In love with....

....YORKSHIRE

But 1300 pictures have to be sorted first

Next week, I shall upload pictures of one of the loveliest areas of Great-Britain.

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ANNONCE:


La chère  Fabienne organise aussi cette année-ci la brocante du fil à Sprimont.

J'y serais et me rejouis déjà depuis des semaines de pouvoir bénéficier d'une belle journée dans les cliquottes et cela presque devant ma porte!

Brocante du fil

Is There a Better Month than June?

June is my month. This June has been THE month of roses.
We started our garden tours with the visit to Château Hex, a highlight for us. We don't live far from it and have never been disappointed to spend some hours there. The owner opens his gardens twice a year, in June and in September. 

The castle is not open to visitors, only the gardens are

There are always beautiful stands to be admired

and always nice things for sale, all is so natural and pleasant

a feast for the eye

in June, it gets the label 'rose festival'

A painter artist offered special draws of your 'home' (top left)
The house garden with the box hedges gets more and more holes - reminds me of my box knot 

stroll round

the well has got a new roof recently

I loved the rambler in the pear tree but it had no label

 As always, some wee plants came with us and on the road outside were sweet cherries for sale, not expensive and delicious to eat just like that. I got some more and back home, made cherry-cassis jam.

Here are some pictures from the garden now. We have had glorious sunshine for many many days in June and enjoyed all meals 'al fresco' with guests or alone :-).

the view from the bedroom window, the rambler in the beech tree is Paul's Himalayan Musk'

the climbers in the yard: 'Félicité et Perpétue' and right is a glimpse of 'AmericanPillar'

a bunch of 'Albertine' and 'Constance Spry' inside

'Albertine'

'Constance Spry'

The rose 'Alchymist' (top left) starts more apricot and fades later into light yellow

top left is 'Buff Beauty' (made by EG :-)
my poppies had no shocking colours this year
below right is phlomis, interesting all year

top left: 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'- top right 'Bredon'
down left 'Raubritter', down right 'Madame Prevost'

'Teasing Georgia' with a rose bug - the very first time I saw one in our garden, he's got such a shiny armour :-) It must be heaven to hide in her petals.

the crambe cordifolia behind the bench has done well this year because i gave it some support at the right time. In front is geranium psilostemon Patricia

June is also my birthday and this is my special treat from EG:
We went yesterday to Malmédy, Les roses de Daniel (http://www.danielschmitz-roses.com/new-rosiers-de-warren

A new Australian breeder sells his roses through Daniel Schmitz and we went for the open days, it was also their 20th anniversary of the nursery.
For the very first time, these new roses were shown to the public and I felt very privileged to be able to see them (and to chose some of course).

These roses are said to be disease resistant and I am very curious to see how they will behave in our not so gentle conditions and climate. We were able to chat with Warren Millington himself and he claims that his roses grow so quick that diseases have no time to establish ;-). However, he advises to prune them regularly and quite severely. 

It was difficult what to chose out of so many beautiful species. 
They have very nice names, as well :-)

Here is only a selection of what was in flower, some were still a bit shy to show all of their grace. Note to myself: the one EG was fond of was Hilda Sophia Lehman, it might come home a next time...

on the right below is one which came home (Magical Moment)

this made me laugh, the name is best bet but on the roses the label read 'best bed'

Igraine looks very promising

 Isabelle et le Magicien d'Oz is the name of  a rose without name which was given from Warren to Isabelle (she gave it its name) because she is the link between Warren and Daniel. See her blog on my blog roll on the right (A little bit of Paradise). Her rose was baptised yesterday and the sale of this rose goes entirely to fund raising for 'Télévie' -cancer research.

Arahan was very tempting but Lilac Jewel came with us

This had to come home! Such a pretty one and such a cute name.

L'Oiseau Chanteur, *sigh* (der Singvogel, the singing bird)

'Love Crazy' the description said that it makes you fall in love, unmistakably

Platinum Blonde is also now back home

'Wow Factor ' got its name right but Ruffled Burgundy came back home

So delicate and  light

This one, I find, is as light as butterfly wings - was it 'Magical Moment'?

The reason to have had time to post these pictures instead of planting my roses, is that -eventually- it rains. It was much needed but it could stop now, please.

D-DAY

Happiness is...

... being 5 years older and able to say: we did it right!

http://bayou-bayoublog.blogspot.be/2009/08/d-day-impressions.html

Every moment of togetherness enjoyed and loved to the utmost.
Reading again the advises from the registrar - they are all so true.

Life is wonderful with EG.

A Good Marriage

Happiness in a marriage is not something that just happens -

A good marriage must be created!

- It is never being too old to take each other's hand.

- It is remembering to express your love and affection for each other - at least one each day.

- It is never going to sleep angry with each other.

- It is at no time taking the other for granted.

- It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.

- It is standing together and facing the world.

- It is forming a circle of love that gathers in family and friends.

- It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways to each other.

- It is having the capacity to forgive - and to forget.

- It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

- It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

- It is not only marrying the right person - it is being the right partner.

Golden Celebration

Tintern Abbey and Ross-on-Wye

Glorious sunshine outside to-day but I need to share some pictures from our journey to Anglesey. From Kent we went to Bristol and stayed overnight which was great for a break
 :-).

EG decided to take the slow roads through Wales and suddenly there was this 'déjà vu': 
Tintern-Abbey

 I had not realised that we were on this road - again. 
In the very very beginning when I fell in love with EG, he had organised a journey to show me 'his' Wales and it all started in London city center where we had met. After a shopping tour at Harrods (for others) he opened me the door into his black Mercedes and the words: 'you are in my hands now.'
His first stop after London was Tintern Abbey. We spent quite a while wandering quietly through the ruins and taking in the spirits from a long gone past, imagining how it might have been when the white monks were living here. This place is unique to us, it has been since he first brought me here and it speaks to me - only places in Wales seem to be able to transmit so strongly something so inexplicable to me.

As we had a lot of miles ahead, we did not go inside this time.

Can this magic atmosphere be felt through the pictures?

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Our next stop was Ross-on-Wye where a small farmer market was held.

This very attractive tea room looked irresistible and we followed the breakfast invitation :-)

The love for detail shows everywhere

Such inviting corners 

I was so tempted to buy these Le Creuset pans

The lovely owner herself

a bit of French 'savoir vivre'

A vintage sewing machine!

the view from inside out

Breakfast at Tiffanys :-)

 

Hunky Dorys mottoes

It was nice to have to wait and get all the details in this tea room whilst breakfast was cooked for us

mmmhhhhhh





After this delightful stop, we bought some wee plants of broad beans and flowers and headed back to the car to continue our journey to Anglesey.