White peonies in the rain
The garden is a forgiving place, but I have neglected it lately. There are baby plants that need to be allowed to put their feet in the soil and snails to be collected. Lots to do, it’s June after all!
So farewell Twitter, it’s been fun, but you take up far too much time. I’m following Gill and Joanne out of that space for now. See you around!
I am counting down the days to ripeness
Zeb Bakes 
Bravo Joanna! Good decision and one I should follow…twitter for business only from now… A x
All this digital media is such a time sucker isn’t it. I don’t twitter, but recently got a new laptop so that’s taking up precious time while I get to know what on earth I’m doing with it.
Garden looks lovely. Are they figs ready to ripen and fill your world with sunshine?
I don’t do twitter or cell phones (we will probably never own one), but if I did, that sounds like an idea worth following. Much better to spend your time in the garden!
Beautiful peony!!! I had one at our old house in Ohio and I loved it in the early summer garden, but so did the beetles. Sorry, I’m not recognizing it, but what is that growing in the tree? It looks pretty big.
I’m barely on Twitter these days – it can be very time consuming. Your peonies and figs look wonderful!
Hello my friends!
Peonies are strangely left alone by all the marauding insects in the garden, the ants crawl all over the buds, but seem to do nothing, the lily beetles concentrate on the lilies, the slugs eat anything that looks like a hosta, the snails are unspeakable, the ladybirds chase the aphids and my peonies are slowly getting better each year. This white one is the last one to flower, the others have been and gone, six flowers on it this year!
The tree is (I realise I didn’t say) a Turkey Brown Fig tree, and the figs are looking quite promising so far, I may be immodest here and say they are tons nicer than any I can buy, probably because the imported ones are nearly always picked unripe, so even though they are soft when they get to the shops, they have very little taste, mine on the other hand are delicious and as Brian can’t stand them I get to eat them all ;)
Oh my those peonies are spectacular. I could look at them all day. I don’t twitter or facebook – don’t see the point really – much better to look at a peony all day.
What a glorious peony, Joanna. I’ve been growing a pink one for about 5 years – and they are a bit of a novelty here – but it’s flowering is less spectacular than I would have expected.
As to figs – we had a bumper crop this year and our 2 dogs, a border collie and an Irish Wolfhound, have been gorging on all of the leftovers on the tree. As you can imagine, the results weren’t pretty, so I’m very pleased that the figs are all over now.
Figs and peonies!
You always have the most delightful pictures- so glad I stopped by, today!
Your garden always looks beautiful from my point of view.
Mine looks like an abandoned mess.
Our peonies have been magnificent this year too – but early. Our white one is just in bloom now and one paler pink one. The others are finished. I was particularly proud this year of a tree peonie which had two flowers on it for the first time! It was glorious.
We had a brown Turkey fig in Surrey when living there and it produced prodigiously. A bit too nippy up here at 800ft in Derbyshire for a fig though.
Ax
So much for getting out in the garden, but I’m slowly tidying up my desk, paying bills, that sort of thing. It all has to be done doesn’t it? I too would rather contemplate the flowers Debra!
I have another photo of the white peony’s moment of gloire somewhere, but I am camera-less (sort of) the ones above were taken with the iPad as I took the new one back to John Lewis – the reason – it didn’t do good bread shots (don’t laugh :) ) so it’s back to the drawing board or borrow Mr Camera’s kit.
The fig tree is surrounded by slabs around its roots to prevent it getting into the foundations, apparently they can cause havoc… It’s still quite small, only about six foot tall, which suits me.
With climate change, maybe there will be figs and olives growing in Derbyshire in the not too distant future Andrew?
Amanda, I can really believe that dogs and figs don’t mix. My dogs are partial to blueberries and blackberries with fairly awesome results sometimes :(
Heidi – I thought you were away – gardens love it when you go on holiday they can return to a wild state of unkemptness, and surprise you when you return!
Lol, not being on twitter really lightens the load, and I am slowly getting things done! I have been trying to be very strict with myself and not allow myself to sit very long in front of the computer, no longer than 15 minutes at a time. Most times I do pretty well, occasionally when talking to my kids online I end up longer.
The weather hasn’t cooperated with being outside gardening, raining hard every day. The river is really high again, but not quite as bad as last time. I always love your pictures, and would love to have some of those figs! Had friends in Sacramento who had fig trees in their backyard, what wonderful memories that brings on
Hey Joanne, it was your wake up call to me! I shook myself like a dog who has just jumped out of a muddy pond and I’m trying to be strict too, but it’s going to take a bit of time!
Sunshine and showers here, everything that was sad in the garden has grown about a yard in the last two days x :D
The peony photo is just perfection – how luxurious they seem.
