THE HAUL

No time for early morning gardening today. I skipped out of the house early on the way to our monthly garden bloggers' meeting in order to swing by a couple of garage sales. I'm forever on the lookout for garden related 'stuff.' Not much doing save a couple of books. The first a Field Guide to Texas Mushrooms. The second V. Sackville-West The Illustrated Garden Book.

 I was happy. But I was going to get a whole lot happier later on in the morning. We met at the lovely garden of one of our group, Suzie, who blogs at Vivaverde. I don't think any of us had any idea of what a treat this garden was going to be. You will have to let Suzie show you her garden as our custom is not to go with camera in hand on these visits.
On the way home I detoured to a garage sale which had advertised itself as having garden related items. By this time it was gone 12:30pm so I wasn't expecting to find very much of anything. Am I the only one interested in this kind of stuff? Well there was another lady there and she was hauling out a pile of bricks and pavers and I would have been doing the same thing if I had arrived before her! As it was there was plenty to satisfy me. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about how much whimsy I have in the garden but the tin bird house, in perfect condition, for 50c and those clay two balls for $1. I ask you, who could resist.
As to Texas Mushrooms. They do show up once in a while when we get rain and now I may even be able to identify them. A book on Sissinghurst? What's not to adore about this most visited garden in England. Vita's writing in the Guardian newspaper did more to transform the face of English gardening than anything. Here is an anthology of Vita's writings about her own garden.
Yes, it's been a heaven-sent day for a gardener. Now back to work.