Water Lily

This is our third summer in this house, the first water lily photos I posted here were from Jan 2011. 

I had always thought we had one pond that homed yellow water lily's and another that homed Pink I was stunned to see this beautiful fancy flower pop up in amongst the yellow this week.

This one is a much more elaborate and ornate flower than the other two and there is another bud surfacing too. :)

* edit * I later found out that this is called a Monet Lily

Fish in frozen Ponds

On frozen mornings I am sometimes able to see glimpses of the larger fish who sit on the bottom and hide themselves in the plant life down below the layer of ice, waiting for the sun to work its magic.

In the second pond the plants sit in suspended animation poking through a sheet of ice, the top section thawing and showing gem like dew drops hanging from them.

While the bulk of the plant sits serenely below the surface viewed as if behind glass, untouchable and still.

There is so much wonder in a frosty morning if you can brave the chill for a little while. x

Natives

Absent

Well its very wet here right now!

I've stopped in to explain my absence. Strangely with two children now at school full time I seem to have less available time rather than more! lol I have really not written much on my personal blog these last weeks either and a month has passed since I posted here. So as maintaining two blogs and posting regularly is not possible for me at this point in time, I have decided to incorporate more of the garden into the everyday postings at Girls Wear Blue Too This works much better for me right now so I hope you will pop over from time to time if you don't already and see what is happening over there. 

Though I can't say when I'm sure I'll be back posting here again at sometime in the future :)

Wrong!

I took the photo of the nectarines a few days ago. Then we had some heavy rain through the early hours of the morning, at which point the snails climbed up the tank and ... feasted on my nectarines! Sigh.

Mine!

See there on the heavy branch weighed down below the height of the tank,wedged between it and the support trellis, slightly obscured from overhead view by the overflow pipe, rambling roses and other vines.

A closer look as I zoom in from where I was standing with the previous photo.

5 plump luscious nectarines! 

The birds can't see and perhaps can't reach. They will be ripe enough to pick within days!

Drimia maritima

Huge thanks to Cathy who identified the mystery plant! With the one with the enormous bulb.

commonly known as sea squill.

Here is the link she sent me. :)

Mandarins

Oh My! 

Juicy and delicious.

and a few more ready too.

Butterfly

Sheltering from the rain. I got better shots of the underside than above. These were taken this afternoon.

Another Unknown

These seem to pop up in a couple of places under large trees exposed to partial sun so I suspect they are a shade loving plant. I am told by my daughter The flowers are sticky. Can anyone tell me what it is?

White Agapanthus

There are Deep dark Purple, light purple, blue and White Agapanthus spread around the garden. The plants are various sizes with the Deep dark purple being the biggest with flower spikes standing almost to my shoulder. 

Oak

These are on one of the Oak tree's ( I think its an Oak ) most of the Oaks here have rounded leaves but the leaves of this one have points.

Gladiola

In the prettiest shade of pale salmon pink with a beautiful Yellow throat.

the flower spike

I shared this here, here and here

I still don't know what it is yet.

Rose hips

This is one of the more unusual and beautiful Hips in the garden, it appears on one of the 'old fashioned' roses. That is how I refer to them. Someone told me they were English roses but I also seem to think they might be what My Mum called wild roses.

I didn't notice the shiny little iridescent bug until after I uploaded the photos.

Here is one open.

The Evening Sky

This is what I saw when I went out at about 8.20 to bring in the washing after a very warm day. 

Stunning.

Nectarine's

in the evening light. Almost ready.

4 O'Clocks

At first I didn't know what these were but they amazed me shutting them selves up tightly in the heat of the day but opening to show their glorious Yellows and pinks in the cool of the morning and once the sun started to dip in the evening. 

It was by accident when searching for something else in a diggers seed catalogue online that I found these listed as heritage flowers. They seed profusely so if any of my local friends would like some seed let me know and I'll collect some for you when these flowers finish later in the Summer.

They feature In the lower left fore ground of the above image. :)

Grapes

Plums

Agapanthus

Yellow fleshed Plums

These beauties are on a grafted tree bearing two types of yellow fleshed plums. It is loaded this year and the birds are sampling just waiting. They have moved from the Apricot tree to a red skinned plum that is already ripe. 

They will have a fight on their hands as these jems made the most delicious jam last summer and there is only one jar left!