Oooooops, I've been tagged! :D

This is the first time I've been tagged so I hope I get it right. Well that's no.1, the announcement. The person who tagged me was QM. Explain the rules..... ha, I copied and pasted and here they are! lol

1. Announce you've been tagged. 2. List the person who linked you with direct link 3. Explain the rules 4. List 6 things that are of no real importance 5. Tag another 6 person with their direct links 6. Notify that they have been tagged


Right, now for six things of no real importance.
i) I have a Fuchsia flower tattoed on my left shoulder ~ the variety is 'Winston Churchill'. :D
<----------- Fuchsia Winston Churchill

ii) My left foot is a size 6 and my right foot 5 1/2 (U.K. sizes) This used to seem important to me and caused me much stress because all the shoes I liked never fitted properly.... I've given in to it now and go barefoot much of the time!

iii) I love fried bananas!

iv) I like worms and spiders and snails...... not to eat though!

v) In his younger days, my father was a football referee..... he once had a game cancelled because members from both teams kept using foul language. The fans were none too pleased and he was chased all over Glasgow (Scotland)! I'm glad to say he survived. :)

vi) When my mother (in her younger days also) played the part of the wicked stepmother in Snow White, she forgot her words and fled the stage! My parents did a lot of running in their early days! lol
Now I have to tag six people. Hmmmmmm, let's see.
Nancy
Greenfingers
Searching Soul
Debbie
Small Footprints
IB

All that remains for me to do now is to notify the people I'm tagging. Off I go. :D

A gift from Mother Nature?

Although Lucky's cage looks empty, he spent most of the day out of it. :)

Four Summers ago our family was blessed with a lovely little visitor, a small bright yellow canary that flew right into our house. It was a lovely evening, dusk was falling and I was leaning against the patio doors just daydreaming. My attention was drawn to the tiny yellow bird that was perching on the garden fence. Realising it was an escaped pet bird, I went to the kitchen to get some seed to see if I could entice it in. No need. As soon as my back was turned, it flew in upstairs into our daughter's bedroom! My husband and daughter were in her bedroom at the time and got quite a shock to see a bright yellow canary land on the dollshouse. Our daughter called it 'Lucky' and he was indeed lucky as, no doubt, he would either have succumbed to the cold or been snatched by a bigger bird. We know it was a male canary because it had the sweetest singing voice imaginable (female canaries don't sing) and he gave us lots of pleasure over the last four years with his gentle lullabies.

Sadly for us, on Tuesday evening (10th March), Lucky passed on. We made him a lovely little grave in the garden and said a prayer of thanks for his life and that we got to share it. On his grave, we planted some violas, which you can see at the bottom of the photograph. Lucky was the perfect pet...... the only fault with canaries though, is that they just don't live long enough.

A fairy in my garden.......

This delightful little fairy was a gift from my parents. I didn't want to put her just anywhere where she would most probably be overlooked, so I made her her own special 'garden' in a large pot that now sits on the patio. She's in a prime spot and we can keep our eye on her from the sitting room.

I got the moss from the grounds of a nearby hotel that was knocked down some months ago and didn't feel too bad helping myself to it, knowing that the area is due to be cleared soon to make way for new shops and houses, so really I acted in the name of conservation. :D

In the pot there are four different kinds of moss, but I don't know any of their names. I did try to get a book on mosses, lichens and liverworts on eBay but was outbid! lol I'll try for another one because mosses fascinate me and I'd love to learn more about them. I've seen a fabulous book by George H. Schenk (Moss Gardening: Including Lichens, Liverworts and Other Miniatures). It's full of advice on growing moss, identification, etc. with glorious colour photographs ..... maybe I'll put my pennies aside until I can get that one.

Also in the pot is Sisyrinchium californicum (pronounced sissy-rin-ki-um) - that's the plant with the small swordlike leaves. From May onwards, it produces masses of yellow star-like flowers right up until October. The blue flower, although not clear in the photograph, is the blue form of Anemone blanda. It's a daisy-like flower. If you look closely at the top right-hand side of the picture, you'll see a twig. That is actually a baby tree with a couple of buds waiting to open. I pot up tree seedlings from the garden especially for projects such as this.

I may have to offer the mosses some protection in the form of fine netting, just until it gets established as the blackbirds have already thrown some of it out the pot. I stuck the moss on the stone with margarine!

First Little Froggy. :)

This is the first little froggy I've seen this season...... well, apart from the ones I disturbed while dismantling the rock garden earlier in the year. I wonder if he (or she) was one of them. I'd just hung a couple of fat balls out for the birds, turned round and saw this little fella sitting comfortably on his chunk of gravel at the bottom of the stone steps. He didn't even mind posing for the camera. I love it when all the little creatures come out of hiding. I enjoy their company. :)

My Favourite Five.

1. The Rose. This is Rosa Handel. It's available as a climber and a shrub. I love how the petals seem to have been dipped in pink icing and the cream takes on a silvery glow at dusk. Don't plant it in tucked away places. It needs to be as near to where you relax in the garden as possible, where you can see it constantly.

2. Tulips. Any colour, all colours! They burst on to the scene like a showman, shouting that Spring is really here. And for some reason they always make me think nostalgically of my childhood. I wonder if it has anything to do with me eating the tulips in my great-uncle's garden when I was two years old! Just as well it wasn't the bulbs as they're poisonous and I wouldn't be here to tell the tale!

3. Fuchsia. This one is Fuchsia Bart Comperen, which we had in a hanging basket on the arch. Fuchsias are one of the most versatile flowers I know. There's one for every situation in the garden ..... hanging baskets, shrubs, hedging, ones that can be trained as bonsai, containers and there's even a climbing one now! You can get ones with single flowers, semi-double flowers and double flowers ~ spoilt for choice. :)

4. Sweet Pea. I don't think anyone could deny that the subtle scent of the Sweet Pea is heavenly. Easy to grow, comes in gorgeous shades and forms with pretty frilly petals and a scent that could never be bottled ~ a perfect flower!

5. The Lily. Where the Sweet Pea is subtle the Lily is truly sophisticated. The scent is overpowering, but irresistable and addictive! It is easy to imagine exotic far off places while sipping wine on the patio at dusk, surrounded by pots of lilies. A definite must.

These are my favourite five garden flowers. There are a host of wildflowers and even 'weeds' I wouldn't be without, but that needs a post of its own. What are your favourites?