Late Winter 2019: Colourful Gardening Accessories, Decorative Blown Glass Flowers, Early Blooms & Cat

Time to mosey down to the neighbourhood plant nursery . . . most certainly . . . but with a list please, said my adult to my inner child.

Sturdy but still flexible gloves, chitting potatoes, blue-flowered sunhat & flower seed packets

Chartreuse sabots! I knew the size of the old pair was too large, but I had no desire to hobble on one leg to try on a better fitting pair, or so I thought, until I spied a slim, portable bench placed strategically near the racks of shoes. So not only did I snag probably the most beautiful colour available, I won't be stumbling over my own sabots this season. Not to mention I will be treading on the most cushiony peau de pêche (peach skin!) with which these lightweight sabots are lined.

From the vantage point of my lounge chair under the ivy-draped pergola

Stained glass is a great love of mine. If I had my way all the windows in the world would be stained glass as nothing is more merrier than dancing light. But I make do, as in this case, with Museum Selection's (same place where I ordered that wonderful, blue-flowered, linen hat in the first photo) trio of blown glass flowers. From the online catalogue's photo, it seemed that they would be fairly small and delicate instead of the flamboyant, large beauties they turned out to be. The pansy is bursting with many colours.

The bluebell is more demure, but still, what a charmer.

I stuck it in a large tub of blueberries

Though the pansy and bluebell are gorgeous beyond belief, it is the foxglove that exerts a trance-like influence upon me as I find myself peering into swirling depths of seemingly liquid burgundy longer than an industrious gardener should be doing.

Though our 'lawn' has been cut several times already, I do try to spare the dandelions because insects including bees appreciate them for nectar and pollen, especially during this time when there is little else blooming. The perky english daisies (Bellis perennis) however are all over the place as their kind is wont to do, so I leave a selected expanse of them alone. It's easy, even for me, an avid and knowledgeable gardener to take nature for granted, as in what we see is what is, for example how pollinators are attracted to flowers. Sure enough, chemistry, that is, colour and scents are no brainers. But how about this?

Pollinators are attracted to flowers by chemical and structural features. One of these structural features may [be] the interaction of light with regularly arranged, microscopic surface features. The ray florets of Bellis perennis have distinct microscopic furrows produced by cylindrical, transversely-striated cells. Under laboratory conditions these surface features produce diffraction patterns which may attract insect pollinators. However, under natural light conditions these effects are lost, indicating that such features are unlikely to attract the natural pollinators of Bellis. In Bellis, pollinators are likely to be attracted by the contrast between the capitulum's ray and tube florets. (Source)

Triumph tulips (Seadov) have those characteristics of red nail polish, that is, being remarkably shiny and deeply pigmented, but just in their case, also being as soft as a spring breeze.

Heather is just past peak bloom & rose foliage is sprouting as are calla lilies

Blossoms on the peach tree are opening. Each day I peer into their centres, hoping to see a tiny peach. When I do, then I know I do not need to worry any longer about a surprise freeze killing the blooms before they can be pollinated.

A well-loved garden colour combination of mine is pink and blue; the former is provided by a plum cherry tree while the latter by flowering rosemary.

View from the east side of our house towards the front garden

Dirac the Cat has many places where he naps, but sleeping on the sous sol potting room's padded window sill is one of his favourites. Bags of potting mix wait patiently while I get around to making up flats and pots for seedlings.

Spot the lounge chair! Clue: it's the same colour as the peach blossoms

À la prochaine!

I Heart Hot Cocoa

We can of course enjoy appealing heart shapes all year round and not just on Valentine's Day. I plopped some frozen, whipped-cream hearts into hot cocoa, but eventually the remaining scraps of frozen cream will make our coffee a plebeian version of affogato.

Sweet violets abound in our garden at present

Spread whipped cream in a shallow, lidded plastic container to a height of 1.2 cm (1/2 inch) and freeze for about two hours. Fold some paper in half and on its fold, draw one half of a heart. Cut out and open. Voilà! You have your template. If you have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, you are already ahead of the game.

Prepare your hot cocoa. Briefly place the bottom of the container under running hot water and ease the frozen cream onto a cutting board. Place the template and cut only what is needed for the moment with a knife. Return the surplus if any to the freezer (any shapeless scraps are as tasty as the shaped ones). Place onto a cup/bowl of hot cocoa.

As it melts, the floating heart resembles in texture a simple semifreddo.

In the garden, everything is soaked through and through because of abundant rain. Heather along with . . .

. . . daffodils are providing flowers.  Roses are in the process of being pruned.

A thicket of calla lilies, pruned rose, heather, and daffodils

Garden gloves are essential. They protect hands from cold, thorns, dirt, cuts, and abrasions. My pruning pair are long, suede/leather, comfortable, and resistant enough to allow grasping of nettles and brambles plus their chocolate-brown and chartreuse colouring is beyond fashionable. The pair for weeding affords flexibility and easily can be cleaned daily by keeping them on as I wash my hands!

The pruning pair gets brushed as needed

Garlic/shallot/onion sets are waiting patiently for the rain to cease long enough so they can be planted into their beds which were happily prepared months ago.

Corno di Toro Rosso (horn of the bull) sweet red pepper seedlings are being pampered by keeping them in their warm incubator overnight and then placing them on a garden table in a mini-serre (greenhouse) during the day.

Flourishing in the lengthening daylight

Moroccan mint (Mentha spicata) is deeply textured and has a superb spearmint flavour and when summer arrives, will be tossed into tabbouleh, and not to mention, steeped in cream to make refreshing, pale-coloured, mint-chocolate-chip ice cream.

When the gloomy deluge dampens my spirit, I crush a leaf and inhale deeply

À la prochaine!