The wedding

What a delightful wedding!

We are now back home, after two wonderful days away, during which we were guests at the marriage of .......................no, not Catherine and William, but Ali (my nephew) and Sarah. The simple Humanist wedding took place under a tree, in the grounds of Castle Lachlan, under a clear blue sky, with a field of sheep and new born lambs in the background, and beyond that Loch Fyne glinting in the sunshine. Mike and I, along with a few other guests, had been picked up by coach, close to our B & B (The Old Manse, Strachur - to be highly recommended), and driven to the Castle, where the bride and groom to be, and their immediate families were staying for the week). It was an idyllic setting, what with the setting, the perfect weather, and a harpist playing appropriate romantic music. The pictures tell it all. The bride (as all brides do) looked beautiful, and the groom very imposing and handsome in his kilt (his father was also kilted up)

After the quite moving marriage, which included the symbolic binding together (with Celtic knotwork, made by my brother in law) of the young couples' hands, in a 'handfasting ceremony', and readings from members of the family, we returned to the castle for drinks and nibbles, before we were all taken by the coach to Inver Cottage Restaurant, on the lochside, with a view of the old and new castles across the water. Before and after the excellent meal, there was time to enjoy the evening sun, on the shore of the loch, where the men and the little bridesmaids enjoyed skimming stones on the still, clear water. Then back to the castle to relax and mingle before boarding our coach to be taken back to our B & B.

We'd travelled a long way to get there and back, so yesterday was for recovering from our journey, and just the opportunity to watch the other wedding. That too was just perfect too, but in a completely different way, with all the pomp and ceremony, and both including traditional aims and values. May both the young couples enjoy long and happy lives together.

A Happy Easter

A Happy Easter to all my family, friends, fellow plotters and bloggers. And just because they are so cheerful, with such happy faces, here are some violas in my garden.

Walkless, but not quite wordless Wednesday

I'm not going walking today. My throat is sore and I've been doing a lot of coughing, especially last night. I blame the flowers! On that note, here are two more flower pictures, which I've entitled 'Scene from my windows'. The first one is a bedroom window view of the wonderful yellow tulips - once just a dozen bulbs, now 200, and the second is the landing window view of our neighbours' magnificent magnolia, which stops me in my tracks every time I come down the stairs.

Or maybe it was the dust to blame for my cough. After the past few warm, dry and summery days everywhere is as dry as a bone, especially down on the plot where I (with Mike's help) spent some considerable time the other day covering my newly erected brassica cage with netting to keep out the predators. It appears that fluorescent colours are all the fashion at the moment (I wore them the first time round!) but I wasn't aware that they extended to garden netting until I had to choose between acid yellow or acid green. I chose the green, just because it was 'sort of' green, but it really is quite a disturbing colour. As there wasn't quite enough of the said netting to complete the job, I (we) finished the cage off with some of that building site netting stuff, which is a different, if almost equally violent, shade of green. By that point I'd had enough, but I was not at all happy with the results. What a mess! Not at all pleasing to the eye. So, yesterday I was back on the plot with a further pack of the acid green, unpicking Mike's carefully woven joins, and removing the building-site netting. The end result is a completely acid green cage with a building-site green netting entrance (just because it was quite a successful fitting the first time round, and was too good to remove). However, as the cage is only half my height I then had to crawl inside to tidy up the compressed earth/dust, making sure I didn't damage the 'survivors', which are those cabbage plants that the pigeons devastated earlier on in the season and which, after re-covering with fleece, have revived very well. By this time, and after all the struggling, the area all around the cage was completely flattened and compacted, so I raised more dust as I restored it to order. I hope my hard work will result in perfectly formed, insect and creepy-crawly free brassicas. The cage is not at all aesthetically pleasing and will clash with the proposed colour scheme for my flower bed at the front of the plot. Hey ho!

The good news is that the potatoes are sprouting, lots of blossom on the plum and apple trees, seeds sown for salad crops, parsnips and beetroot, climbing peas and sweetpeas settled in at the base of their wigwams/canes, berry bushes looking lush and healthy, and we are enjoying plenty of rhubarb. At home both the main and the little greenhouse are full of sprouting pots and trays, and I've eventually got round to giving the front and back garden the attention they deserve, as the beds and borders are suddenly greening up.

I can't end this blog without mentioning how good it is to have 'Gardeners' World' back on track again, with Monty Don and his team.

Walking Wednesday

Molly and I decided that instead of joining the other walkers, as usual, we would take advantage of the promised beautiful day to check out the walk we had planned for mid June. Parking the car by the church at Kings Langley, we set off up the lanes and across the fields. What a superb Spring day. Everywhere the bushes and trees were greening up, with frothy white blackthorn blossom in full bloom against the blue sky and banks of daffodils lining the lanes.

We headed off towards Radbourne, and after spending some time in the lovely church there, we enjoyed our lunch sitting in the church porch, with the sun shining in on us, with not a sound but the birdsong.

Blackthorn near Radbourne

Radbourne Church

Passing Radbourne Hall, standing high above us on a ridge to our right, we enjoyed our brief walk through the surrounding park. By this time, the slight cooling breeze had dropped and it was beginning to become even warmer.

'Spotted' on a Footpath Sign

Black leg

Three little lambs - one with one black leg.

Let's hope we have perfect walking day like this in June, when we do the walk again, with the walking club.