Yesterday, I went with some friends to see Vera Sackville-West’s  spectacular gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, about an hour’s drive from my place. I took a lot of photographs and hope to publish a blog about the day later this week. Before that though, I thought I’d show you my little Lewes garden before it gets totally upstaged by the sensational display at Sissinghurst.

As you can see, all my roses have finally made it into bloom and I rather liked it out there this morning.

As I’ve written before, all my roses are David Austin varieties and they were all planted seven years ago as small stems when I completely redesigned the garden. I think they’ve now declared my small town garden their home. If you want to find out more about them, I’ll introduce them to you by name.

It seemed a good idea to take my coffee out there to enjoy the view. Look out for the Sissinghurst photos coming later. I had a wonderful day there – you should catch the Sissinghurst roses while their at the very best.

The post More Bloomin’ Roses in my Lewes Garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Last week I showed you my first red, red rose and now I can unveil the second rose to flower in my Lewes, UK garden and, yes, folks, it’s white.

The red rose is the solitary bloom at one side of the garden, the white on the other. You’d think they were enemies.

The white one is the David Austin rose, Iceberg and it will soon, I hope, cover one of my fences with many of its crisp white flowers.

The red one, as reported last week, is another David Austin rose, Danse de feu. 

I’m reminded of that scene in Shakespeare where the medieval English Yorkist and Lancastrian nobles fall out over who should be the rightful King of England. They took opposite sides and chose their emblems,  one side a white rose, the other a red one. Then they began to beat the hell out of each other, in 1455,  in a civil war known at The War of The Roses.

The Wars of the Roses may look pretty in these pictures – especially below,  in the nearly contemporary image of the ferociously fought Battle of Barnet, I remember thinking the knights looked like jelly babies, but the war was a bloody affair ending the Plantagenet dynasty with the death of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and putting the first Tudor monarch, King Henry VII,  on the English throne,

Tudor Rose

I’m hoping my roses will live together much more peacefully but their rivalry will end soon with all my other roses come out between them. Then there will be a whole range of different colours when the many buds out there open into bloom.

The post The War of the Roses breaks out in my Lewes garden again. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Here is the first rose to flower in my Lewes garden this year caught in the early morning sun. There is something special about this moment and every year I celebrate it with a slight leap in my heart-rate.

This David Austin rose is Danse de Feu – it grows and thrives without fail on my shadowy and sun-starved North-facing flint wall where the flowers manage to shine out like rubies even on a dull day.

Today, with the sun shining on this new arrival, my single red rose has the promise of so much more to come. It is no coincidence that the first swallows started their pirouettes over my garden too this morning. Summer is well on its way – we just need the temperature to rise a bit more.

No wonder the Scots poet Robert Burns was inspired to his lyrical best by the sight of a red, red rose – “newly sprung in June” – well, mine has beaten Mr Burns’ rose by two weeks but the poem still deserves its turn in the sun.

Red, Red Rose

by Robert Burns (1759 – 1796)

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!

And fare thee weel awhile!

And I will come again, my luve,

Though it were ten thousand mile.

The post The First Rose Of Summer here in my Lewes Garden is a ‘Red, Red Rose.’ appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

We’ve been having a superb summer here in Lewes, UK and my small urban garden has repsonded appropriately with garlands of flowers and vibrant greenery.  I’ve been reduced to a bit of dead-heading, some fruit picking and the odd bit of weeding.

Otherwise,  I’ve allowed myself to sit back and enjoy it while I get on with my Kindle journey through Marcel Proust’s In Search Of Lost Time  (À la recherche du temps perdu) – I’m now half way through the punultimate volume and I too have lost track of the time.

I should have been doing my summer pruning now that my David Austin roses have finished their fist flush but it is all done with amazing speed and efficiency and now presents a fine hedge awaiting next months second batch of flowers.

This is all thanks to my danger-seeking neighbour, Harvey, who has bought himself some ferocious-looking electronic cutting gear including a hedge-strimmer which did my job in seconds. I decided that I would experiemtn with this method after reading that even David Austin says we can do it. It certainly cuts down on the several hours I usually spend cutting stem by stem with my secateurs. It was not a good idea anyway to prune the roses while I’m on anti-coagulant Warfarin tablets because my roses, love them as I do, are unforgiving with their thorns and, these days, my scratches turn into real flows of blood.

So my thanks to Harvey and I can return to my Proust – nothing like the peace and tranquility of n English garden on a hot summer afternoon.

Then, of course, well after so many weeks of sunshine and high temperatures, the inevitable happened. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Then again, that can be fun too.

I shan’t be sitting out here again today, I suspect.

Watering the garden might be unnecessary too.

Warm rain on a summer morning is pleasant enough but that lighning has to be watched.

I made a hasty retreat indoors but then it was time I went back to my computer to get on with my own writing.

I’m sure the sunshine will be back and then I shall try to resume my work alfresco.

