Therapeutic effects of Alkanet?

 An old fashioned climber which can get very scruffy.
The Gerbe Rose

Pulling out Alkanet provides the perfect mental backdrop for thinking deep and meaningful thoughts. I can recommend it. Grow some stimulating, thought-provoking Alkanet - the new, therapeutic strategy for the world-weary! Aargh! This is a gardening joke, right? Right!

Giving thanks...

Though giving thanks for Alkanet may be questionable, I do give daily thanks to my garden for being such a quiet and uncomplicated sanctuary (when the wind's not blowing, that is). Am not liking the anti-government protestors in my country. Here it's the vegetable planting and growing season, for goodness sake. Do some gardening.

My wonderful visitors...

My wonderful visitors have been and gone (can heartily recommend them). Of course they mentioned the roses, but they smiled at the gnomes, and took photographs of the cricketers on the back lawn. And not a single mention of the weeds.

An interesting, quirky garden...

I thought my garden looked interesting and quirky, some parts cottagey and fluffy, others quite stylish and structural. My trees looked huge and gorgeous, and I was especially proud of my paths.

 On the back house lawn.
The Cricketers

It was obviously the most exciting thing that had happened to my dogs for months. Goody! A nice new person! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Oh dogs - sorry for being so boring.

 Looking very rosy.
The Herb Spiral

Seriously, though, lots of gardeners work away just for themselves, and that's OK. But it's uplifting to share the joy with others. I loved reconnecting with the history of my garden and its timelines - the dogwood trees planted over twenty years ago, the bricks from the 2009 Christchurch earthquake from which I built the Herb Spiral, the Hump Garden rising like a flowery phoenix from the mess of tree felling in 2018. Lovely memories...

 Looking over to the house.
In the Hump Garden