Good Old Beeb

You have to laugh, don't you?

My BBC nickname which I registered to use on the BBC Gardener's World blog (which isn't the most scintillating read anyway) has been reset as it has been considered 'offensive'.

I can't copy and paste the email as at the bottom it says that the contents are confidential.

My reply, however, is not.

"Dear BBC moderators,
Is your moderation automated or is it just lunatic? You have obviously never visited the Paris street Rue Mouffetard. It's a good job I'm not from Scunthorpe, Penistone or Lightwater and wanting to use those in my nickname.
I won't bother using your rather over-moderated website again, and look forward to telling everyone about it on my blog, where people have only ever known me as HappyMouffetard, and don't seem too offended by me.
Yours,
HappyMouffetard (a name I have been using online for around 10 years, and won't be changing)."

Bless them

Blog Pimping

Just a quick post to pimp my lovely husband's new blog, in which he talks about sciency stuff.

Always late

I just noticed that on 2nd September it was my blog's 3rd birthday. It only took me 23 days to realise I had missed its anniversary. Who would have thought that I, with the attention span of a gnat, could have continued to spout rubbish for three years? Here's to many more years of inane nonsense.

Wordless Wednesday - toad lily

Pants!

Whilst Arabella Sock may be a little obsessed with bottoms, I thought I'd go upmarket slightly and talk about pants. Well, actually hydrangeas. Recently Plant Mad Nige had a bit of a rant on the subject of rhododendrons. I have similar feelings about hydrangeas. I realise that it's a bit of a sweeping generalisation to dislike a whole genus. In fact, there are even some hydrangeas that I admit to liking - next door's climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp petiolaris) very kindly gives us the majority of its flowers, which mingle rather nicely with our own Clematis 'Black Prince'. Others rave about 'Annabelle' and oak-leaved types but they just look blousy and dull to me.

Lace caps I can just about cope with (in other peoples' gardens), but that is more due to my

mellowing with age. These are almost attractive, with the sterile flowers round the edge appearing to bungy-jump off into the void below.

But the real objects of my dislike are the mopheads. Great big pastel pom-poms - like a row of geriatric cheerleaders. When we moved into this house, there were two in large tubs in the front garden. When the revolution came, they were first against the wall (or to be more accurate, into the skip). An irrational dislike, I know, but one I'm not working very hard to overcome.

The reason for the title? Chez Mouffetard, these abominations are known as "old lady's pants" as they come in the sort of colours one might imagine elderly ladies 'apple gatherer' undies to be.

A "fine" display at Arley Gardens

GBBD - September

A very busy time of year for me, hence the lack of posts recently. But to walk out into the garden is to take time out - the best way of relaxing.

With thanks, as always, to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, for giving me the opportunity to slow down and look.

Tree stump

I've been tagged

Alice at Bay Area Tendrils has kindly tagged me with a meme, whereby I have to reveal seven interesting facts about myself. That's difficult!

To participate in the Meme Award, you need to:

- link back to the person who gave you the award;
- reveal seven things about yourself;
- choose seven other blogs to nominate and post a link to them
- let each of your choices know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog;
- and finally let the tagger know when your post is up.

So, to the facts...

1. I'm irrationally scared of baked beans, although I have got better as I've got older. I no longer physically recoil when I open an airline breakfast and see the freaky orange bald things sitting there. Strangely, I don't mind the non-baked haricot.

2. I used to ride a motorbike (Yamaha YZF600Thundercat), but gave it up as I got older. I now have an allotment instead.

3. My father used to grow prize-winning dahlias

4. I really don't like long velvet bridesmaid dresses (see my facial expression for confirmation of this). And yes, that is a tree growing out of my head.

5. One of my favourite words is 'archipelago'.

6. One of the most exciting things that has happened to me was watching 'Life on Earth' as a child. It gave me an understanding of my love of nature. I can still remember the excitement of rushing in from playing outside to watch the next episode. It was indescribably exciting to watch it. I can't thank David Attenborough enough for changing my life. Because of him, I went to University - a common enough thing nowadays, but I was the first in my family to go. A big, big thing.

Me studying periwinkles I had found on the beach, aged 3

7. I'm married to a man who thinks it's fun to put plastic baskets etc on his head. It started young, but he still can't resist putting cloches on his head when we go round garden centres.

SomeBeans with natty head decoration


And so, I pass this meme on to the following bloggers. There's no pressure to take part!

1. Joanne - a blog full of beautiful flowers, and information about her battle with Lyme Disease

2. Trisha at Ripplestone Review - flowers, gardens, poetry and politics

3. Nutty Gnome - read about her mammoth garden works - it wears me out just reading about her progress!

4. Rothschild Orchid - more beautiful photos, and say hello to Stilton, Ruler of the Universe

5. Kat Wolfdancer - interesting tales

6. The Galloping Gardener - fascinating garden visits

7. Chaiselongue at Olives and Artichokes - fruit, veg and fantastic recipes.

Thanks to Alice for the tag!

Tatton Park (It's a sin - No. 4 - a little bit of envy)

I've only ever visited Tatton Park before for the RHS flower Show and for the Cancer Research UK Run 10K, so a visit from SomeBeans' mum was an ideal opportunity to go and visit the gardens.

They have a walled vegetable garden (sin number 4 - envy!), but there was a certain amount of schadenfreude, as we viewed the giant slugs that they were breeding, and the rather ineffective scarecrows.

Giant slug!

One of many scarecrows

Brassicas showing efficacy of the scarecrows

As I get older, I'm starting to see the importance of structure in the garden. Our garden currently is a riot of herbaceous perennials, absolutely buzzing with foggie-toddlers and currently elegantly peppered with a range of butterflies. What it doesn't have (despite some evergreen shrubs such as Pittosporums) is a good year round structure. So, I have started to see the attraction of a more formal evergreen structure.

The Italian Garden, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton

The Tower Garden

Echinops against yew hedge

What Tatton Park is really well known for is its Japanese Garden. It is only open to enter occasionally, to reduce wear and tear, but you can get a good general view from the outside of the garden. It is beautiful.

The leaves of the acers were jusr starting to turn - in a few weeks time, the colours will be so rich.

Stepping stones leading you from the dark into the light

The tea house, the window of which faces eastwards, towards the Shinto shrine.

A pair of cranes. apparently they represent age, and add 1000 years to a garden, as well as to anyone gazing upon them.

The almond eye bridge

An Inari Fox - the fox is the messenger of Inari, the god of rice and food. The fox wears a red bib to protect against evil forces.

It's a sin 3. Sloth

Sorry, too sloth-like this evening for a proper post.

PS David Attenborough for Ruler of the Universe!