In a Vase on Monday - Early Summer

We can probably say that Spring is over, and we are now in Summer.  Clear deep blue sky and wall to wall sunshine today, is bringing people out into the fresh air.  I picked my flowers early, and just as I was taking the pictures, we decided to go on a cycle ride.  Both of us are feeling much better and stronger now...we achieved the longest cycle ride for ages round 18 miles.  I have never seen so many walkers and cyclists, and so few vehicles...it was like a country festival on the roads, with lots of hellos and waves. Now that we are back and have had our lunch in the garden, I can settled down to complete this post. Later I shall catch up with all the other posts on Cathy's IAVOM post which has a very similar vase filled with the sweetest of Sweet Peas.

The flowers stand in a lovely heavy Caithness glass vase.

Verbascum phoeniceum violetta, which I had bought from the Malvern Spring Show and had written about in my vase last year, has thankfully returned this year.  Kathy who hosts this weekly meme, grew hers from seed.  The very hot weather does not really suit the plants, with sun scorching the blooms, so it was worth while cutting them for this vase.

Allium cristophii here with small blooms continues the purple theme.  They had given very large blooms when the bulbs were first planted in the front garden.  When I needed to dig them up to make way for some other plants, I split the bulb and replanted it amongst the other herbaceous plants in the back garden.

Centaurea Montana Alba has been marvellous, with over fifty blooms to one plant.  It is looking a little tired now, so next week it will be chopped right down, with a good watering to set it on its way for its second flowering.

Quaking Grass: Briza Maxima gives a little pale green freshness and movement and is just the right scale for the small garden.

Yesterday the Bishop's Palace opened for the first time in weeks.  Members only for a few hours followed a well marked route.  Under the large Paulownia tomentosa Tree, also known as the Foxglove tree, my love picked up the little seed pod and gave it to me as a gift.  This man really knows what pleases me.  There are a few of these fine specimen trees dotted around Wells,  with a two youngish Paulownia tomentosa outside the entrance and one fine large Paulownia tomentosa with its blue flowers and later large leaves in the Bishop's Palace arboretum in Wells.  To look up in the springtime and see a  tree covered with large blue flowers, before any of the leaves emerge,  is indeed very exotic sight.

The pair of swans and the six cygnets, now growing fast were very much enjoyed....the seventh cygnet got separated, and not accepted back into the group, but I understand it is thriving somewhere with special care and will be reintroduced to the large flocks on the levels when the time is right.