,A year later, 1955 pointing at grandads chickens








































1957 or 8








































Mums 30th birthday  1959, with me and my younger brother Bill 

My lovely friend and neighbour Gill sent this to me tonight which was lovely of her, thanks Gill, a lovely thoughtful friend  xxx
If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you
And share with you its beauty
On the days you're feeling blue.

If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own;
A place to find serenity,
A place to be alone.

If I could take your troubles
I would toss them in the sea,
But all these things I'm finding
Are impossible for me.

I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair,
But let me be what I know best,
A friend who's always there. 

Today is the third anniversary of my dear mother Betsy Cooper Golding passing away. People say it gets easier but I think it gets harder. Been in the garden all day where mum loved to be, and where I feel her near me.
Love you and miss you mum xxx

In the last couple of weeks I have bought a few gardening bits and bobs. I bid on a David Austin Catalogue on ebay from  seller  Matt  who is a really nice helpful seller   (he also has an Amazon shop) I never realised David Austin had such early catalogues (this one is 1980/81 season) and has lovely hand written notes by the previous owner.

I have wanted a Phlomis Italica

 for a long time, but have only been able to find them in a couple of places on the web, and very expensive with £10 postage.... Happily I found a blogger who runs a nursery, Steve  who had the plant in his inventory less than half price than the other places I found, and only charged minimal postage. If you are looking for some unusual plants, go to Steve, a lovely chap with some nice plants.
I have bought some more unusual veg seeds (for me that is) from another ebay seller  Premier Seeds Direct                who again has turned out be very nice and helpful and their seeds are all DEFRA registered.  I usually only grow runner and broad beans, but their selection of italian beans and tomatoes looked very scrumptious indeed! I bought Marvel of Venice, a beautiful bright yellow bean which will look very decorative in my potager ( I dont know whether they boil up yellow, I know most coloured beans usually turn to the normal green when cooked) Edit, have just received this from Kerrie and Bob - For Info yellow beans retain their colour fully when cooking, the purple and red varieties tend to bleach back towards green unless you steam them.Thanks Kerrie! 

Borlotti beans were the next I bought, a lovely mottled bean
 and a dwarf French Bean Berggold
        The tomatoes were Gartenperle a tumbling heirloom,    .

  and Red Pear a cherry bell,
 which I have just potted on. I sowed rather too many seeds and fear I do not have enough friends or relatives to share with!
I also bought an Italian Beetroot  Chioggia
  which has red/white striped inner - I only tasted my own fresh beetroot last year, and was amazed how lovely freshly cooked beetroot tasted. I normally had the run of the mill beetroot in a glass jar with salads - I will never again buy, because fresh is best! Thanks to Kerrie and Bob of Premier Seeds for letting me use their images except the beetroot which I googled from BackyardGardener
Flowering this week beginning 17th May in my garden
minature narcissus, muscari (still flowering!)
arabis, alyssum saxatile. lychnis alpina, iberis
various aquilegias,white,mauve and yellow flag iris
euphorbia,honesty,geranium phaeum,pink geranium macrorrhizum,geranium Johnsons blue, geranium wargrave pink, centaura montana, bleeding hearts, calendular,bluebells,lily of the valley,various clematis, veronica gentianodes, french lavender,feverfew,cerastium tomentosum(snow in summer),polemonium caeruleum(jacobs ladder) Hesperis matronalis (sweet rocket)
pink and white oxalis (the white is my own creation, well with help from the bees.The original pink one is from old Georgian houses that were being knocked down making the small lovely old town where I was born on the Thames into a concrete monstrosity in the 1960s , and me and my dear mum 40 years ago took our spades and rescued the oxalis and peonies that were growing, which I still have now in my garden)
lilac,rosemary,black viola,violets, wisteria,all my soft fruits, vinca major and minor,kerria,viburnum tinus, and fremontedendrom which has now about 20 large waxy blooms on a 3ft stem!


The wisteria is looking beautiful and I am looking forward to my first roses blooming, I think Madame Gregoire Stachelin will be first growing up a pergola with the wisteria, although  Desprez a Fleur Jaune a beautiful climbing noisette,supposedly a little tender although not seemingly in my garden, which I bought a few years ago and moved in the autumn from under one of the cherry trees to the south wall, may just pip Madame to the post! 

Well the dreaded day is here, 7th anniversary of my daughter Kates accident. For those who dont know (there cant be many, ive spoken about it now for 7 years, my therapy) Kate was sitting outside our close in the bus shelter on her way to school when a car hit our neighbours car who were coming out of their garage and went into the side of the bus shelter and took the bus shelter and Kate with him. Me and mum heard the crash as we always stood at the window to watch the bus pull away and know that Kate was on it ok, I ran out to find her in the road, rivers of blood already coming from her head.
7 years, left temporal lobe brain damage, frontal lobe brain damage, temporal lobe epilepsy and a knee thats crushed and mis shapen and Kate just gets on with it, bless her. Her memory is so bad she sometimes doesnt even remember she has just eaten, she cant remember all the important things that has happened in her life in the past and every day gets worse, but she has never once complained!
I am a very lucky person that I still have my daughter with me, albeit a different daughter to the one who walked out the door that day in May and I do sometimes mourn for the one I lost, the one who would have sailed through life like a breeze.. Most people probably wouldnt think there is a thing wrong with Kate and thats the way she likes it, she says it has made her a stronger person, unfortunately I cant say the same for me and her brother Damon, the last 7 years has made us snivelling wrecks, but how glad we are that we still have our Katie Blossom  with us as her grandad calls her. We are very lucky indeed.