In the cold and wet of the last few weeks the lilac and laburnum flowers, like most things, has refused to do anything but remain tightly furled in tiny, hard little buds. This week, and almost overnight, they’ve all burst into ravishingly radiant and resplendent life.
For Becky’s #SquaresRenew.
Last week, I showed you wisteria on the front of the house. Today, we’ll sneak into the walled garden and look at the clematis framing one of the windows in our neighbour’s house – there it is in the featured photo. And here’s the lilac, just coming out:
And here’s the view from the kitchen window – the lilac’s still budded, but soon it will be fully out – for one week only – before becoming once more a rather unremarkable shrub.
I may produce more lilac for Jude’s Life in Colour: two shades of purple to go at in just a few days. But I promised another window view for Ludwig’s Monday Window. So here we are.
Today, I’m going no further than my kitchen window. The lilac has been glorious this year. Is it because it has been – well – especially spectacular, or have we simply had more time to enjoy its big blowsy blooms and seductive smell? It’s June now, and lilac has no place in the summer garden, so here is the view that has greeted us every breakfast time for about three weeks. Can’t complain about that.
Yesterday you had a peek at our sitting room window, from the outside. Come on in. We’ll go upstairs, into the kitchen. This is our view from the breakfast table. And it’s lilac time – almost. White, mauve and purple, all in bud, all on the cusp of bursting into flower for one glorious week. Our Top Time of year for breakfast beauty. Aren’t we lucky?
Becky: thank you. This month has been fun. I’m not a natural daily blogger, but it’s been a challenge I’ve enjoyed to find a daily response, almost entirely from photos taken specially for ‘Top Squares’, and I’ve ‘met’ bloggers I wouldn’t otherwise have come across. I can’t resist ending as I began: with a Top Sheep-and a lamb or two.
It’s been quite a treat to stare out of our kitchen window these last two days. We have three lilac trees, one purple, one mauve and one white, which put on a spectacular and perfumed performance for one week only in May. Two mornings ago, there was not a bud in sight. By the evening, tight little green buds had appeared. Yesterday they were bigger. Today they’ve revealed their colours. Tomorrow they’ll be out. Then we go on holiday ….. and miss the rest.
Here’s what these hot few days in early May have produced in the garden. A few early flowers: narcissi , primroses still survive – just.
Naked trees have suddenly unfurled tender young leaves. Blossom blossoms. Bluebells and dandelions and poinsettia have appeared. The first wisteria flowers shyly peek from behind their delicate leaves. Spring has sprung.
And here is some May time music: Thomas Morley’s ‘Now is the month of maying’, sung by the Beaumont Singers.
The view from our kitchen window this morning, 20th May 2016.
‘Now is the month of Maying’ (Thomas Morley, 1595)
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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