Garden at the beginning of September... and October

The triffids have taken over!

Actually, this is part of the Frieze art fair, which I inadvertently wandered into in Regents Park last week. This is the biggest rose I've ever seen. There was also a thing that looked like an empty loo roll tube, but made of concrete and big enough to walk through.

As I missed September, here's the garden then...

And in October...

 Hmm, they don't look much different, do they? Autumn hasn't really got started yet here and we haven't had a frost yet, although it won't be much longer.

I read an article in the Independent about taking a photo of the garden in greyscale, as it makes you concentrate on textures and shapes rather than the colours.I like seeing the shapes of the bigger leaves on the hydrangea in the picture below, and the spiky leaves of the Phalaris Feesey (middle left). It works better if you zoom in on the picture!

I've been trying out some techniques for the first time.

These are some strawberry plants propagated from the runners from our one original plant, given to us by a friend last year. Unfortunately the barmy weather (that horrendously hot weekend at the beginning of October) made one of them flower and it now has fruit forming, which will be in for a nasty shock soon.

 These are a couple of sedums I Chelsea-chopped back in June. The darker pink one I didn't chop, the lighter pink I did. As you can see, the chopped one has grown a bit shorter so it hasn't flopped around all over the place. And it isn't flowering too far behind the other. This is something I'll definitely try again next year.

 These are the last of the raspberries and tomatoes.

We had a surprise package from my great aunts with some bulbs in. These are different varieties which I haven't grown before, from Fentongollan Farm in Cornwall. Ive planted them in the back garden.

And a close up of the Rudbeckia to finish.

Not long now until garden at the beginning of November!

Birthday!

Coincidentally I've taken the week off work, and it just happened to have my birthday in it! The OH has had a week off too, and we have been catching up on stuff at home, having a new wall built and things like that.

My birthday itself was cool, we went out for a meal the night before, as I had knitting group the evening of my birthday (you know, priorities).

We had a trip to the garden centre to buy spiky plants to plant along a boundary wall. This is me with the spikiest holly I have ever seen, it's called "Ilex Ferox" for good reason. Although it's English name is the rather cute "Silver Hedgehog Holly". It's to go with the (female) holly we've already got as this one is male.

And birthday presents! The OH bought me the slow cooking recipe book as I've had it out of the library for about 3 months now. And I asked for the other recipe book, the Dairy book of home cookery (as delivered by the milkman), as I used to use the previous edition of it, which belonged to my Mum, all the time.

My great aunts sent me the Archers Addicts map of Ambridge, which used to belong to my Gran, so it's come full circle now. I'm finding it very useful for the back story for some of the characters as I've been listening for about six years.

And a skein of Manos Wool Clasica and some homemade bath teabags from my brother and SIL (although I suspect she made them as I can't imagine my brother doing that!).

And, of course, lots of cards from friends around the world - thank you!

I've spent some time this week sorting out photos and catching up with blog reading. So there might be some more posts from me fairly soon.

Books read in the last couple of months

(or how I attempted to keep Surrey libraries going single-handedly).

This was meant to be a post about books read in August. But now it's October and I'm getting more reading time on the commute to work so my list of books read is getting huge...

This is more list than review!

So, this is what I read in August. The book titles link through to LibraryThing, just cos I think it's fab.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
I quite enjoyed this one,  I thought the portrayal of Henry VIII's court and factions excellent, but it does go on for a looonnnnngggg time. And it weighs a ton, so it only got commuted with once. So far, the one and only book that has made me think about having a Kindle.

A vintage affair by Isabel Wolff
A fun read. Has those annoying things about chick lit. (why does the heroine always have two men interested in her, that never happens in real life?! Why does one of the men always have twinkly eyes?!). Fun descriptions of vintage clothing.Good for commuting reading.

Murder is binding by Lorna Barratt
Bookmarked for death by Lorna Barratt
Murder mysteries set in a murder mystery bookshop (yes, really). Again, a fun read but not great works of literature.

Read in September:
The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The girl who played with fire by Stieg Larsson
The girl who kicked the hornets' nest by Stieg Larsson
Didn't intend to read them in a row in the space of just over a fortnight, but that's what happened. These are very compelling! I found myself wishing for a longer commute just so I could keep reading! Very highly recommended. They are in translation, but it's been done very well so you can't tell, apart from occasional bits where there's some detail to explain how something or other happens in Sweden. I enjoyed the insights into another society, and although there is a lot about the problems of Sweden's social welfare system, I still thought it sounded better than here... If only Larsson had lived longer, as i would have loved to have read more books by him.

People of the book by Geraldine Brooks
Really enjoyed this one. It's about the Sarajevo Haggadah, the story of a six hundred year old book and makes the world of rare books look far more glamorous than it actually is. Well, I've certainly never jet-setted round the world tracking down provenance leads anyway.

Read in October:
The prince of mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
This is meant to be scary, but it isn't nearly as chilling as others I've read. It's written for children and is in translation (which shows in places) and the scary bits are a bit too much obviously intended to be scary. The action moves too fast which makes it a little less believable too.

Treasures of Durham University Library ed. by Richard Gameson
Oooh nice books!

The Royal Horticultural Society: Bulbs
Good pictures and idiot's guide to bulb planting (very useful for me).

How to garden: perennial plants by Alan Titchmarsh
Another idiot's guide to gardening. I found it really useful as it focusses on a few plants rather than the overwhelming numbers you get in other gardening books (the sort that assume you know what you're doing). Probably not for someone who knows what they're doing...

York (part 1)

I had intended to write a lengthy post about my second trip up north in September, when we went to York (and Newcastle) but haven't had time. Three weekends away or out meant I had a lot of gardening to catch up with last weekend, and I just haven't had time to sort all the photos out. But, we have another week's holiday coming up the week after next, when we're having a week at home, so I'll have time to sort out my pictures, and the knitting I've been doing, and garden at the beginning of October (and September, as I never got round to doing that one either!).

But I wanted to post a picture of these before any more time passes. The friend we saw whilst on holiday had knitted them for last year's Iron Knitter competition, but they ended up as the right size to fit me. Cool or what?! I get a very groovy pair of socks, the most intricate I've ever owned...

It isn't cold enough to wear them yet, but I will do as soon as the temperature drops some more.