With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells...

 

The garden's been enjoying the recent rains following a hot, dry spell. Here's the view from our kitchen window, which is currently home to two baby money plants, and an unidentified succulent which has lovely sculptural, fat spines liberally patterned with raised white dots.

I've enjoyed watching this lovely lily come into bloom, with its rich shades of orange and russet. The fuchsia behind was one of Richard's finds; he's especially keen on fuchsias. The log was placed over the tub to stop Emily from burying toys in the soil, after she'd already dug the plant up twice. What a shame that lily flowers don't last long.

Here's one of my favourites, the crimson "Lucifer" variety of crocosmia. I have two of these in separate tubs, and I suspect they'd be much happier planted in the ground as one of them hasn't flowered at all this year, while they other, the one in this photo, hasn't spread. When I had them in the ground, prior to moving house, they bloomed fabulously and spread well.

Also shown in this photo are some of the dahlias we bought around three weeks ago, after I'd spotted an old fashioned convenience shop which had filled the pavement with a large variety of plants for sale. We took a stroll round and came back with a variety of dahlias, which unfortunately have proven very popular with the snails in our garden. Their leaves are now looking distinctly chewed.

The purple potato plant, seen in bloom in the photo above, marks Poppi's grave. Emily hasn't been well since her buddy died. She's on strong antibiotics from the vet for a fungal infection in her face, and she's also on anti-inflammatory medicine for a nasty cough. The cough's nearly gone, but she's had it for over two months. She's listless and very clingy, and hardly eating. We've been tempting her with all kinds of treats, and sometimes she'll eat a few mouthfuls but other times she won't, so obviously she's lost weight. She's nearly 15 now, and we've had her since she was a tiny puppy - a big character in a little dog. 

She clearly misses Poppi, but we think she's too old to cope with another puppy now. We're all missing Poppi too, of course, as she was such a sweet-natured little lady.

Here's another corner of the patio, with another dahlia and another fuchsia, and also a Japanese ceramic dish holding house leeks which I bought a million years ago when I still lived in Aigburth, and had gone to one of the monthly craft fairs in The Old Police Station on Lark Lane. The St Johns' wort, with its yellow flowers, is a lovely plant but actually a bit of a nuisance as it's far too big for the spot it was planted in by the previous owners. Every year I brutally prune it back.

My lovely chamomile is blooming happily in the background, and you can see seed heads of an aquilegia in the top left corner.