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Going out in a blaze of glory

I have just realised that I haven't posted any photographs of the most amazingly beautiful hollyhock we have growing by our front door.  It really is something to behold!  I put in a rather small, insignificant plant before we went away in April and it has been working it's way upwards, reaching for the sky, for five months now.  It is now as high as the gable end of the porch 
and it's flowers couldn't be more feminine if they tried!
The hollyhock still has a lot of life left in her yet and I think we will be enjoying those gorgeous flowers for a good week or three yet.  

In the meantime I have been waiting for the right kind of day to have a bonfire.  I cleared a huge amount of stuff which was completely swamping a flower bed and smothering part of the fence along the south boundary of the garden.  The cuttings - Virginia Creeper, wild roses and other bits and bobs - have been languishing for several weeks now, slowly drying out and becoming ideal bonfire material!  I was cut to shreds whilst excavating the fence and now I am going to get my own back!  I have been waiting for a quiet morning without wind for my bonfire and today was the day!  
It seems to me that there is something vaguely tribal about a bonfire.  I find there is a huge temptation to do a Red Indian dance around it!  I do have a real fear of fire but all the same there is something very addictive about a bonfire.  Apart from having to keep it safe and under control, it's something I just can't help fiddling around with, adding more and more twigs and other stuff to keep it going.  Today I really wanted to use the embers to cook some spuds and sausages with the children for their tea, but they had other things to do after school - two going to tennis and the other two to their first session at Beavers!  So, another day, another bonfire.  That day could be coming quite soon as the end of summer flower beds need tidying up and there will be plenty more to clear away.  I've got lots of lavender bushes and some of the clippings will be a lovely fragrant addition to my next bonfire.




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