the running wave

During that miserable, endless winter, I can remember walking across the golf course in a blinding blizzard, thinking about the hope of hot summer days some months ahead.  Well, now that time has come. And it is good!

As June tips into July, I think our very small herbaceous border is punching above its weight! Nestling amongst this small white geranium flower I found this beastie.  It took me a while to identify it but I finally found this information :  Leptura quadrifasciata , better known as  Strangalia quadrifasciata , is a 'longhorn beetle' (i.e. a member of the family Cerambycidae).  So now we know!  I am not sure if he is welcome in the garden, but the notes did go on to say that these wood boring beetles do feed on pollen, so it can't be all bad.

The dogs and I had a good walk round our old stamping ground this afternoon.  Beautiful lush green fields and all very bucolic.  I got back to the car feeling like a very happy bunny, especially because I had seen six brown hares!  Four in one field, sitting peacefully in the warm hazy sunshine, and later, two more in another field.  Happy days.

but only two hours away!  Last night, at 10 pm, a little stroll with the dogs before bed, and there was still plenty of light in the sky, and golden sunshine on the trees and through the grasses.  Lovely.

My little grandson and I took a walk along the Brunstane Burn this morning.  It is a fast moving stream which skirts the very outskirts of Edinburgh and runs out into the sea near Musselburgh.  It also runs along the back of the house so is very easy to access.  We walked along to the grounds of Newhailes House, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.  Good stuff for a wee boy with chickenpox!! The flower of the hogweed.  Such an unattractive name for one of my favourite summer flowers and seedheads.   Bramble flowers, looking lovely before morphing into a juicy blackberry later in the summer.   Under the main railway line bridge, which echoes when you call 'cuckoo'. Along the bank of the burn there were the huge umbrella leaves of butterbur,  Petasites hybridus .  It has a rather unexciting stumpy pink flower in early spring and then produces enormous rhubarb-like leaves, which create a cool green world along the banks of rivers and streams during the summer.  

Our little inner garden is exactly one year old this month, and it is bringing us lots of pleasure.   Storm Hector did his best to dislodge the young runner bean tendrils, but the plants are made of sterner stuff and seem to be carrying on regardless.  Thank goodness! I call our garden inside the wall the inner garden, and on the other side there is a completely different arrangement, but it is still part of the garden to me!  The outer garden.  The old farm track leading to the cottages is wild, and has been beautiful over the past few weeks with cow parsley and a few ox eye daisies I have planted.  I knew them as moon daisies when I was a little girl.  The rambling honeysuckle has been out for a few days now.  Not so wild, but spectacular this year, were the lilac trees.  A towering wall of fragrance and flowers. On the outer side of our garden wall I have a collection of plants which I hope are going to be able to cope with very poo