Roses, roses, roses and more roses

We've had a few days of really lovely weather up here in the north - after months of poor weather and rain nearly every day.  Suddenly the garden has sprung to life and the roses - about a month late this year - are opening everywhere.  The mill looks at its best.   I have a passion for old roses - the ones with wonderful names like Cardinal Richelieu and Madame Alberic Barbier, Ghislaine de Felisonde, and the beautiful Queen of Denmark.  Couldn't resist taking a few pics to share - the perfume is unbelievable.  This is one thing I will miss when I go to Italy.  At the foot of the steps to the garden I've got one of the David Austin roses and the colour and scent are wonderful.  I love the chaotic patterns of the petals as they unfurl.

I'm also very keen on wild rose species and have two - a red one from China which the bees go wild for, and another white one called Rosa Alba. 

The Apothecary's Rose has striped petals and is supposed to be very ancient.

In order to deter Saturday night revellers from climbing into my garden  I've got some really prickly specimens on the fence.   Stanwell Perpetual flowers all the time, but is lethal!   And then I have a German rose called ParkDirektor Riggers - single, dark red and very precise.

I'm particularly fond of rambling roses - scrambling up trees and up onto the cliff behind the mill.  This one is called The Rambling Rector.

And this is the crowning glory - four storey's high and a pillar of colour and perfume.  Paul's Himalyan Musk.

Hard to leave England when it looks like this!  But Neil rang me last night, spending his first night in our new home.  He described the lights twinkling in the valley below, the sun setting in the distant sea,  and it sounds utterly magical.  Two more weeks!

Where are the bees?

It's taken me a while to notice, but there are hardly any bees in my garden this year. I've seen only two. This is very strange, since the mill is on a river bank, surrounded by uncultivated river meadows with swathes of wild flowers, and my garden is organic - I don't use any pesticides or herbicides. The blossom from the apple trees and the damsons has already dropped, but at the moment, both the river bank and the garden are full of flowers - dame's violet, buttercups, daisies, lupins, welsh poppies, acquilegia, cranesbill, as well as roses. I have a thing about old roses, so I grow wild tangles of Madame Albert Carriere, Rambling Rector, Paul's Himalayan Musk, Ghislaine de Felisande, Parkdirektor Riggers, Stanwell Perpetual, Dublin Bay, as well as the Apothecary's rose, the Queen of Denmark and half a dozen others. The lack of form drives Neil mad! There's a lovely Chinese wild rose with deep pink cups containing big tufts of yellow stamens loaded with pollen. In previous years the bees have descended on it in buzzing swarms, rolling ecstatically among the petals as if getting high on illegal substances. This year, miserably, the bush is silent.

Back in the sixties, there was a book by Rachel Carson called The Silent Spring. Everyone was very sceptical about it back then. But perhaps she was right?

Ps I've got a book blog if anyone's interested - you can find it if you click on 'my complete profile'. If anyone ever reads it - I'd love some suggestions on what to read next!