Cottage garden...

It wasn't a great year for my garden in Wales. the combination of heat and lack of watering really didn't suit and, as I wasn't growing cacti in my outside pots, not many of the seeds I sowed in March came to fruition. Of course some plants might have flowered in our absence, but does a flower not seen really exist at all?

It was always hard enough keeping them alive in hot weather when we were visiting every weekend. So there was no chance this year; as we've only been able to visit monthly and it has been a summer to remember and talk about in years to come. Hot, dry and not at all suitable for absentee gardening. Oh well, you can't have everything.

At least my longiflorum lilies didn't let me down. There they were to greet us when we arrived at the cottage and they bloomed magnificently right up until the day we left. I woke up to find the petals scattered all around their pot like plucked dove's feathers.

It was almost as if they had saved themselves until we would be there to see them, and then decided to leave as we did.