First week of September....

....started with a dramatic sunrise....

...a "Symphony" in pink and blue....

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My yearly diaries come from the National Gallery, London
 2014 is a collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century paintings.

Every week is provided by a stunning painting,
portraits, landscapes and still-lifes, 
produced during the most innovative and exiting periods in the history of art.

Week 35 - First week of September:

Odilon Redon 
(born Bertrand-Jean Redon; April 20, 1840 – July 6, 1916)
 French painter and graphic artist, 
one of the outstanding figures of Symbolism.

"While I recognise the necessity for a basis of observed reality.....
true art lies in a reality that is felt"
Odilon Redon

Ophelia among the Flowers, 1905-1908, 
Odilon Redon, Pastel on paper
 Ophélie parmi les fleurs, Pastel sur papier
National Gallery, London

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Oh....If I only could paint.....

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Yes - If I only could paint.....

....to express the "keep-on-flowering" at La Pouyette

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First week of September....

....ended with a dramatic sunset.

A bientôt.....

"C'est la vie.....

....say the old folks"




La Pouyette in July:

 Buddleja davidii

Buddleja davidii, also called summer lilac, butterfly-bush, or orange eye,
 is a species of flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae,  
native to Sichuan and Hubei provinces in central China, and also Japan. 
 Many named varieties are in cultivation.
 


B. davidii is named for the Basque missionary and explorer in China, 
Father Armand David, who first noticed the shrub.



It was found near Ichang by Dr Augustine Henry about 1887 and sent to St Petersburg.

Another botanist-missionary in China, Jean-André Soulié, 
sent seed to the French nursery Vilmorin, 
and B. davidii entered commerce in the 1890s.

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Anemones Japonica (hupehensis)

Anemone hupehensis is native to central China, 
though it has been naturalised in Japan for hundreds of years.

The species was first named and described in Flora Japonica (1784), by Carl Thunberg. 

Thunberg had collected dried specimens while working as a doctor for the Dutch East Indies Company. 

In 1844, Robert Fortune brought the plant to England from China, 

where he found it often planted about graves

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 (at the back wall of the house)
Trumpet flower vine

 a kind of plant which belongs to Bignoniaceous

 The family Bignoniaceae was first validly published in the botanical literature (as Bignonieae) 
by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 in his classic work, Genera Plantarum. 
The type genus for this family is Bignonia, which was validated by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum in 1753. 
The name originated with Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who named it for his benefactor, 
Jean-Paul Bignon, in 1694, in his influential Eléments de botanique ou méthode pour connaître les plantes

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a few early flowering Dahlias

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The Lavender 
- lovely and pleasing as always -

...but particularly beautiful this year!

So far - so good.

Until last Saturday evening...
when suddenly - "out of the blue" - black clouds approached
and a severe thunderstorm swept across La Pouyette.

A storm with gale and hurricaneforce winds.  
With gusts of about 120KM/h.

It thundered! It lightened! 

Hailstones, 
some of which were as large as eggs, hammered on the roof. 
Could hear that the tiles moved, crashing down,
 I had the feel that the roof flies off any minute,
and that the worst will come to the worst.

Water came through the roof, had to run for buckets....
etc...etc...

There was no way/chance to go out for any kind of inspection,
we would have been blown away!

Next morning after the storm:
 


Oh my....Oh my...

 
....most of the lavender dashed down...

...bombarded by the hailstones...



...destroyed...
simply sad.

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Broken off branches and leaves allover the place , 
a few wild trees collapsed, 
a real mess!

 
On the other hand...



the Hydrangeas near the pool,
apart from falling off leaves and one or two blossoms,

 

they have survived amazingly...



....without any further damage!

So, all in all 
- apart from roof-repairwork and tiding-up jobs -
less serious than we feared.

"C'est la vie say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell"

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Back to "business as usual"....



buzz - buzz - buzz

summ - summ - summ... 
 "Bienchen flieg' herum"  
(which means being busy-busy)

diligently - assiduously

...back to garden...

