28 July 2024

Our sun porch was built in 2016. For the past eight years, it has led us out of the house and into the back garden. In winter, we do not need to suffer the   icy,  cold chill and in the summer we may enfold ourselves in all that the garden offers us without leaving the comfort of our chair!

From where I sit, I can see the orange, yellow and lilac pansies which don’t seem to know when to stop blooming. Teasing Georgia looks down from the boundary fence dressed in a cream silk with a sweet perfume.  Totally tangerine, purple lily, karma bon bini and my favourite dahlia of all, red silence, challenge all human beauty.

The miniature apple with ripening red fruit, the oxeye daisies, the lilac cosmos, the knapweed with goldfinches swinging on their stems, the tall, blue  cornflower clinging to the cherry tree and the sunflowers reaching the top of the fence with their bright, open, yellow faces and spirals of bountiful seeds compete for my attention.

Skipping over the curly lettuce jumping out of their box and what’s left of the strawberry harvest, we see the marigolds magically multiplying their orange blooms, red, rambling rosie has almost completed an arch in  a secret garden where Hardy’s Eustacia Vye stands by  along with the strongly scented sweet peas.

Nasturtiums are pouring into the pond without restraint, miniature bulrushes stand sentinel and the yellow water lilies which speak so eloquently about our mortality are here today and gone tomorrow whilst a variety of bees harvest the nectar with unassuming determination.

The sea holly has reached the level of the window. A row of red, white and pink carnations fill the border where yellow statice and orange strawflowers are making their lasting presence felt. On the sill sit three fledgling plants brought to life from their strange bed in a  Father’s Day card. What will they turn out to be? The mystery continues and my life is enfolded in  a  bunch of flowers!

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