The post Out in my Lewes garden – rain or shine. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

I know a lot of you have been worried about me. You all think that I will find it hard adjusting to getting back home to Lewes in England after two glorious weeks on holiday in Venice where, amongst other things (honestly) I hung around in bars, restaurants and, yes, bars, drinking more than one Campari Orange. Well, let’s be frank, you can’t really spend any time in Venice without succumbing to the charm of that most Italian of drinks. I can’t anyway.

I know it’s tough coming home – I arrived back in Lewes on Midsummer’s Day with temperatures not too shocking lower than they were for most of the time in Venice, the sun was shining and my roses had kept some of their glory for my return.

In fact my small urban garden was rather inviting.

 The roses were happy to entertain…I planted all David Austin roses six years ago when I remade this garden from scratch. This year, they look as if they had always been there – Benjamin Britten, Danse de Feu and Brother Cadfael blended nicely into a cocktail of reds and pinks….

…in fact everything in my garden had sprung up since I went away…Golden Celebration was in full bloom…

… the roses were centre stage…Iceberg has never looked so good….

and Mortimer Sackler was at its sensational best. What else could a man need on a day such as this?

Why, a Campari Orange, of course.

——————————————————————————————————–

STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

feature=mhee

COLIN BELL’S PUBLICATIONS:

Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love
Ward Wood Publishing
October 30, 2013

http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm

Genius Floored: Uncurtained Window
Soaring Penguin Press
June 15, 2013
Poetry anthology


http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Genius Floored: Whispers in Smoke
Soaring Penguin Press
June 6, 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Reaching Out
Cinnamon Press
December 2012
Poetry and short story anthology

http://www.cinnamonpress.com/product-item/reaching-out/

Tic Toc
A Kind Of A Hurricane Press
June 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.kindofahurricanepress.com/2014/06/tic-toc-is-now-available.html

The Blotter
The Blotter Magazine Inc.
November 2009
Three pages of poetry in the American South’s unique, free, international literature and arts magazine.

http://www.blotterrag.com/back-issues/2009-11.pdf

The Fib Review
Musepie Press
My Fibonacci poetry has appeared in this journal from 2009 until the present

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/writers.html

Shot Glass Journal
Muse Pie Press
My poetry has appeared in various issues of this short form poetry journal

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/writers.html

Every Day Poets Magazine
Every Day Poets
I have various poems of the day published in this 365 days a year poetry magazine.

http://www.everydaypoets.com/?s=Colin+Bell

In The Night Count The Stars
Bittersweet Editions
March 1, 2014
An “uncommon anthology” of images, fragments, stories and poetry.

http://www.bittersweeteditions.com/in-the-night-count-the-stars.html#%2EU8ZFXY1dXoo

The post Campari Orange withdrawal symptoms after living it up in Venice. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

I haven’t been to the Chelsea flower show for a few years now but, from what i’ve seen in the media, the 2014  show has been one of the best for a long time. All last week I was thrilled by the flowering of my David Austin roses as my garden here in Lewes, UK, made the leap from Spring into Summer in what seemed like a single day. So I was glad to see David Austin Roses http://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/ win yet another Gold Medal at Chelsea but it’s hardly surprizing when you see their spectacular Alhambra-style garden. Congratulations to them and to my David Austin roses – pictured today, the wonderfully fragrant cabbage-like rose Clair Austin and the equally richly perfumed Falstaff – maybe my favourite.

I’d award my roses a gold medal too but thanks are due to David Austin – I just wish I had the room to plant some more.

STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

The post The Chelsea Flower Show in my Lewes Garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

This is Danse de Feu (Fire Dance), one of my David Austen roses. It has burst into flame this week in its unlikely place at the darkest part of my small Lewes garden on the mostly shadowy North facing flint wall. It is well-named as it lights up this sun-starved corner with its lively bursts of fire.

 It puts me in the mood for a real fire dance – something that makes me think of countries with hot climates and a sense of extravagant fun. Already I’m hearing Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s most famous piece – the Ritual Fire Dance. As it’s a holiday weekend, what used to be the old Whitsun Holiday,  this weekend, we should all be in the mood for a dance and no one does joyful dancing better than the Spanish.

The Ritual Fire Dance  (Danza ritual del fuego)  is from Manuel de Falla’s ballet score for El amor brujo (Love the magician), written in 1915 and it’s danced as a seductive ghost exorcism by a village woman who dances until he’s consumed by the flames.

 Cirque du Soleil’s phenomenal fire dancer Paris-based Srikanta Barefoot has a way with fire too – You might burn more than your fingers if you try this at home so better just to watch Mr Barefoot from a safe distance.

STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

The post Fire Dancing in my Lewes Garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

I’ve been celebrating the arrival of my roses here in my Lewes, UK, garden and today it’s the turn of my rose, Mortimer Sackler, a delightfully vivid pink that grows profusely on the  most vigorous of all my climbing roses. It is early days with just a few  blooms but soon the bush will be covered in pink. I have to admit that I had never heard of Mortimer Sackler, the man after whom this David Austin rose was named, I chose it for my garden by its appearance.

