2 stars out on Sunday

I was out having a bit of a tidy on Sunday & a couple of beauties caught my eye.

Japanese anemone

A light in a dark place

I bought it & planted it out late last year, & crossed my fingers. I had no idea if I'd put it in a suitable location. I had not a clue what soil type it preferred. Then we had a long cold Winter. & then a bit of the boundary wall fell off & landed on it. Talk about a rough ride.

But it's made it through all that trauma & has just started flowering under its own steam. Hooray! A late season glow in The White Corner.

Common frog

Can I go now?

I found this fella at the bottom of the raspberry canes whilst doing the annual tidy-up. Every year we spot a frog in the garden: sometimes in the compost; even in the greenhouse! This always confuses us as we don't have a pond...

After posing for its close-up, this healthy hopper headed toward the house. Aha! Hubby's hunch was spot on - there's a rainwater drain & soakaway in that corner, right under the raspberries. Suddenly it all makes much more sense.

& while we're on about the raspberries, The Alnwick Garden loop method for corralling long canes worked brilliantly. I heartily recommend it.