Stroppy Roses and Other Pretty Things

I have a beautiful burgundy iceberg rose growing in my garden.  I always have a smile when I see it. It reminds me of the time I googled iceberg roses to find out about some kind of disease my roses had.   Whatever it was I fixed it but I can remember that one lady had written how she hated the burgundy iceberg because it was too "moody".  How can a rose be moody?  I had pictures in my head of one rosebush refusing to speak to any of the other plants because it had got itself in a bit of a strop.

There is no time for moodiness in this farmhouse garden because all the plants need to direct their attention solely toward survival!  It's a pretty tough gig out there and anyone who loses focus does so at their peril...

Anyway my burgundy iceberg seems very happy with its lot.  It is blooming beautifully and seems to be in accord with all other plants in its garden bed.

Here is my burgundy iceberg, no signs of stroppy tendencies whatsoever.

No matter what plans I have I always seem to wind up with what I call a Nanna Style garden.  I think there are two reasons for this.  The first is that I seem to have a strong "inner nanna".  I find myself drawn towards pretty and quite old fashioned plants.  The other reason is that many Nannas, particularly those on farms, picked plants that were super tough and good at surviving.  If you had to water your plants with a bucket of water you had drained out of your twin tub then you tended to plant wisely.

Their is also a big old Cape Lilac tree out the back of the farmhouse.  It is absolutely smothered with blossoms.

Here it is.

It smells lovely and when I open the windows near the kitchen table the smell wafts in.