Sunset, walnuts and roses

Yesterday evening the sunset was so beautiful. I am always delighted by the view from upstairs in this place - it is so changeable and always holds my interest. The rain was moving in from the North, great clouds piling high on the horizon and the sinking sun caught them in its embrace and set the sky behind  them shining for a brief while.

 as the crows winged their way to their evening roosts

It rained overnight, not enough, but some, and today the garden was looking refreshed again so I thought I'd share some of it's delights with you.

Remember the walnut flowers I was so pleased about? Well they are now bearing fruit. Yes I know they are rather small, but they will grow and if the squirrel doesn't steal them all we may have some to eat come the autumn

The walnut tree is at the very bottom of the garden, along with this rose, which is almost swamped by elder, bramble and ash, yet holds it's glowing flower up to the air and has the most sublime scent. It is in deep shadow, and glows like a soft beckoning light within the undergrowth

On the way down there you walk along a raised path above the kitchen garden with a tangle of shrubs that form a touch and go boundary between us and the next door property. The hydrangeas there are just starting to open their buds, evolving from the most delicate green with a hint of yellow

to a tender china blue, which I guess will deepen as the season progresses.

In the kitchen garden this simple white rose, which I shared with you a while ago

has shown itself in its full glory. It romps and rambles about behind the greenhouse, over, under and through, reaching right up through the branches of the spruce to the sky above. It could be straight from Sleeping Beauty and would defy the most amorous and determined of Princes.

I am hoping it will be full of hips to feed the birds in the autumn.

Meanwhile at the top of the garden more roses are appearing. This was a minute spindly thing, shrouded by a great ugly shrub of no apparent virtues at all, which we had chopped down to manageable size. The rose has responded beyond anything I might have expected, and holds up these clusters of buds, just beginning to show a lovely clear, yet quiet shade of red

To think we might have just rooted out the slender stems, thinking "Ah, that'll come to nothing". I am glad I've learnt to let things be, and allow them to speak to me before making judgements. I look forward to seeing them all in bloom.

Finally, just to make you smile, Rum was not at all pleased when his brother hopped up to the place where he was taking his ease - a reproving look from the boss!