... I never promised you a rose garden. Well, we did actually. Roses, day lilies, poppies ... flowery things. But somehow recent weather has ensured that our garden is mainly lush green foliage and a few post-Spring flowers with a hint of roses and flowery bits to come at the moment:

Gardens' Open Day

Which wouldn't matter a jot - except we agreed to open up our garden, along with others in the village, to raise funds for charity. Nevertheless, the vast majority of visitors were appreciative, friendly, chatty, eager to learn plant names or share gardening experiences; a rewarding experience, as it has been for the last two years.

So why am I dwelling on the words of the one woman - who was overheard muttering to her husband - "Look - there's a weed!"? Correct response to that would have been to leap up and down, ululating "We've got ONE weed" whilst knocking her into the pond and simultaneously emptying her purse into the charity coffers. Why should one negative word outweigh zillions of good words?

Well, they don't in this case. I feel positively gleeful that vast numbers of people think that our garden is a weed-free paradise because we successfully hid yesterday's frenzied tidy-up; courtesy of the chuck-it-in-the-shed-and-pull-down-the-blinds school of garden design.

No. The offending negative words of that woman were "They are selling the most delicious chocolate muffins - with real chocolate bits in them - down at one of your other gardens - I had the last one!" Bah.

Next year - I am going to be in charge of teas. Hurrumph!