4 Photos - Friends & Lovers

 

 When Love was a Crime.

 

Toodle Pip

 

The Delargo Gardens - September

September has been wetter and colder than the average but the salvias have found their stride but as you will see they are not always easy to photograph. My apologies to you and them.

 Salvia Ember's Wish 

Salvia uliginosa

Salvia Rockin 'Fuchsia'

Salvia Amethyst Lips

Salvia 'Joy'

Salvia 'African Sky' 

Salvia patens 'Patio Deep Blue'

Salvia 'Mirage Cherry Red'

Salvia 'Amistad'

Salvia 'Nachtvlinder'

Salvia Love and Wishes

 Salvia 'Day Glow'

We do have more Salvias but either they were not in flower or I just didn't manage to get a photo.

After that and quick cup of tea lets have a peek out of the tea rooms window -

Now that you have finished your tea it's time to jump up into the land rover to visit the rest of the vast estate of Delargo Towers

While a lot of the garden is starting to go to sleep the Begonias are are still going strong

The last flush of the Phlox

and the Canterbury Bells

Nicotiana

Scaevola aemula (Fairy-fan flower):

My adored Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'

OK it's not brilliant but we will have some Canterbury Bells and Foxgloves for next year.

There we are me dears. We are coming to the end of our visit. There is just time to have a cheeky peek at at this years Fuchsias Fest - Fuchsia 'Celia Smedley'

There tis then me darlins. Donny and I hope you enjoyed your visit and we hope to see you back in the garden in October.

Till then me dears; it's Ttfn from Donny

and

Ttfn from me.

Toodle Pip 

4 Photos - Gary Cooper; Super Duper

 

Nuff Said

Ttfn 

4 photos - The Mitford Girls

Last night I dreamt that I bumped into the Duchess of Devonshire while shopping in Harvey Nichols. It turned out that we were old friends and we went of to have tea together.  

Back in the realms of reality... I thought I would do a post on the The Mitford Girls.

From the top left: Unity, Jessica, Diana, Nancy, Deborah and Pamela.

Six aristocratic sisters born in the first decade of the 20th century whose lives spanned extraordinary extremes. The Mitford sisters, the daughters of the 2nd Baron Redesdale. In the 1930s they were celebrated and sometimes scandalous figures. 

Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur.

In order:

Nancy Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973) She lived in France for much of her adult life. She wrote many novels, including the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. 

Nancy

Pamela Mitford (25 November 1907 – 12 April 1994); John Betjeman was for a time was in love with her, and referred to her as the "Rural Mitford". She married and later divorced millionaire physicist Derek Jackson.

Diana Mitford (17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003) married aristocrat and writer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, in 1929. She left him in 1933 for British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, whom she married in 1936. The couple were imprisoned  in Holloway Prison from May 1940 until November 1943.

Diana and Oswald Mosley

Unity Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948). Her adulation of, and friendship with, Adolf Hitler was widely publicised. She shot herself in the head just hours after Britain declared war on Germany, surviving, but with permanent brain damage. 

Jessica Mitford (11 September 1917 – 23 July 1996). Unlike the rest of her family, she was a communist. She eloped to Spain to participate in the Civil War, and subsequently moved to the United States. In 1941 her husband's aircraft was lost over the North Sea with all on board. She remained in the U.S. most of her adult life, She remarried and was a member of the American Communist Party until 1958. She was the grandmother of James Forman Jr. and Chaka Forman, sons of the African-American civil rights leader James Forman.

Deborah Mitford (31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014). Married Andrew Cavendish, who later became the Duke of Devonshire, and with him turned his ancestral home Chatsworth House into one of Britain's most successful stately homes.

  

I do have the Duchess of Devonshire's Chatsworth Cookery Book by the way.

Toodle-loo 

4 Photos - Drag Queens

I am glad that I am restricted to only four photos otherwise this list could have gone on for a very long time.

 

H.I.H. Regina Fong - Reginald Sutherland Bundy (26 May 1946 – 15 April 2003) 

CLICK Here to see Her Imperial Highness on stage. Her show at the 'Black Cap' was a Sunday ritual and an institution. The place would be packed, standing room only and every one know the actions of the routines off by heart.
 

Phil Starr - Arthur James Fuller; (March 31, 1932 - October 18, 2005)

CLICK Here  to see her in action. I adored Phil Starr he was very, very funny indeed, rude but funny.

 

Two for price of one. Dave Lynn on the left (thankfully still with us) and on the right the much missed Maisie Trollette - David Raven (15 August 1933 – 12 March 2025)

CLICK Here to see Brightons finest in action.

Last but in no means last Lily Savage - Paul O'Grady (1955–2023)

 Both Lily Savage and Paul O'Grady are deeply missed by the whole country. He was taken too soon.

 CLICK Here to see Lily having a rant.

 

Ttfn

&

Toodle-Pip 

4 Photos - Hearthrobs

 A few of my Heartthrobs from the archive, well they make me throb anyway.

You don't have to take your clothes off to be sexy

Cary Grant in Madame Butterfly
 

Tyrone Power in ‘Cafe Metropole’, 1937.

A young Buster Keaton

Ricky Martin with his legs open.

 

There tiz then me dears

Toodle Pip 

The Delargo Gardens - August

Here we is again me dears; where has the month gone? Time has flown by and we are into late Summer already.

 As you know our Blue Lace Cap Hydrangea was definitely pink last month. We applied a bluing agent but to late to change the open blooms but the new shoots are a much nicer colour and next year we will make sure it is all bluer than blue.

 The Begonias have flowered well all Summer and are still looking fab

While the other phlox were at their peak last month this one - Blue Paradise - has waited till now and is rather lovely.

 

Rosa Gertrude Jekyll must be enjoying the extra sun and has given us a second flush.

  I am over the moon with both of our new Thalictrum, above is delavayi 

  above is Thalictrum Hewitt's Double

There we are then me darlins, It's time to grab your hip flask and jump up into the Land Rover for a tour of our vast estate.

and a new stop on the tour, the 'Top Field'

 

 some of the Salvias started flowering last month; this month they are looking fab but it will be next month that they all should be strutting their stuff. in the meantime we can enjoy these

Salvia Love and Wishes

Salvia 'Day Glow'

Salvia Rockin 'Fuchsia'

Salvia 'Amistad'

 

Salvia greggii 'Mirage Cherry Red'

 I adore the foliage of this Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'

 Before you head off for to the VIP Champagne Tent there is just enough time for a sneak preview of the Fuchsia Fest. - Lady Boothby

There tiz me dears. We hope to see you next month for a Salvia extravaganza but till then -

It's Ttfn from Donny

 and it's Ttfn from me

Toodle-Pip.