Rock rose

I generally treat the lady who runs Corry Croft nursery as an oracle, but on this matter she was wrong. I was asking her for some plants to put next to this rock rose, on the north side of the house, but in a south facing bed that is shaded a lot of the time by the house. I tried to describe the situation accurately, but perhaps underestimated the amount of morning sun it gets. I told her that Mr A had put a rock rose in there, and she was very dubious. In fact, it has done just fine this year, and has a wealth of flowers on it.

We've got various dianthus there as well, and they are also doing well (see extra for one).

This was in a brief interlude in the garden amidst the preparation work that needed doing. I put together a bunch of salads, and Mr A prepared the excellent roasted pitta bread triangles that he's done before (with oil and salt).

The first guests arrived just after 5pm. The last ones left just after midnight. I guess you could say it was a success. There was no rain, but it was cold and grey for the first couple of hours, but for a while between about 7pm-8pm it was fine sunny weather and warm enough to sit out the back. Various groups gravitated around, between the living room, the kitchen and the garden, and as we had invited a slightly wider range of people, there was some interesting mixing going on.

All in all, an excellent party, but we were pooped at the end!