Max's roses

Though summer's bloom time is meant to have come to an end, Max's rose tree seems to have had a second season, sprouting more flowers than it did the first time. I must be doing something right! I had religiously dead-headed the fading blooms, and more grew in their place which was such a lovely surprise. It has given me much joy seeing it come to life again when I thought it was done.

The rose bush's second bloom

The weather is a bit inclement at the moment, so I cut some of the flowers to bring inside to enjoy rather than see them get ruined by rain and wind. Sebastian was very curious about these soft, silky petals and kept rubbing his little face against them and licking them. Here is a picture of him exploring my floral arrangement, in which you can see the beautiful blooms Max's plant has given us as part of summer's last hurrah.

Sebastian enjoying baby Max's pretty roses

Mummy, daddy, Max and the roses, which help us remember him

A single, perfect bloom

Another garden surprise

I went outside yesterday and what do you know, there's another plant that's sprung up out of nowhere in our front garden! This one's a beauty. I have no idea what it is, but if you recognise it please let me know! It has a long stalk that is all spiky, kind of like a rose, but it's definitely not a rose. It bloomed just a single, stunning flower that is the prettiest deep pink colour. It's growing right behind a massive tree in our front yard, so it really wasn't getting any sunlight or anything. Behold my new miracle plant!

I used Instagram on my iPhone to take this picture and I think it came out beautifully! I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing or how to use it properly, so it was pure luck that I was able to get the picture onto this blog. I hope I haven't missed the Instagram boat by only just realising how awesome it is. I'm going to find an online tutorial so I can catch up!

A Garden Surprise

When we moved into this house back in July last year it had been freshly renovated. The front of the house had been rendered and the front yard landscaped with very modern styling: neat edges, and non-descript grasses obviously making the place look more 'sellable'. I've never really had a garden before, having lived almost my entire adult life in small flats. But if I were going to have a garden I'd choose a much more traditional one, with lovely hedges and old English flowers. We've toyed with the idea of pulling out the horrible plants we don't like (of which there are many) but we haven't gotten around to it yet as it seems like quite a task when we know so little about gardening. But we were treated to an unexpected surprise in the garden without even having to lift a finger when a beautiful, blooming, pink rose bush arose from the dirt in between two of these horrid grass plants, as if out of nowhere!

We were thinking 'hmm...that definitely wasn't there before!' and it wasn't - at least not since we've been here. But if you look carefully at this image on Google Earth, which is a picture of our house before it was renovated, you'll see that the rose bush did indeed belong there along the front fence!

Obviously the owner cut it all down and attempted to get rid of it, but this rose bush is hardy and survived! We had done nothing to tend to that area of the garden bed - we hadn't watered it or anything, so this is really amazing!

I was really excited about this. It is such a lovely thought to think about it coming back to life from beneath the ground, and I felt it poignant somehow that it has bloomed during what have been the darkest hours of our lives. Happy pink rose plant, we will take better care of you now and hope you continue to grow and kill all of the horrible 'fashionable' plants next to you!