After a great deal of thought and deliberation, following my birthday, I have changed the title of my blog from “Hurtling Towards 60 and Beyond” to “Hurtled to 60 and Now Beyond”. I hope it was a sensible idea. Since changing my URL address a few months ago, the lack of viewers from Blotanical is very noticeable, despite advising them of the change and has been very disappointing.
I am slowly beginning to suss out what proves popular. This blog is not supposed to be solely about gardening and gardens, which I love and could write about all the time. My aim is to pitch it at the right level, to continue gaining readers and keep those I already have. That is why feedback, and comments are so important and I must remember to do the same on other blogs I read. I am very remiss at reading and passing on to the next, and apologize to all those of you who have taken the time to write really interesting blogs.
The post I wrote at the end of July about reaching 60 created a lot of interest and the viewing numbers shot up but sadly my last post about Highdown Gardens bombed with very few visits. Maybe because it was a local garden, and not as engaging to read about as an event, an experience or a place that can be identified with.
Talking about identifying, can anyone tell me what this shrub is please? It is quite large and looked as though someone had dusted it with magenta coloured powder. I saw shrub this at Michelham Priory, near Eastbourne.
I went there yesterday and drove my friend mad practicing with my camera. Taking lots of photographs is the only way I am going to learn about apertures and focusing. It came with a manual and there are really good websites with tips and ideas but I have difficulty in learning anything just by reading. Being a ‘hands-on’ person, I need to actually do something before I can get to grips with how it works. The same thing happens at work, we get sent off on a training course and sit in front of Powerpoint slides and a trainer, it means nothing to me until I get to be able to actually use what they are trying to teach us to do.
Briefly back to Michelham Priory. I was so disappointed because the gardens were overgrown and full of weeds, very different from my last visit about five years ago. Such a shame, it is in a lovely setting and the flower beds clearly need a little TLC and I wondered why they had left it to get into such a state.
I won’t overload this post with photos but wanted to show you just two more from Michelham. I loved the poppy heads standing proud with still a few poppies in flower, and…
…the berries on the heavily laden bushes.
