Then It Rained, Then It Stopped

Hello Friends!

A few days before the Summer Solstice, and after days of such changeable weather, from hot to mild, with sea fog followed by blue, sunny skies, one morning we woke up to an unexpected rainfall overnight which carried on well into the day before finally moving on.  So, we had raindrops on roses to bring Spring to an end for this year.

A rainy day wasn't the best day for my Betty's Smile rose to open, but open she did and looked rather more Hollywood glamour than west Wales cottage garden as she shimmered with a cloak of sparkling raindrops.

By mid afternoon the rain had passed over and, once again, the sky was blue.  It doesn't take long for everything to look refreshed and restored.

My climbing  clematis {which never seems to thrive as a plant, but does put out lovely blooms} became twisted and bent over in one of our earlier storms.  It never straightened up, now all the flowers are opening up from underneath, so I have to route around to find them.

Do you remember the incident of the badly damaged dwarf clematis a few weeks ago?  It looked like this

Well, a lot of those flower buds survived, tightly closed.  They've started to open, but things are very wrong indeed.  The flowers are half their normal size, and they are completely the wrong colour.  However, I'm relieved to see a few green shoots appearing.

Here's how it should look in photos taken in previous years.

This has got to be my favourite spot in the garden right now

It's such a happy space, sitting in the warm westering sunshine of an evening which heralds the arrival of Summer.

Mind, on the first official day of Summer, I think it has decided to have a lie in, just like Spring did!  Should we give them their cards?  You're Fired!  So, this little baby Blackbird was confused, didn't know whether or not you can sit on the sun lounger if the sun isn't shining.

Flowers continue to delight, and I was delighted to find this wild Field Poppy sprung up in a wild corner.  One of the joys of wilding your garden spaces!

The Orientals continue to delight

and you know I can't resist a macro shot!

or two, this is the clematis

This wasn't easy, the Verbena Bonariensis is a whippy, bouncy stem in the wind!

The bronze fern is growing well, and I'm now reluctant to move it

The yellow roses just go from strength to strength this time of year.  This plant was from B&Q and is now fourteen years old.  All the expensive David Austin yellow roses given for the same occasion didn't last a year.  It just goes to show that cost and name don't always equal the best value.

Personally, I'm not a fan of all these celebratory roses.  Mum and Dad got given six ruby wedding ones followed by eight golden wedding ones and where do you find room for them all?  Everyone thinks they've given you a great gift, when all you have is a headache finding room!

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well