People often ask what this rose is called and I have to wrack my brain to remember the name Mortimer Sackler. So now seems a good time to find out just who he was and why he had a rose named after him.

Actually, Mortimer Sackler (1916- 2010) was an interesting man. A pharmaceutical doctor, born in Brooklyn, New York, who established chemistry companies in the US and the UK, did important work on the use of drugs in psychiatry and who made a millions of dollars fortune which he used for a long list of philanthropic activities in the world of science and the arts. He was an American anglophile who spent a significant part of of his life in Britain and who married an English woman, Theresa Sackler, who is an enthusiastic gardener and who was behind the naming of this rose in 2002, in honour of her husband. It is now one of his many memorials. Theresa Sackler explained her choice of this rose because, she says, it reminded her of him: “The blooms give the impression of delicacy and softness but are, in fact, very tough and little affected by bad weather.” She wasn’t wrong about the roses in my garden.

If I had known more about Dr. Sackler, I might well have chosen the rose in his honour too as his philanthropy included the creation, in 2010,  of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, just down the road from here at Sussex University where they study the biological science of consciousness itself leading, we can only hope, to a deeper understanding of the brain and the way consciousness works and even finding new treatments for mental illnesses such as dementia, depression and schizophrenia. As a trauma brain injury survivor, it seems appropriate that I have a Mortimer Sackler rose in my garden.

Mortimer Sackler also donated large sums of money to two of my favourite arts institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where the Sackler Wing (architect Kevin Roche) has been the spectacular setting, since 1978,  for the ancient Egyptian temple, The Temple of Dendur (15th Century BC) given to the US in 1963 when it had to be moved because of the construction of the Aswan Dam. On my first visit to New York, I was astounded by many things but one abiding memory was my first time in this thrilling space. I love New York so I’m more than happy to have this connection with the US in my little English garden.

The less obviously named Room 34 at London’s National Gallery was also the beneficiary of a substantial donation from Mortimer Sackler. I have often wandered through, and lingered in, this room that houses a great collection of paintings by 18th and 19th Century English painters.

I am not the only Englishman to have found myself sitting contemplatively in this tranquil space set in the middle of London. If you find yourself there then spare a thought for Dr Mortimer Sackler. I shall think of him now whenever I’m out there in my garden. The James Bond connection is a bonus but he’s welcome out there too along with the admirable Dr. Sackler.  I can’t leave you without showing you that scene when Bond meets the new Q (Ben Whishaw) in Room 34:

STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

The post Why I’m glad to have Mortimer Sackler in my Lewes garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Yesterday I wrote about my tulips reaching their season’s end so it’s only fair to announce the arrival of my roses – various varieties of old rose type climbers and all from David Austin. This one, Benjamin Britten, has a lovely hint of pink and orange when it’s new but then gets redder as it matures. This bloom, in its first flush, is just about perfect.

It tells me of the coming of summer so it seems like a good idea to play you a simple but truly effective piece by the great English composer Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976). Here is Cuckoo – this is just about perfect too:

STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

The post Benjamin Britten rings in the Summer here in my Lewes garden. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

It’s now not just officially Autumn but my garden here in Lewes UK agrees. It has decided to prove that Autumn can be every bit as colourful as Summer and, this year, it looks better than ever.

I’m enjoying the mix of little red apples and dahlias with a sprinkling of crimson nasturtiums. I’ve always tried to conjure an illusion of jungle-wildness in my gardens while maintaining discrete control.

I’ve already eaten a few of these little apples, nearly ripe windfalls, and I’m soon to harvest them. The variety is Croquella and even if the fruit tasted like wax, which it doesn’t, I’d still grow this great little drawf tree as it looks so joyful when covered in fruit.

My espalier Bramley cooking apple is fruiting up well too.

The dahlias have been as joyful as those little red apples and they’ve bee alive with bees since mid-Summer. I prefer the daisy shaped varieties as do the bees.

These two are pleasant variations on a pink theme.

They red nasturtiums are a bold contrast but one that works for me.

Autumn is also garden spider time here in Lewes and often walking out there is like weaving through a series of net curtains. Horace, my old friend, is back and bolder than ever.

The daisies are mood enhancers too at this time of year. They start flowering in late spring and cary on until the frosts. They’re patients companions too for their wayward nasturtium neighbours.

The pyracantha berries have now taken over the old flint wall in the darkest part of the garden. They act like a street lamp brightening up everything around them.

Like the roses and all the other plants in this garden, the pyracantha only arrived here four years ago as a tiny plant to take its place when I started the whole garden from scratch. The roses were magnificent first time round this summer and now they’re coming back for a second flush.

I’m particularly happy to see Benjamin Britten again….

…as well as Claire Austin…

…Mortimer Sackler…

…and, one of my favourites, the richly coloured Falstaff. All my roses are highly perfumed and, maybe I imagine this, but they seem to have an even stronger perfume after rain.

They won’t last forever of course so I’m going to enjoy them before winter takes its turn out there.

The post Apples and dahlias – perfect companions in my Lewes garden this Autumn appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.