In a vase on Monday – keep calm and carry on

The future depends on what you do today.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) 

It’s been an incredibly busy Summer for us.  The organisation I work for has been through a complex restructure;  I’ve moved team, building and started in a brand new role – so there’s been alot of reading, meeting new people and setting up projects and activities.  I’m enjoying the new role and all the new challenges – rather tiring though and my arthritis and back pain have been giving me gip.   I feel like I’m trudging through treacle at the moment but I know all the knowledge and processes I’m setting up will help me later on.

I’ve been so busy, I’ve not contributed to the ‘In a Vase on Monday’ theme since June which I’ve missed very much. I’ve picked flowers fairly often, and even photographed them a few times but have always run out of time writing the ‘actual’ blog post.  I’ve been looking at everyone’s vases though – the vases and the people and their stories bring me much solace.

I’m hoping I’ll have a bit more time to blog as we head towards Christmas.  There’s less options for flowers/plants for vases but I’ll do my best.

Keep calm and carry on – it’s been hectic – In a vase on Monday – 21 September 2016

1. In a Vase on Monday

For this week’s vase, I picked some purple, lilac and pink ‘Spencer’ sweetpeas – they’ve from two different locations one at the front door (you can see them in the background) and the other near our decking at the bottom of the back garden.  The flowers have smelt wonderful. I didn’t fare quite so well with the dwarf sweetpeas – no flowers at all so I don’t think I’ll bother growing them again, I’ve tried growing them for three years but no success.  There’s so little space in our garden everything has to pull its weight.

There’s also some mini red dianthus, some white and red margarite flowers.  Also some pink Pelargonium from a huge plant which I’ve managed to overwinter three times.  There’s some purple wallflowers which survived our mild Mancunian winter – they’ve been flowering all summer too.  And of course, some lavender.  Lavender is one of my favourite plants, I adore the smell. I’ve got about 15 plants in the sunny front garden and a few in the sunniest part of the back garden.   Most of these plants have been flowering most of the summer and have bought us alot of pleasure. We eat out in the garden as much as we can – mind you the weather in Manchester this year has been very changeable (and wet alot of the time).

Do have a look at Cathy’s vase this week over at Rambling in the Garden and everyone posts links to their vases under the post.  Cathy has some really zingy red dahlias this week – they look stunning.  My dahlias are looking a bit sorry as they’ve been munched by the slugs.

2. Running and fundraising for Motor Neurone Disease Association

My Chap has also been out running as usual – he’s loves running off road, anything from the footpaths by the canal, woods and golf courses near where we live to running up mountains.  This year he’s been training for ‘Man v Mountain‘ which was on Saturday 3rd September 2016.   It’s a 22 mile race starting at Caernarfon Castle over the summit of Snowdon and down the other side into Dinorwic Quarry, finishing in Llanberis.
– 5055ft of ascent
– there’s wild swimming, absailing and mud!
– average finish time is 5.5hrs.
My Chap and his pal finished in 6hours – the weather was truly vile – sideways rain and high winds which curtailed running to the top of Snowdon (60 mile hour winds was just too dangerous).  They we soaking when they finished but were grinning from ear to ear – so I think they’ll be doing more ultra runs.   It was a wet and foggy wait for me but I don’t mind the rain, as long as I’ve got the right coat.

My Chap raises money for the MND Association who do so much to help his brother Derek (diagnosed with MND in 2012 aged 46); its a dreadful illness with no cure.  My role in all this is to support My Chap at the events and write all his fundraising pages/emails – as well as asking people to sponsor him. We do as much as we can to help Derek and his family but they live far away.

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/normiddon2016

3. Wedding planning

We’ve also been looking at wedding venues around the North West, some are hideously expensive but we’ve seen some lovely places we could afford. We’ve got a clear idea of the type of place we want to our wedding next September 2017 – In the country, with lovely gardens and a light and airy feel – and if we can have an afternoon tea that would be even better.   We’ve got an EVEN better idea of what we don’t want.

We’ve also been giving flower choices some thought – and I’d like to try to grow some plants either for bouquets, buttonholes or table decorations.

Given my love of purple and lilac – I was very reassured to see Cathy’s choice of flowers last week – Late summer blues – so I may be able to grow some of these next year.b

– I think this could be a lovely bouquet – lavender will definitely be making an appearance.

Have a lovely week and enjoy the sunshine.

I’m going to keep calm and carry on – but I really need a holiday

Carpe Diem

Love Bec xx