Saturday 21 July 2007

Should we build an ark ?


Should we build an ark? Who would believe this is SUMMER, the schools have broken up for their 6 week holiday and the central heating is back on. As I write this all I can hear is the torrential rain which continues to flood the UK with many parts under water and more expected as 16 rivers are under a 'Severe Flood Warning'. Thousands of motorists are still stranded on motorways in the south of England and even central London, Berkshire, Warwickshire, The Cotswolds and many other places suffered flash floods. My plants are taking a battering and my beautiful pink hydrangea has almost collapsed under the weight of all those huge flowers dripping with water. I took a picture of some flower heads (above) during a dry spell yesterday and show below the gap and broken branches in the centre of the bush - it's much worse this morning, the flowers are hanging down to ground level but it's too wet to photograph - I fear it will be completely ruined by the time I return from holiday. The peach lilly is looking lovely, but won't last long in this weather. Look at the sunflower plants in my pot of busy lizzies - the birds must have dropped the seeds in, because I didn't plant them. This is my last post until I return from a warm and very sunny holiday - I'll be very disappointed if it's as wet as the UK!

Tuesday 17 July 2007

The day that the rain came down ......


It's been a fairly pleasant day, even though I've been at work since 8.30a.m with sun and variable cloud, and fairly warm. However, Andrea and I popped out after work in pleasant sunshine, no coats or brollies, then it began to rain, then hailstone, then thunder and lightning - worse and worse and worse and when we drove back UP the steep hill, we had to drive through a torrent of water - very scary!! - all of the drains and manhole covers had been forced off and the water literally shot up out of the road!! We had to drive around the debris and thought we'd never get home. We even saw in some places the tarmac on the road had just cracked open. We got home safely, to find that the electricity had gone off and most of alarms in the houses round about were ringing merrily away. Thankfully, the storm passed and as I write this note, the sun is shining once more - let's hope it stays that way. Roll om our summer holiday to Italy on Sunday - we're hoping for hot sunny dry days!! We saw on the news that various places in the UK had been hit with flash floods, even some of the people who had suffered terrible floods only weeks ago have been flooded again - what a topsy turvy summer this is turning out to be. Andrea took these pictures, one is of the street and one of the neighbours over the road.



Sunday 15 July 2007

I've got a very clever sister



My great-nephew Jack is 4 years old - here is the cake my sister Jackie made for him - isn't it cute! and isnt she clever? Of course, Jack thinks nothing is too difficult for his Grandma and he really wanted a dragon cake for his party. The spine down the back of the dragon are pieces of Toblerone and the flames coming out of the nostrils are red licquorice

Lazy Sunday

Back Border
Just a bit of dead-heading this afternoon and looking at the flowers. The Buddlia flowers are in bloom so we'll be having lots of butterflies after the nectar. More flowers on the hostas and the back border is looking very colourful - the slugs didn't eat all of the petunias!



Front garden tridy-up

On Friday I spent a couple of hours weeding and trimming shrubs in the front garden. Here are a couple of pictures of the front rockery (the whole site slopes, so I have my fair share of rockeries). The ornamental cherry trees are covered in bright red cherries which drop all over the lawn. Pity I can't eat them - has anyone tried them? they look just like edible cherries.



Wednesday 11 July 2007

It's summer at last!


The right hand side of the garden
At last, a few days of sunshine! Our lovely friend Sue from New Zealand is over in England for her daughters graduation at Oxford University - well done Corrie on your M.A. Hons (Classics) have a great day on Saturday. We sat in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon and had a good old chinwag. I've had a very bad cold/virus so haven't been in the garden for a while, hence no blog. All that rain we had plus a few days of sunshine have brought out my pink hydrangeas but the bush seems to have doubled in size compared to last year. The lillies in the borders and pots are beautiful and the purple hebe is dripping with flowers. I love the combination of white daisies, white lillies and pink carnations and roses which are in pots and my little rose border are a treat for the eyes. The borders on the left side and the right side are looking very nice and here are the photos I took to-day.

The hydrangea bush seems to have doubled in size!

The left hand border