 Surprise - surprise!
Some Hellebores started flowering again! 
In July!

And...

 ...the oak leave Hydrangea begins to change color... 


 
...just as if it would be already late August/early September.
 In July!  
Mad!

Well, 
that's nature - that's life,
you never can tell!

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After a sunny and hot week,
very hot, with temperatures over 40 degrees,

yesterday evening...

 

"es dräut und bläut" schon wieder!

It's looming again...

...another storm in sight???

another madness? 

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 Today's morning -  more weather caprioles.... 

Autumn? 


  November?

No, we have 26th of July!  
High Summer!

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"C'est la vie say the old folks, 
it goes to show you never can tell"


However it comes...
one has to take it with humor.

 In this sense....

 ...I'm rock'n' into the weekend.


I might catch a few dancing butterflies...



A bientôt....

A Review of May/June - La Pouyette - Part 2...

...in early June

all Geraniums are potted...
finally!

brighten up "pink-fully" our porch

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 Hydrangeas... 

...started flowering

as well as...

...Lavenders...

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Lots of garden work....

 
weeding...weeding...weeding,
getting writ of thistles, nettles and others....
most of the time in company with "unhelpful"/"helpful" Oskar,
"unhelpful" in the sense of that he's not able to pull the weeds out
or using tools...etc...
"helpful" because he LOVES being outside, next to me when working in the garden, the......COUNTRYSIDE!
He's rural - like me.

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However - with the help of my brother, together with one of my nephews, 
who came for a 2-week-holiday -
we've managed to get the whole garden in order and shape 
- at least to some extend!

Nephew Philip - waiting for another "Hollywood-Sunset"..


And then - when almost everything looked good, 
good and promising in the sense of "it will stay like this for a while",
 I went back with my brother for a short trip to Germany
to have a little bit of a "wallpaper-change"
(Review of it in next post)
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 Returned to La Pouyette in  
late June...

...I was greeted by the beautiful Hollyhocks from our neighbour,
Monsieur Renard,
who planted them for me some years ago...

 ...just to please me!

Such a simple "Country Happiness"

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I will not bore you about the "greetings" and "hellos" from all the new weeds!!!!

 Looking at the bright side:

All Hydrangeas now in full flower:

"Mophead"" ones  and  "Lacecap" ones....

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Oakleaf - quercifolia

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also Lavenders...

 ...already in their full beauty

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Oleander:

Acanthus:

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the small olive trees in progress of developing  fruits...

...and with some more sun (we had enough of rain so far!!!) 
and a bit of luck
we might have a wonderful great olive harvesting this year...

 ....my antique, late 19th century (ca. 1880) Italian storage jars 
are ready!

 Ready for the necessary treatment and preservation.
Uncured, olives are extremely bitter and sour tasting, not pleasant at all.
The whole process will take some time before the olives are eatable
(more about it in Autumn)

Two more Italian storage jars from around 1900

Another idea:
I would also like to bring the olives to a mill nearby us
to have my own olive oil,
filled in one or two of old wine bottles.

might you - for 1 liter of oil we need 5 to 10 Kilogram of olives!!!

  I'm probably too optimistic....

However..we'll see !

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Late June....

Sunny days...

 

...and clouded ones...

Stormy weather....

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...however the weather...

...these Hollyhocks stand tall!

 And the sunsets are dramatic and beautiful as ever....

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 Goodby Spring.....

 Summer is in sight...

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 Preview of next post:
 "My short trip to Germany"

 My brothers garden, 
a kind of an oldfashion Bauerngarten (Farmers garden)

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Oh - by the way....
If you would like to enjoy a "flâneuring" through a wonderful  English "Spring garden",
please visit the blog Jaqueline@Home 



A garden created with care, passion and love for the nature
and - without any doubts - well maintained!
click   here

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 Like to close this post with Debussy's


"Clair de Lune"  

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Until then....