The President's Garden

UJ is not a man to blow his own trumpet at all, and so when I saw a photo of him on his sideboard this morning, I was intrigued.  It showed him in the centre, flanked by two others, all three of them cutting a cake with a 50th anniversary celebration design on it.......I had to ask what that was all about, didn't I!  Turns out that the local stockmen's club has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and he was involved in the cutting ceremony because they have just elected him the president of the club.  It is an honorary lifelong title, it seems - the term being for the rest of your life, since most die in office.  I wished him a very very long presidency!

We popped in to see him on our way home from the hospital this morning, and I took the chance to have a nosey around his garden again - there is always a lot to look at.

Some of the plants actually have a connection with me, so I thought I would share a few of them.

These arum lilies [above and below] came from our first garden in Fenland when we moved south from Cupar.  My grandmother and mother were particularly fond of these lilies, and so when we moved from that house, we split up several clumps of them and brought them to UJ's house where they are thriving.

This bush [below] came from the garden of the first Scottish house we had - my mum nabbed a cutting when she came to stay and it grew rather well.  Now it is a large bush at the back of UJ's fishpond and it looks gorgeous covered in light pink flowers.

This honeysuckle is a long established plant in UJ's garden that I remember from my childhood.  It used to have a climbing rose entwined within it, but I think that the honeysuckle has engulfed the rose and it has been overcome!  The honeysuckle smells so sweet on summer evenings.

A closer view of the honeysuckle.

And a peony.  This has nothing to do with me, and is a more recent addition to UJ's collection.  It was a tree peony, but when he cut down a nearby eucalyptus tree, the top of it got damaged and now it has all these bushy shoots which come from lower down the stem, and these produce flowers rather than the original tree stem, although that is still growing.

I am looking forward to seeing this peony in full bloom in a week or so's time when we go to stay at UJ's house for the FH's trip to Papworth for the cardioversion.