Duver dreaming

Talk about ships that pass in the night – I returned from New York, only for the OH to turn around and head to Toronto!

Today finally saw us breakfasting and dog walking together for the first time in a fortnight – and to celebrate here he is, possibly showing his best side 😉

As many of you know, this blog is named after the National Trust area of land opposite our house called St Helens Duver (pronounced ‘duvver’).  It’s the location for our daily walk with Nimbus, our labradoodle.

Slightly earlier in the year the duver is smothered in sea thrift Armeria maritima.  (First blogged about here four years ago).  It’s a little past its best now, but you get the idea.

Today, however, it felt like all the other wild flowers had joined the thrift, and appeared together – foxgloves

evening primrose, Oenothera biennis,

dog roses

and sea holly Eryngium maritimum.

Allwere looking magnificent in today’s glorious sunshine.  What a perfect day!

Wordless Wednesday – sunshine on a rainy day

Wordless Wednesday – Frosty, the Duver

End of month view – yearly round up 2017

I’ve started my Yearly Round up with a photo of the garden in June as June saw me coordinating the St Helens Secret Gardens event (the garden opening of a dozen local gardens in aid of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance) for the first time.

I was so relieved and delighted all went smoothly – largely due to the fabulous weather.  The event is only every other year so I can put my feet up this year!

As ever, there were successes and failures in the garden, with a really annoying number of bulbs, particularly tulips, lost to some nibbling critter.  I like to think it might be one of our beautiful red squirrels as at least that means they were lost to a good cause!  However, there were also successes, and I’ve shared some favourite garden photos below:

I added a new tree to the garden – Albizia julibrissin ‘Ombrella,’

had fun with pots

and tried new edibles in the greenhouse – Pepper ‘Tequilla’ and

Aubergine ‘Slim Jim.’

I also continued creating various vases, both for Cathy’s ‘In a Vase on Monday’ meme 

as well as to take to work with me.

I shared a few more photos taken on the daily dog walk on the St Helens Duver –  the National Trust land opposite where we live that gives this blog its name.

And also shared plenty of garden visit photos, including, in March, Le Jardin de Secret

and Jardin Majorelle, both in Marrakech,

in May, Gravetye Manor,

and Parham House and Gardens.

In June, The Old Rectory Gardens, open for the NGS on the Isle of Wight

In September, Hauser and Wirth in Somerset

and in October, a couple of gardens on the Cote d’Azur – Jardin Exotique d’Eze

and Ville Ephrussi de Rothschild.

On the learning front, I finished the second year of my Level 3 Certificate in Garden and Planting Design course at Capel Manor College.  I toyed with the idea of embarking on the RHS2 course but I was concerned it would all be a bit ‘schooly’ with little of the lovely gardening chat we had on the design course, so instead I took a six week photography evening class at the Bishopsgate Institute.  However, the learning highlight must have been my crafty visit to the reopened Garden Museum where I created my festive robin.

So, another busy year chez Duver Diary – to be honest, sometimes rather too busy, and blogging has increasingly taken a back seat on occasions since I went back to working full time in February, but I still enjoy capturing and sharing photos both of my garden and others, and hope I can continue in 2018.

Thank you so much for supporting Duver Diary and sharing your likes and comments.  They are such delight when work – or the wider world – are getting me down!

Wishing you and yours a fabulous, flowery 2018.

Wordless Wednesday – Duver Dawn

Wordless Wednesday – incongruous, moi?

Duver sunshine

I’ve blogged numerous times about the St Helens Duver – the National Trust owned area of heathland opposite where we live – but not recently.  (For a while I contributed regularly to a wildflower meme, and you can see the posts by selecting the ‘Wildflower Wednesday’ category).

Sunday’s sunshine, after Saturday’s grey, was such a treat I’m taking you on the usual circuit and sharing a few wild flowers along the way.

These hips are so fabulous I’d be tempted to pick a few, but they’re on a bramble clad bank between the path and the road and therefore completely inaccessible.  I’ll just have to admire from a distance. 

Further down the path, looking right towards the Solent I just caught this yacht heading out,

whilst looking the other way, I spied a number of glowing Iris foetidissima seed heads.

At the bottom of the path, looking back across Bembridge Harbour, you can see over to Brading Haven yacht club.  There was plenty of activity there today, but rather them than me.

(I did actually sail a lot in my twenties, including racing back from Lisbon to Southampton, and from Aarhus in Denmark across the North Sea and round the top of Scotland to the Clyde.  These days I’d generally rather be on dry land, but seeing the jolly sails on such a beautiful day did start to make me wonder….)

The grassland above is one of the sites of the fantastic drifts of sea thrift Armeria maritima during May, which I’ve blogged about here.  There are still a few clinging on,

together with the odd chamomile – I think this is Chamaemelum nobile.

Rounding the corner and onto the beach I saw the dinghies has beaten me there!

And, while I’m diverging from the flowers, just thought I’d share a picture of Nimbus, in honour of his upcoming ninth birthday.  

And finally, also nothing to do with flowers, anyone else devastated by tonight’s Strictly outcome?