After yesterdays outing for Mum's birthday, today we had originally planned to go to RHS Wisley. But then Mum decided it would be too packed so we decided to go a garden centre then have a buffet lunch at our favourite Indian restaurant. Then this morning Mum decided she'd much rather stay home and potter around the garden. Her ladyship had spoken. So we did. After a visit to the garden centre of course. There's nothing Mum likes more than spending money at the garden centre.
Early evening yesterday, before retiring to Marks Mansion lounge for the rest of the night, we set up my new trail cam in the rear grounds. This morning we were eager to see what we had caught on camera.......
There was a rather fetching shot of myself bending over to move some plant pots out of the way.....
And then we saw that the infra red camera had caught something moving in the garden after dark.....
A cat....
Well at least we know the trail camera works ! We've left the camera up and running in the back garden and will be checking the results in a couple of weeks time. It's still trial and error at the moment, but I am looking forward to eventually using it on my local patch.
Yesterday Mum received a stunning bouquet of Tulips, her favourite flower, from her good friend Carol. They just cried out to be photographed....
During our garden pottering today we spotted many of the usual garden birds....
Goldfinch...
Several Red Kites going over.....
Chaffinch....
the resident House Sparrows.....
'marmite' Parakeet....
the resident Robin....
a rather gorgeous Collared Dove....
and along with the usual Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, we also had a visit from one of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. This is a male who looked and acted suspiciously like Ben the GSW from last year. His m.o.d of picking and stashing peanuts at the back of the trunk was evident......
No bees, butterflies or any little critters today (it was really quite grey and gloomy) so you'll have to make do with this......
Mum busied herself planting new sprouting bulbs, moving plants in pots around for their new 'forever' homes and dividing and replanting one of her established Hostas......
Above photo is of a Hosta before full emergence and before being planted in its new pot (also pictured) Fascinating little bundle of roots and new buds.
Elsewhere in the grounds of Marks Mansion early spring flowers are showing their bright little heads.
Snowflake.....
One of several Tete-a-tete species...
Daphne....
Hellebore....
tiny Narcissus...
Anemone de Caen....
gorgeous golden Fern.....
and my favourite. Dicentra Spectablis just poking its fronds above ground. Mum has a large established clump of this, and so far we haven't needed to split, move and replant it as it appears to be doing a good job on its own. This is just one clump of three dotted around the top of the garden....
So despite the weather being overcast we had a really nice day. Mum cooked up a lovely breakfast and delicious lunch (after spending money in garden centres, cooking is her next great enjoyment - I'm only allowed to boil eggs, brew tea and make toast in her kitchen), I generally cleared up around the grounds, topped up all the bird feeders and chopped up some old lengthy prunings (leaving the twiggy and thin bits on the ground for the nesting birds to find). We both had a glass of wine listening to golden oldies on the radio, and as always, had a good gossip and laugh.
This time last year things were very different. Mum had just attended a good friends funeral, then found out her ex partner had passed away from Cancer and then received the shocking news that she herself had Cancer too. All within the space of a few days. This time last year we didn't know what the future held.
But after several weeks of treatment and side-effects, where I had to witness chemo being pumped into her, see her in daily pain from the radiation therapy, gradually lose her appetite until she was surviving on just a bit of bread and jam each day, visit her often during her stays in hospital, and stay with her when she was bed ridden at home, my Mum has bounced back.
Her hair may be grey instead of bright red now (she lost about a third of it during her chemo) and the jury may be out on whether she goes back to vibrant red, or stays grey and ages disgracefully (ha ha), but it's good to see her back to her normal self ie: cooking up a storm, pottering around the garden, buying plants she doesn't need and attending four zumba classes each week. Mum is back.
So this weekend was quite special, what with her ladyships birthday yesterday as well. Mum's Mum passed away several years ago so Mum had no one to buy a Mothers Day card for and my daughter passed away over 20 years ago, so I had no one to buy me a card. Bitter-sweet weekend but one that ended up being really enjoyable.
I love you Mum. Happy Mothers Day xxx
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