Oct 17 2011

A Strange Combination

I thought that this was a strange combination of colour in my flowerbed.

A Japanese Maple in Autumn reds, a Rhododendron in Flower and a Fuschia in the back covered in flowers.

Aug 9 2011

New Lens

One of my purchases in America was a new lens for my camera, Sigma 70-300mm. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it but took it out into the garden yesterday for 10 minutes to see what the macro function was like on it. I took a few random shots of foliage and anything else that would sit long enough. Here’s the results.

May 18 2011

Queen in Ireland

In honour of the Queen’s visit to the Emerald Isle, I thought I would add a little Red white and blue.

Here’s the red. Poppy.

Here’s the White. Calla Lily.

and here’s the blue. Iris.

and a few more just for the hell of it. 🙂

Apr 15 2011

Welcome Garden Visitor

I just love this time of the year when the bees start to make their visits to my garden. The big attraction over the last week or so has been my Crab Apples and Rhododendron. Caught this one between visits this afternoon.

Apr 10 2011

Walking on Sunshine

Had my usual Sunday morning walk today and what a day it was. Only problem was all the fair weather walkers clogging up the beach!! The second part of the walk was in the woods and it was less crowded and a lot cooler. Here’s a few pics from the day including some inspirational uro’s and deadwood.

End of the Blackthorn Flowers along the coast

Mill Pond sea

The way ahead

Two brothers on the beach with blackthorn flowering behind

Drill Rig getting tug boated into Belfast Harbour for some work.

Some nice uro and hollows on a beech

waiting for the last bit to fall then it'll be a uro

Deadwood on a hawthorn hedge

more of it.

Emerging ferns

Some unusual bark on a Sycamore

A windfall beech thats had a little wood removed for logs.

Another nebari for my collection

Mar 31 2011

Recovering from dog attack!

Last September my dog Smudge took a fancy to the apples on this Malus. He waited for them to ripen first of course 🙂

Here it is before he munched them.

and after…

and the guilty looking culprit.

This is the tree today. A few of the more mauled branches didn’t have any tip buds to open. I have been watching it for signs of new buds and today I founds loads. It looks as if it will back bud strongly, perhaps Smudge did me a favour 🙂

The back budding. Looks like a little pair of but cheeks at the bottom 🙂

and some of the flower buds. I was going to remove them but to be honest the tree is responding that strongly, I don’t think I’ll bother for now. I might remove the fruit if that changes.

Mar 23 2011

Crab Apple Flower Buds

I noticed yesterday that this crab apple was flowering again this year. I waited 15 years for it to get it’s act together and was on the verge of giving it away (who would pay for a apple that doesn’t flower?) when it flowered in 2009. No fruit set that year. In 2010 it had more flowers and it held fruit. Lovely little pea size apples. This year it is covered in flower buds. I even put it in a better pot and restyled it over the Winter. Be good to me and I’ll be good to you 🙂

This was it back in January before repotting but after wiring. I can’t find a photo of it in the new pot, you’ll have to wait 🙂

Mar 12 2011

Root over Rock Cotoneaster

I repotted this one a few weeks back and it’s come into leaf very quickly. Flower Buds can even be seen 🙂

Mar 8 2011

Rowallane Trees

My wife and I visited Rowallane Gardens, a National Trust Property, today. It is famous for its Rhododendrons and has loads of interesting trees to admire and learn from. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye today.

On the main driveway in is a row of old Cedars with lovely hanging branches. It’s a pity that the lower limbs are removed for safety. It would be great to see one this size without man’s input into it’s design.

One of my reasons for going today was to see if the large Prunus Incisa or Fuji Cherry was in flower yet. My small one is but alas, this one has a few weeks to go yet.

Another tree that I liked was this Fraxinus Ornus, a type of weeping Ash I think. I loved the Uro’s.

There was a few maples scattered around the grounds but needless to say, no leaves yet. This is a large one in front of the main house and a nice bit of colour on a Sengo Kaku ‘Coral Bark’ Maple too.