Flaming Nora

From mini-daffodils to big and blousy ones, hyacinths and tulips, the garden is full of gorgeous flowers right now. Take a look at my pics at on flickr. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Come into my garden.... All of the pictures taken so far this year showing the garden at its best are now on my flickr site. Have a look at them here, if you'd like to . ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Just a couple of weeks ago the garden was bright and shiny with tulips . Now they've passed over, and the garden heads from brilliant spring to bright summer, there's a softer shape and style to the flowers.  It just keeps on getting better. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

In the garden this morning, this Red Admiral butterfly sat on the lawn for some minutes, unmoving, wings spread.  It stayed still just long enough for me to take its photo and then it flew away.  ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

This spring I was given a courgette plant. "Ooh," I thought. "I've never grown a courgette before. And I quite like them, so it'll be nice when it's grown and I can cook it and that." I know. In my defence, all I can say is I had no idea. I really did believe there would be just one courgette to a plant. And instead, there are hundreds of them, or at least it seems that way.  Over the last few weeks my one plant has produced enough courgettes for me to have eaten them baked, grilled, fried, raw in salad and cooked in soup. And they still keep coming. Today I turned to Sir Nigel of Slater to see what he had to say.  This afternoon I've baked his Courgette and Lancashire cheese crumble ( recipe here ) and judging by the wonderful smells drifting in from the kitchen as it cooks, it's going to be good.  I think it's the one recipe that could put the Cor! into courgette. Next year I'm growing carrots instead. ______ I'm on ...

On holidays in hot countries I've often see Bougainvillea growing wild, along the road sides, in all kinds of colours. And I've toyed over the years with the idea that I might grow one at home as an indoors plant, but never really dared to try, thinking they were too exotic and delicate for the likes of my clumsy if keen green fingers. When I'd found Bougainvillea plants for sale online, they were expensive, and I thought, tricky to grow, so I didn't bother.  But the other week a local greengrocer had Bougainvillea plants for sale along with their apples and pears. They had two sizes of plant, small for a fiver and large for a tenner. I went for the small one, thinking it would be less money to waste on a plant I might not be able to make survive as a house plant in the North of England, when it really should be growing wild and pretty on a Spanish plain. But I've done it... and I couldn't be more proud. The plant that cost me a fiver has been repotted ...

It's late June and our gardens at the back and front of the house are stunning.  Loads of colour - loads of life. As a child, I dreamed that when I grew up I'd have a garden like the one in the nursery ryhme 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary' and indeed now I do. I have silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.  Well, no not really. I don't have anything in a row. apart from my leeks. There are no places for rows in a flower garden, the messier and more cottage-garden like, the better. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Apple blossom, ready to pop, photographed in the garden today.  Better late than never.

Pootling through my old Flaming Nora blog posts I came across a fair few pictures of our old garden in London and realised that although we've been in the new house in Sunderland for over a year, I'd not posted any garden pictures.  So here is the first one.  If you know me on facebook of course (and I only facebook-friend people I know) then you'll have seen the full set. In London, our back garden was our refuge from the crowds, the rush, the noise that was London. It was a tranquil space full of gorgeous plants with a mature apple tree in the middle and after 10 years working on it, it was a little gem. There's not much I miss about London but I miss that back garden. Anyway, the new back garden up north is almost twice the size of that London one and we've got a mahoosive front garden too. Despite it being battered by sea-breeze and salt air, the soil is fertile and just about everything you plant out will grow. It's a labour of love, there's a lot...

Packing up our house to leave London later this year, it'll be our garden I'll miss the most. For all of the blog posts I've written on Flaming Nora about Naming Flora have a look here.

Our garden at night twinkles and shines, with the help of tea-lights and a summer sun that sets behind the north London bricks. Minutes after taking this picture on a hot summer's night, the evening got hotter and lighter when our next door neighbour decided to get rid of an apple tree in their garden by pouring petrol all over it and setting it on fire. Not nice.

It doesn't get much prettier than this; our garden at the height of spring. Summer's great, and the borders fill out with foliage but it's spring when the colour really shines through. Frothy blossom, vibrant tulips, buttery daffodils and a lawn that is so fresh and green it's almost fluroescent.

One of the joys (insert ironic humph and grrr) of our London house not having sold yet is that we're able to enjoy our garden at its best. Today with the sun shining and the flowers blooming, it was too nice not to get the camera out. And see that rhubarb there in the left at the back on the second photo? We're picking that and having some for dessert tomorrow night.

Some wonderful pictures taken today of the turning of the leaves in our garden as autumn sets in. And summer flowers still bloom. And the birds haven't nicked all of the grapes.

Last week it was pictures of the birds and the bees and this week it's a butterfly in our garden. Still a disappointing lack of ladybirds though.

By 'eck, I'm chuffed with these pictures taken today in our garden.

All this summer rain might make it unpleasant to sit out and get wet, but it's making the garden look gorgeous.

Flowers are out, sun's shining, beers are chilled and it's another glorious sunny Sunday in our garden.

Our back garden's gorgeous right now, possibly the prettiest it'll be all year. Possibly.

Planted over 100 bulbs, raked the leaves for compost, chased the squirrels and filled up the bird feeder. Glorious autumn days like this are few and far between and although the garden's dying down for the winter, there's bags of colour still.