17 Comments
User's avatar
Cleo Welsh's avatar

What a lovely tender piece Jack. Wishing you Love in your heart and a spring in your step …

Jack Wallington's avatar

Thank you Cleo 😊 have a lovely day.

Feargal O'Neill's avatar

Happy Solstice everyone! What a beautiful day to be alive.

Jack Wallington's avatar

Wonderful! Happy solstice Feargal, have a great day.

Garden Witch's avatar

What a lovely piece and I felt similarly when I lost my parents. It's the final and most painful rite of passage. I do hope you find some peace in your next move.

Jack Wallington's avatar

Thank you, it does feel like that - that's a nice way of describing it. I generally find a peace in keeping momentum, making plans, achieving some but not all. No pressure, just a focus to life I guess. And of course, the garden is my grounding anchor.

Penny Errill's avatar

Gorgeous photos and sentiments, lovely to see your wonderful garden developing so well

Penny Errill's avatar

You too!

Jack Wallington's avatar

Thanks Penny, have a wonderful day.

Clive's avatar

lovely post and also love the photos. We're also seeing the planting come together and find its own way, everywhere we look something is establishing and flowering, with less input needed from us. Its great seeing similar plants thriving together in your garden.

Louise Branch's avatar

Thanks for sharing images of such a beautiful garden. But how come there's no bind weed? I've just spent 20 mins in my own garden and the result is 3 trugs worth of it!

Jack Wallington's avatar

The one plant we don’t seem to have is bindweed but we do have everything else so don’t worry! Cleavers has had an explosion this year and I’ve pulled out wheelbarrow loads of it. But I find if you have a strong plant community, it is easier to deal with these ultra vigorous plants. It’s harder when people over weed leaving soil bare etc. ideal conditions for them to thrive.

Nicola Pegg's avatar

A beautiful, thoughtful piece of writing. Perfect for today. Thank you for sharing

Musings of an Octogenarian's avatar

Your garden looks lovely. It's a lot like mine where all plants are welcome unless, like Himalayan balsam,it threatens to swamp our native flora. Every year its seeds come in when the brook which runs through our garden floods our lower lawn. Everything else is welcome.

Sharon Moncur's avatar

Good luck with your orchid hunt, Jack. We were able to enjoy a number of greater butterfly orchids around us in our French life, although none appeared in our garden during our stewardship. I loved them!

Judith Franklin's avatar

P.S. I've just seen your photos of the garden and it's looking glorious.

Judith Franklin's avatar

Happy Summer Solstice to you too, from County Down, N I.

I can certainly identify with your sentiments Jack. I definitely became much more conscious of my mortality after my Mum died, when I was 52. My father having died when I was 21, it meant that I was effectively an orphan!

It's a very strange feeling.

I'm hoping our garden is going to be ok with the coming heat this week. Our neighbour is looking after it, while we're away.