Commercial break for unseemly gloating

'Scuse the lack of self-restraint a moment, peeps.

This is one of the added bonuses of driving all the way to the EBA convention in Arco, Italy in a Land Rover.

This vigorous climbing rose was growing in practically every garden that we saw in Arco. So what better souvenir to bring back from our first trip to Italy?

The best bit is that it only cost A FIVER.

Yes, a fiver and 4 years in the ground. It now covers most of the wall, frames the window together with the pyracantha, and comes down on the other side of the window near the front door. Oh, the blue flowers below it are aquilegias.

One of the uppermost shoots has found its way into the loft and will have to be pruned. But that will have to wait until later in the year when the blackbirds have stopped using the nest that is somewhere in the pyracantha. So after the yellow roses are gone, we have the white pyracantha blooms together with the white & blue clematis in mid-summer. Then come the red berries at the end of the season, which the birds feed on all throughout the winter. Not that they leave the moss on my trees alone for all the good things I do for them, ungrateful little porkers.