Hi Jan big computer has gone back to shop for a repair or something and I have been in porting sim hell as well, so I still have to plant out the seedlings, and more…. Technology blessing or curse? Discuss. Reminds me of school exams. I think flower contemplation is in order today… :)
Ah! Have title of essay – “Swords or Plough Shares” or maybe “Seedlings or Sim Ports”
I’m still waiting for your magnum opus Jan! If you fancy writing a guest post one day you can post it here ! You always make me laugh and smile :)
Humm … we too have peonies in the yard, but they seem to take forever for the buds to open – maybe it’s the variety, or just maybe our climate. Also have a fig tree (Desert King) which wants to grow to 40′ or so – but I’ve decided that each time it gets as high as the house roof, I climb up and cut it back – it’s a question of who is more determined, me or the fig tree.
That sounds like a huge fig tree! I hope mine doesn’t have plans to get that big…. our peonies take a long time too from bud to bloom, but they are worth the wait, I like their scent very much as well.
Ooh I love peonys…and figs. Lucky you. I have not managed to grow a fig tree in my garden. Although some very nasty green walls (huge pine trees) on the neighbours side of the border of our property will be coming down soon. Hoo-double-ray! They block out most of the winter sun from our backyard despite its perfect orientation for sun, and their needles make the ground around them too toxic for anything to grow. I am picturing a whole heap of fruit trees along that border once those monsters go and the soil recovers. Have to add figs to that list.
We have heavy clay soil in Bristol, or at least where I am. We have slowly been digging in compost and so on and the soil is getting easier to work. Clay soil is very fertile, the only problem can be drainage, and you can’t easily grow the acid loving plants of course. I do hope that your garden transforms into a fertile and sunny space, it is certainly a worthwhile project. :)
Ahh, the pressure for digital participants! I am not a twitterer (tweeter?), nor facebooker and I recently gave up mod-ing on my favourite forum because it was too challenging to find the time! Just keeping up with blogs is enough at the moment. Loving your peonies, soo pretty :)
We just have to make choices I guess, and I realise that I was getting almost addicted to twitter and it is a huge and sprawling creature, great fun but too greedy on time. It is one of the big dilemmas, wanting to participate and reach out, and balance that with other elements, I don’t know how some people do it. Thanks for commenting, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to write here :)
I have peony envy.
How very Freudian of you, the rain has demolished them now – sic transit gloria xx
Welcome to the dark (brighter) side of non-Twitters! :-)
I definitely don’t need any more distractions than I do have, and said no to Twitter from the very beginning, don’t even have an account. I think email is better, the quick and short nature of Twitter doesn’t appeal to me.
The photo of your flowers is absolutely wonderful! Loved it!
Hi Sally! Are you back home? I am sitting here wrestling with the impossibility of posting photos to the blog from Sweetie baby, the IPad. In despair I asked big Google and discovered there is an app to do it with. Did I say twitter was a waste of time? I can’t wait for Sweetie the big mac to come back from the repair shop. But no one wants to hear my techy woes.. Click click tap tap, I feel like the orange alien in Dark Star. Xxxxx
Yeap, back home and connected to the net as a “normal functioning human being” ;-)
Hang in there, I hope your Sweetie comes back home soon!
Sweetie is home at last :)
Just back from hols in Denmark with family. Grandchildren loved the pebble beaches and smelly seaweed. My time for anything beyond Nana-ing-it-up with Emma and Ethan is limited but hope to be enjoying your site again soon. Should be clear sailing for Tom near early July.
You are making me so nostalgic. My current experience of Denmark is watching ‘The Killing’ on DVD with subtitles. We are up to episode 14. All the characters have names from my Danish relatives, which amuses me no end. Pebble beaches, smelly seaweed, hardly any tides to speak of, jellyfish, shrimps and crabs and good rye bread… ah. One day I will see if I can dig out some old photos.
I must buy those DVDs for Peder. He’d love seeing something on telly in his native tongue. Did you buy them on Amazon? I’ve spent the morning with Emma, watering my garden …. and watering the dog … and watering pavement make wet smiley faces — the girl is without doubt a chip off my old block. As for the rye bread, there’s no substitute for the real thing. Since we took DFS ferry there and back, our cars were loaded with (besides diapers, clothing, trikes, three-wheel scooters, buckets and spades, seashells, pretty stones and several kilos of sand, shoes, coats, baby carseats, etc.,) …. erm …. rye bread.
Watery smiley faces….. something familiar here ;) Love the description of your cars and their contents!
Hi Joanna
Just learned of your departure from twitter – I’ve been trying to cut down myself. I’m both sorry (for me) and happy (for you): It’s been fun following you & I’m sure we’ll keep up through the various bread forums (please don’t tell me your giving those up too!?). I’ll try and check in on your blog every once in a while but, for my part, I feel overwhelmed by the number of blogs I’d like to keep track of!
All best wishes
Geraint
Geraint that’s really kind of you and I want to return the compliment and say that you write so well and interestingly when you post on the Fresh Loaf and over on Mellow Bakers that I know I will keep track of you too. I might go back on Twitter one day, but I would have to figure out a way to be efficient and not revert back to butterfly behaviour. This is the Age of Distraction after all and I am easily distracted. I’m sorry too that I won’t be meeting up with you and the others in Wales this year either. Happy Baking :D