant appeared suddenly right next to our house.
We used to have them all over the garden and then none for three years or so ....