Fleeting Beauty

For many gardeners plants that flower over long periods are much valued.  Sweet Peas come into that category for me.    However, fleeting flowers too can be very special.   This little Hyacinthoides lingulata, an autumn flowering squill, provides a little welcome colour for a week or two but in warm weather the flowers are quite short lived.   Just a few inches high, it's almost frost hardy in the garden but mostly I have grown it under cold glass where the bulbs multiply well year on year.   I've been growing it for about thirty years now .... seems crazy as I write that!   In Norfolk it fizzled out after a year or two when grown outside, the winter cold killing off the leaves.   Here in coastal Wales the group I planted outside last year have flowered well again and I'm hopeful I can keep them going outside.

The plan was some bulb repotting - for me, furniture installing - for Jamie, blackberrying - with Ruth and a walk for Meg.   A rather desperate sounding text from work set the day on a different course.   Jamie's table arrived and looks good.  Chris and I wrangled a sofa bed out of a bungalow and into the flat.   Ruth and I did take Meg for a walk along blackberry lanes .... but .... Three hours 'pot washing' at Wharf got substituted for the bulb repotting and it rained while Ruth and I were out, curtailing our activities early.    My efforts at work were much appreciated as was some help from Ruth who prepped all the cutlery that will be needed for Sunday lunches while I finished off .... we bribed her with food and hot chocolate!    

Jamie's sofa bed came from a house where someone smoked.   We think the odour can be reduced to an acceptable level but any advice on ways to do it will be appreciated.  So far commercial deodorisers and a lot of bicarbonate of soda have been employed.   It's a good solid piece of furniture, worth ten times what he paid for it.   Here's hoping!