A school project

 

A while ago I was asked by our local school if I would take part in a letter writing project. Children rarely, if ever,  write letters today. Actually not many adults do either. 

Each child is 'given' an adult to whom they write. No addresses are exchanged and only Christian names are used. 

I received a recent letter from 'Penpal E'. She is nine years old and a very chatty little girl. Her letters are full of questions....'What's your favourite colour? Mine is blue. Do you have any animals? I have a cat'. Great excitement this week when she wrote that she was going 'to an island called Monorca for the Summer holiday....and staying in a VILLA!!!!'

The school is putting emphasis on sentence structure, proper address of the school written in the top of the paper, the date given. It's not perfect, but the point is that they are learning to correspond....and dont we all make mistakes?

Having written a letter and addressed the envelope,the children go to the post office to post them. It has so far been a success with all the writers and recipients enjoying the correspondence. Except for one person , who opted out, saying she 'found the letters a bit too childish'. I guess when you are a child you write as a child

Sitting in the shade.

 Here in Cornwall we are all staying indoors. The heat is reaching extreme levels, with 40 degrees forecast this coming week.

I spend a little time, particularly in the early evening, on this little bench under the apple tree. Here there is dappled shade, and I'm  surrounded by my favourite rose, and a bed full of Cosmos and Snapdragons (Antirrhinum).

A pale lilac Clematis climbs lazily up the tree and every year seems to reach a higher branch.

The tissue paper rose petals of Pierre never cease to delight me. Most of my roses are suffering from the heat at the moment, with buds dropping and flowers falling.

A garden table outside the back door holds a colourful array of Pelargoniums and Petunias. They are a little joy every time I go out into the garden.

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.

Gertrude Jekyll

Garden corners.

I have so little to write about, so it's back to some garden photos today. We have had some lovely sunny days, but today it rains. Winds have blown my roses, petals are strewn on the lawn. There are more buds opening each day.

June is a month of lovely colourful blooming.

These are some of my  pots, full of Dahlias, Geraniums, Verbenas, Scabious and more.

 This pretty stripey Dahlia is much loved by the bees.

You can see that my garden is not at all regimented and manicured. I love the mingling of plants and I'm happy to let them crowd each other, growing over and into other plants. Maybe I'm a lazy gardener!

Roses are abundant this year.

Below is beautiful Peace. Every garden needs a Peace rose.

This is a rose that I first found in France, called Pullman Orient Express. You can now buy it in the UK under the name of Love and Peace. The colours seem to change with every bloom.

And this is Pierre de Ronsard, one of my all time favourites. The sculpturalness (is that a word?) of the petals thrills me.

As you can see.

One day I'm going to learn how to make one of the photo collages that are so neat.

Just to show you that there are 

other things beside flowers....

Tomatoes with marigolds.