IMAGINE!

First of all "HAPPY BIRHDAY" to Betty at Country Charm.....hope you have a wonderful day!

I had a lovely weekend with Lynn and could finally give her the birthday present that's been sitting in the garden waiting for her at it would have been to awkward to mail!..............she now has a Musa lasiocarpa (Chinese Yellow Banana), to add to her own beautiful garden. Thank goodness she had a car big enough to get it into. Leanne and co had bought her some cyclamen; I bet Lynn couldn't wait to get on with some gardening when she got home. Lynn is studying hard at the moment for an examination she has to do as part of her job......once this is over (September 13th) I'm hoping to get down and see her and Steve for a couple of days....although they've sent photos of their garden over the last few years it will be lovely to see it for real again before Autumn and Winter set in.

On Saturday we went for a trip to Poplar Nurseries near Marks Tey; it was quite exciting to go somewhere that I wouldn't be able to get to on public transport and I haven't been there since the Autumn of 2004 when Mick was the driver.
We decided we'd have some fun and give ourselves £500 each IMAGINARY spending money. I think we could have happily spent that on plants and bulbs alone and would have needed another £5000 each to purchase some of the following;

we both fell in love with this wooden water feature; the water trickling down the sides of the wooden sphere brought out the colours and grain of the wood beautifully...

these containers were made by the same company.........and Lynn had her eye on the bench!...if only that IMAGINARY money was real!!!!

one of the plants we both would have put on our shopping list was this Campsis; this is actually growing over a fence at the garden centre but they sold smaller plants for £16.99 which I thought was quite reasonable compared to some of the prices I saw charged for what I would consider just "every day" plants.

I'd never have room for this wonderful garden dining set....Lynn and Steve would though....memo to Steve if you're reading this "Hide your credit card!"...LOL



There were some wonderful Bonsais on display.......... the tiny pots at the front must be the smallest Bonsais I've ever seen!
Of course no IMAGINARY spend up would be complete without a Sauna!...this was the cheapest we saw...a mere £3,500!!!!
Imaginary shopping can be very tiring so we had a very civilised cuppa in the cafe and then resumed our wishful sending spree... I fell in love with a couple of the water featuresI wonder if an elephant in the garden would keep my neighbours cat out of the garden!
and can you just imagine relaxing in this on a warm Summer's evening........
I wonder what Lottie's chickens would think about these...............


Lynn bought herself, me, Manda and Leanne one of these "Star Balls"...they will look lovely with a tealight inside.

I bought a plant (in the photo above)...surprise! LOL...it was only £1.49 and I just had to get it because I didn't know what it was!!!! I'm usually pretty good at naming most of the plants we see in Garden Centres and Lynn was astounded when I'd actually found one I couldn't name. It has Lantana type leaves and Flaming Katy type flowers. There was no label on it and so I asked at the check out what it was. The lady said Chleome but I was pretty sure it wasn't so she called another member of staff who said it was a PANTAS. I've done a search online and can find one photo but no text or information about PANTAS at all. I assume it's non hardy and intend to take some cuttings. It's probably something that's quite common in warmer climes so if any of my blogpals can give me further information or an alternative name for it I'd be very grateful.
The afternoon turned out really warm and sunny and we went on to Leanne's for a fish and chip dinner.......

no we didn't nab Koi from the garden centre...we got them from Leanne's local Chippy....we were so busy chatting and eating I forgot to take any photos except this one of Scarlet.... The fish was really creamy and the chips just like PROPER homemade chips cooked in dripping. I use Oven Chips at home now I've only myself to cook for and I guess they are healthier and less fattening but those chip shop calories and cholesterol tasted SOOOOO GOOD!!!

Hope you all had a good weekend too.....must fly...lots to do!