A Neighbourhood Walk

We've been busy arranging Mr P's trip so I've not been able to keep up with blogging recently and my reading of your blogs and commenting have both been hit and miss.  I hope you're keeping well.

It's lilac time here and the trees in our immediate neighbours' garden have come into bloom along with other blossom.  I took a walk along the lane by our house yesterday (sunny weather) and this morning (cloudy) and went right around the island of houses formed by the crescent. 

a wild patch with cowslips and dandelions

In our own garden the rosemary bush is flowering, the magnolia tree is still full of blooms and there's a pop of colour from the wallflowers.

The grape vines are beginning to produce leaves.

Spanish bluebells (above).  We've taken most of them out and left only a clump or two in the garden where they cannot spread.  They're pretty, but they're an invasive variety.  As yet I've not been able to go to the woods to see the blue haze formed by hundreds of the English bluebells.

The peonies are in bud.

French lavender

There's a lot going on with the plants, young and old, and Mr P's flower and vegetable seedlings in the covered yard. They're all well established and we shall continue to look after them and the ones in the greenhouse. I'll share more another time.

Thank you once more for visiting.  Have a good rest of the week, 

Linda.

   

Floral Bliss #20

Beyond our back garden hedge in the neighbour's garden

 the trees and shrubs are in full flower.

 I only have to walk down the narrow lane by our house

 to see the lilac overhanging our shared wall

 and look up at the golden tassels of laburnum flowers.

I'm linking up with Ritta and Floral Bliss

 to celebrate the beauty of flowers around the world.

Lilac-time

As well as other blossom in pinks and mauve, the lilac adds a sweet perfume to the neighbourhood where I live and particularly the ones leaning over the stone walls in the little road that winds around in a crescent next to our home.

The poem that includes the line 'Come down to Kew in lilac -time, (it isn't far from London)!' would normally refer to the earlier month of April.  However, the beautiful lilac is a welcome addition to May flowers.

I didn't have to go far to take these photos during a sunny hour last week.  Since then we are back to cold winds and rain.

Yesterday I spent an interesting afternoon with a group, mainly Friends of Derby Museums and Art Gallery, taking a walk with a writer and historian guide to see where John Whitehurst, the famous clockmaker, instrument maker and geologist lived as part of the tercentenary celebrations of Whitehurst's birth. The heavy rain and wind did not deter us, but my photographs captured some  bleak scenes, especially as many of the buildings associated with this fascinating man and his associate, the landscape and portrait painter, Joseph Wright, are in need of some TLC and promotion such as the Friends of the Museums are trying to do.  I didn't manage to go into the Joseph Wright Gallery to see his paintings as I was in need of a cup of tea with our relatives before heading back home.  That's something to look forward to another time!

Plaque in the pavement near John Whitehurst's house.

John Whitehurst's premises in Irongate is covered in scaffolding and plastic tarpaulin.

The alleyway leads to his first clock making workshop at the back of the house.

The narrow building of the clock making workshop.
Many fine clocks were made by
members of his clock making family
 and those that were apprenticed to them such as
the Smiths of Derby.

                                                  The clock tower of Derby Cathedral