After April’s rain in May, sudden sunshine – and everywhere, purple…
There’s a lot more to the irises’ purple than a first glance suggests. Glossy buds like tightly-rolled satin are almost-black in the shade. Big, blowsy petals need layers, some blue and pink, to build up their brilliance on waste coated paper made for printing.
The sage is enormous and in the sunshine, abuzz with bees. Like little snapdragons, its white-striped mauve flowers are tinged with blue at the base.
And the chives, each a lively bunch of flowers, are set off by the zingy green of the lemon balm that’ll provide my tea break.
It would be fair to assume that I designed the garden this way. But the irises are dividings planted where they would fit, the chives self-seed every year and I had no idea that the sage would flower at all.
So I’ll pass the credit to nature. I am just the apprentice.
Biro, watercolour, fineliner, on waste paper.