Garden leave......!

I've been to Kew Gardens again....for the joy of wandering about its paths and planting schemes, flower beds, trees and the glorious gift shop.  It is the most delicious place and so full of lovely gifts, books and all manner of divine things to buy, it almost takes your breath away.

When I visited Sydney's Botanical Gardens, I compared their gift shop to Kew's own, and as pretty and delicious as it was, it couldn't quite compare, well, not for me.  But I'll certainly make sure I visit their gift shop again, if ever I'm able to be in Sydney in the future.  Sydney is an absolutely amazing and wonderful city and I loved every  minute of my holiday - can't wait to walk over the harbour bridge - now wouldn't that be something wonderful to do?

So, after my last trip to Kew, I had a car load of new plants to find homes for, in a family garden which, first of all, needed to be cleared, dug and forked over, and weeded.  My new plants had to go in fairly quickly, into the small cleared areas, and my gardening hours were very much          controlled by the presence of the sun as it circled around and over the garden.  And it's been so hot, for us here in Oxfordshire, these last few days, I've really had to take my time with the work and ensure a jolly good supply of bottled water, to keep me going.

It's all been good fun, the planting, for I adore buying and bedding in new plants and flowers, and caring for them in their new environment, but it's also been very hard work...and there's still much to do!

I made sure to visit the rose garden during my last visit and the scent was noticeable well before one actually got to it, behind the Palm House.

Here's a picture for you -

I just so love these old-fashioned blooms!

There are roses in the family garden I've been sorting out but we don't have any quite as beautiful as these ones well, not yet??

And what new plants did I add to the garden - Verbascum, Echinacea and a very pretty pink Dahlia.  Since then, I've bought another car load of plants which hopefully will go in soon - after some more digging and weeding.  Hey ho, gardening is fun!!!

Toodle oo

Daisy

Consequences......

It's ages since last we chatted and I am absolutely amazed about that simple fact but, and it's a huge but, things just seem to get in the way of my writing to you!

One becomes so busy....I mean rather, one allows one's self to take on too many activities and, wham bam, suddenly, one is being run ragged simply trying to cope with all one wants to do; you know what I mean, don't you?

Actually, it's very engaging having too much to do, because there's simply no time to be bored or feel at a lose end.  Of course, things can and do hot up, and then it's too much.  However, organisation is the key to coping with too much so just keep your desk tidy and reports and diaries written up, receipts tallied and figures meticulously recorded, and all will be well!

I have observed that people like to talk up their activities - I've probably done a bit of that myself in my younger days - and now it seems to be the preserve of today's younger element to enlarge upon their "need-to-do" list.

What they need to understand and act on is the simple idea of simply getting on with whatever it is that needs to be done......taking on less, so they cope better with what absolutely needs to be done ....the ability to accept that no-one may be interested in all and sundry which comes along - I mean, there simply isn't enough time available to anyone, ever.!

It's like newspapers.  I love having the weekend newspapers to read and eagerly buy them, flip through them for particularly apt and interesting articles for later reading, and then don't read them until much later in the week - or even later sometimes.

Quite often such material is left hanging around for ages, suffering the fate of general clutter, and thrown out randomly with household stuff!

This last week I've been on Garden Leave.......!

Toodle oo

Daisy