Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Oooh, lovely butterfly photo Dave, I was just admiring how many there are around my buddlias, mainly Cabbage Whites but still butterflies. The bees have moved over to the sedums now. You do realise I will have to try for a butterfly shot now?

Narrow escape by someone there GF. Sometimes that triggers 'elf N Safety to prime their chainsaws,

A tree in our local precinct lost some branches and down it came to never be replaced or likely to either, ongoing care costs etc despite a local tree hugging group offering a replacement, which brings me back to the virtue signalling again, council declares climate emergency and must save the planet by next Tuesday but CBA to replace a tree

Anyway, very hot & sunny already, quick visit to the volunteer garden for pot watering, rain can't come soon enough now, we may get storms later but right here it mainly rumbles around and never falls on my garden. I blame the Isle of Wight

I've now trimmed the leaves off some of the tomatoes, and removed two Shirleys. They were a poor show this year, along with other items

Ticking along on my Round Tuit is potting on the Shasta daises & Heleniums from seed, getting close to size now ans I'd like them settled before too long

phoebe1989seb

I think it'll be a while before the pond itself gets dug, 2p....but I agree, it will be a great place to sit (with a glass of wine 😉) when done. It's one of the things I miss most about our last house...enjoying an alcoholic beverage whilst contemplating by the pond with its planting of peonies, irises and the huge rambling rector overhead 😄

What a nuisance about your extraction 🙁

It's dull here and consequently cooler, with a bit of a breeze. Rain/thunder expected mid afternoon - although thunderstorms usually manage to miss us, so will be surprised if we get any. Rain, otoh is often plentiful....which is just what we need right now!

Last night we cleared more of the rampant weeds along the rear boundary. It's looking so much larger there now. DH thinks we actually have closer to an acre of actual garden...but men often exaggerate sizes, don't they, lol!!! However, he could be right - because we purchased the property as a repossession, no-one knew the exact size of the land that came with it 🙄

Here's my contribution to the butterfly pics (couldn't capture one on the verbena!).....

goldfinches

Here's my contribution to the flying fauna photos which I meant to post a few days ago and forgot because I've been so busy. I spotted this pair flopping around on the path while I was walking one afternoon and although I watched for a few minutes I couldn't tell who was winning so I left them to it.

Farway

GF,  My money is on the wasp unless the moth managed to wing it prior to getting a jab sting

My flying fauna [love the phrase GF] deed was shooing a red admiral out of the conservatory yesterday.

Why is it the silly creatures always head for the only closed window & ignore all the open orifices?

Complete turn round in the weather, dull but the rain never arrived, maybe later. Saw the lightning but it was miles away.

Definitely changing now, darker mornings and the pyracantha berries are starting to colour up, yellow in my case

Talking of changes, aircraft con trials are now appearing again, I'd forgotten about them since lock down meant they vanished, the world outside must be waking up

Davesnave

I've also noticed the planes more, Farway, though they aren't much of an issue here as we're not on many of the normal routes. Some parts of the world are more awake, like Sweden and Denmark, but I don't want to twist your words in ways that weren't intended, so I'll say no more!

Instead, here's a closer picture of a Cup & Saucer vine flower. The dark ones seem much more prolific than the white.

phoebe1989seb

More great pics, GF and Dave!

The rain finally arrived here shortly after 6pm, but not before I'd managed to further increase the bonfire pile (or should I say, one of them 🙄) although there's been no thunder as yet.....

A few showers so far today - dry at the moment, sun trying to make an appearance - but don't think I'll bother with any gardening today....too much to occupy me inside!

Here's Alan Titchmarsh looking a bit damp this morning 😂

Paspatur

Davesnave, we discussed the cup and saucer vine earlier in the year. Mine all germinated fine and once planted shot up the 2m fence and beyond. Mine were all the white ones and not many flowers at all. But our weather has not been great, the reported Scottish heatwaves this year have mostly avoided the North East coast. The plan was to hide the awful Leylandii hedge behind the fence but didn't quite work. It was a stop gap until the Veilchenblau rambling roses established but they have already shot up the fence in their first year. The cup and saucer was starting to strangle them so I whipped them out yesterday. Cost was minimal, packet of seeds and it was fun trying them out.
I am mostly aiming for perennials but like to dabble in a few annuals from seed for fun. 
Big new border this year has a few Love Lies Bleeding which are hugely impressive from seed and have filled gaps until trees, shrubs and perennials fill out a bit.

twopenny

So lucky to have avoided that huge branch GF! What a whopper.

Fabulous photos and interesting ones. I've enjoyed catching up.

Unbelievably hot here the last couple of days. I tried to garden yesterday, well deal with brambles, but the sweat was dripping everywhere and it was really unpleasant. We;ve had thick sea fret first thing then sun so the humidity was dreadful.

So watered, injured my wrist trying to put in cheap chrysanths for some colour and the ground was rock hard. I'm now all bandaged up and can't do much at all - just not my week is it. Thanks for the kind wishes though. That cheered me up.

 Not done much, hot weather and high tide I've been swimming in a crowd free beach and enjoying getting out and about at last

So I've managed to get some Blackberry & Apple stewed and some raspberries made into sauce for ice cream and some ready for boiling for jam, I've also used by 'time injured' to find some good tasting wild bramble so more apple and blackberry jam for winters toast.

My thanks many times for the advice on the raspberries in another thread which have given me so many I just look and think 'More raspberries' sigh

I also have a bowl of delicious tomatoes. They are ripening despite the blight so cutting out the diseased stems has give them time to ripen. That was lucky and worth knowing but you have to be quick.

Davesnave

Nothing doing in the wet garden yesterday, but I took the van over the hills to get it MoT'd and decided to snap the rural weather scene on the way. Sadly, I was peripherally  involved in a big scrummage of  HGVs at the point where the best views are, so by the time I'd reached the next lay-by I was 300' lower and Dartmoor had all but disappeared! I'm sure looked more threatening than that! As I arrived, the heavens opened and we had half a hour of monsoon. Perhaps that helped with the MoT, because he missed something external that was an advisory this time last year!

Farway

Damp start to the day at long last, much needed and overnight which was handy

Paspatur said:

Big new border this year has a few Love Lies Bleeding which are hugely impressive from seed and have filled gaps until trees, shrubs and perennials fill out a bit.

It is isn't it? And fairly easy as well, now I'm triggered for 2022, I think LLB among coleus would look stunning, at least make a stop & stare patch

I've already sent for Castor Oil [Ricinus] seeds intending to use as "dot" plants, LLB could just add to the reddish theme given I've also ordered coleus black dragon with red in the leaves, and dahlia seed Bishops Children. I need a bigger garden

My Kong coleus, sown six days ago, is up and raring to go. I'm passing one on to my granddaughter, the plant mad one going to Sparholt, she is off for a job placement interview this morning with Head gardener at Exbury Gardens , her course requires work experience in somewhere like that. I imagine anyone could learn a lot just by tagging along behind the gardeners there, and this time of year it should start to look stunning with the leaves, of course some of the work experience could be raking up acres of leaves & composting them

Here's my newly hatched Kong coleus