The first sunflower opened this morning. Due to lack of water they’re only about four foot high, not the normal seven foot, though it hasn’t stopped the bumble bees finding it. The Morning Glory, which has been a bit sparse for the last few days, is welcoming the slightly cooler weather (as am I !).
The first of the wand-flowers (dierama “Blackbird”) has opened. A longtime favourite of mine … I remember large clumps of them in the garden of family friends who then lived in Ireland when I was a child, impressing me with the way they flutter in the slightest breeze. Delicate, yet robust enough to withstand pretty strong winds.
The first small picking of broad beans. They’re much later than many people’s, because they’re spring-sown, rather than autumn-sown. The soil here is so heavy and full of clay that anything sown in the autumn simply rots before it has a chance to germinate.
The first half-dozen flowers on the Morning Glory today. It’s self-sown – the ones I started indoors are at least a fortnight behind. This is the dark blue “Grandpa Ott”, as the light “Heavenly Blue” I grew in London just doesn’t seem to thrive in my present garden.
Later was the second go at ear-wax removal – the wax in my dodgy left ear had proved resistant to the microsuction at Specsavers last week, and I’ve been on 3x daily sprays of olive oil (followed by lie-down for 5 minutes each time). Today was successful – a large lump, about the size of two match-heads in total – came out, and I’ve been pronounced clear. I very much hope that my hearing will be restored enough that I can hear where things are coming from. Birdsong in particular has been very frustrating to have no idea where the bird actually is!
Despite being exceedingly hot (29.5C) and humid (74%, due to two shower-ettes that promptly evaporated) the Ladies Bedstraw and the Scabious in the wildflower bank behind the pond both opened this afternoon. It certainly feels like the height of summer!
The first flower opened on the nasturtiums this morning, though for several days I’ve been picking odd leaves to add a bit of spice to salads. A heritage variety, of course, dating from 1884, it carries the slightly unfortunate High Victorian name of “Empress of India”. Despite that, in my opinion it’s incomparably the best, outperforming fancier modern varieties for display and for taste.
Better late than never!
I’ve been squashing greenfly by hand on the back rose every morning for the past fortnight … hopefully, this little creature is only the first of many to produce larvae that will keep the pests under control.
And, somewhat later, a pond pic. The white iris has opened, and there are waterliles, bulrushes, and monkeyflower (formerly Mimulus, now re-branded as Erythranthe). Damselflies are flitting about, and the water from the pump is making pleasant plashing sounds.
Geranium (no, not pelargonium) day today.The darker one is the bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum) which is so called because the leaves turn a deep red in autumn. The lighter one is self-sown, probably from my original pencilled cranesbill (Geranium versicolor), possibly hybridised with something else, perhaps a local wild cranesbill. It’s so called because the markings allegedly look like pencil lines.
Opening the bedroom door at the top of the stairs this morning, I was met by the glorious scent of sweet peas, from the bunch on the coffee table downstairs. It always amazes me just how far the scent of some flowers can reach! My back rose, “Etoile d’Hollande” does llkewise, and the first flower on that opened this morning.
btw, photo taken with flash – sunlight doesn’t reach there until early afternoon.
A rather soggy hirple up to the GP surgery this morning for my annual “MoT”, blood tests and so on. I also booked a shingles vaccine – my father’s mother had a really nasty attack of it when I was about ten, and I vividly remember her being in considerable distress because of it.
Coming back, the first two roses have opened on ‘Madame A. Meilland’, also known as “Peace”. Phone photo only, as I wasn’t going to hang about in the ongoing drizzle! The back rose, “Etoile d’Hollande” is a couple of days short of opening the first buds. It’s done very well, now up the support and along, for a total growth so fat this year of about 3 metres (in a season, 5 is not uncommon). Not bad considering that it was completely cut down to about 30cm when I started re-doing this bit of garden at the start of the year, after the previous rose arch had succumbed to gales.
