A crown of wind-flowers

Twist me a crown of wind-flowers; 
That I may fly away ...Christina Georgina Rossetti

My anemones have never been so lovely as this autumn. They baked through summer and I moved them to a more shady spot and gave them a bit of extra water. There were clouds of them! And a little special double white one I had thought lost was best of all.

Delicious autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~ George Eliot

Honour Avenue, Macedon Victoria.

Now is the time to pack some hot drinks and a basket and take in all the sights of our lovely hills and mountain places.

Beeloved

Enjoying the last of the Salvia 'Black and Blue'

Bee enjoying Salvia Black and Blue

I had a very mixed flowering of salvias this year. The Salvia gesneriiflora 'Tequila' didn't do well at all but others especially in the last month have bloomed like mad.

Beeloved by butterflies and bees

My Scabiosa atropurpurea has wonderful flowers about 2 inches/5cm wide floating over a lovely emerald green foliage all summer long. Scabious is better known as the butterfly blue or pincushion flower and it was believed "that the Devil did bite it for envie, because it is an herbe that hath so many goode vertues and is so benificent to mankind" - given where the name comes from I hardly like to think of the manner of uses Scabious was taken for. It is enough that it grows in the baking hot places of my garden and is beeloved by butterflies and bees and can be cut for the house as by harvesting the flowers you get many more all season long.

Nice to meet you Mrs J. Bradshaw

Geum 'Mrs J. Bradshaw' looks lovely waving among the perennials and roses, she is light and airy with a bold splash of scarlet colour waving around up to 60 -90cm high. She is a bit prickly though as spiky little seed heads form all summer long. So with lots of seeds and splitting the clump in spring and summer I hope to have a whole flock of Mrs J. Bradshaw's. Highly recommended. Good for bees. Common name Avens.

I like that William Morris included Avens in one of his most popular designs 'Blackthorn', although he depicted a water Avens which are now rare in the wild unlike in his time when it was common in the UK along river and waterways. 

All the things that love the sun

My little hare in the herb bed

There was a roaring in the wind all night;

The rain came heavily and fell in floods;

But now the sun is rising calm and bright;

The birds are singing in the distant woods;

Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods;

The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters;

And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.

All things that love the sun are out of doors;

The sky rejoices in the morning's birth;

The grass is bright with rain-drops;—on the moors

The hare is running races in her mirth

by William Wordsworth

Sunlight through the acer

 There was a storm now everything is washed clean and new. Sunlight through the Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku" - a delicate acer with pink stems and lime yellow foliage.

Catkins on the Macedon Oak.

I meant to do my work today

I meant to do my work today—

   But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

   And all the leaves were calling me. 

And the wind went sighing over the land,

   Tossing the grasses to and fro,

And a rainbow held out its shining hand—

   So what could I do but laugh and go?
Richard Le Gallienne