A nice Morning out.(RL)

No I have no idea why I chose Cpt hawkins.  This morning I was up at the crack of dawn and Losyn was walked and back home by 9:30 am.  He was half pleased to be out so early and half worried  becuase this was not *usual* and the Aunties were up to something.  That boy may be daft but he's not stupid, we were up to something.  Beth buys Gardeners World every month and May had an advert for an open weekend at Jekka's Organic Herb Farm at Alveston which claims to be in Bristol but is nearer Thornbury.  Any way we set off at just after 10 and were there by 11.  We wern't allowed to wander round the actual growing fields but there were hundreds of different herbs laid out to buy , I counted 10 different Lavender types, 5 English and 5 French.  They were a bit pricey but cheaper than the last garden center I browsed through and in a lot better condition so I picked up and English Lavender, an oriental poppy and a black viola which came to a reasonable £14 and wandered off to pay for them.  A route that took me past her past their best stands.  These, it turns out were plants she had used in hr gold medal winning herb garden at Chelsea this year and past there best for her is  average for other garden centers and good for DIY shops garden sections.  These were all listed at £1.50 a pot so I picked up two different Rosmary bushes and two field poppies. I wish I had seen these plants sooner I wouldn't have bothered with the oriental poppy.  From there we went back to Chepstow and had a nice lunch in the Beaufort Hotel and I don't know if I should feel tickled that I got away with ordering a pensioners meal or insulted that they didn't question me, after all I'm not a pensioner until October.  We were home by 2.30 and by 3:30 I had them watered rested and planted in.  then it started to rain, nothing heavy, just a soft gentle drizle that will soak in nicely and make the new plants, and the older one happy.
This is the Black Viola


( Two more photos under the cut )

Hey feng_shui_house this is mostly for you

I have subscribed to the VSL Science feed, there are some interesting tidbits coming through on it.  This one explains why you are so good at bird photos, at least the Mockingbird ones but I wouldn't be surprised if other birds can do this too.

What allows some creatures to thrive in cities? A new paper by Duke University ecologists cites the ability to identify individual human beings.
The experiment was simple: A single scientist threatened a mockingbird nest for four days in a row. Not surprisingly, the birds grew increasingly defensive and started making alarm calls whenever the individual got close. But on the fifth day, when a different human approached the nest, the birds weren’t so wary — in fact, they reacted just as they did on day one. This led scientists to believe that mockingbirds are able to learn and remember individual faces and assess threat levels accordingly — a talent that helps them stay alive in the urban environment.


They look as if they are posing for you because they recognise you and are posing.