We have recorded no rain up at Community Roots since June 9th and it’s been the same here, just 10 minutes away but overnight there was some rain and everything looks just a bit brighter today. I went out early and caught some raindrops on plants and spider webs.
Nasturtium
Dill seed pods with raindrops taken through the window
Raindrops on a spider’s web
The hanging baskets outside our favourite coffee shop in Redruth are looking really lovely.
I haven’t sown Love-in-a-mist this year (an oversight) but discovered a couple of self-sown ones in the stony path.
Our tomatoes in the greenhouse are ripening up nicely. This one caused some amusement.
My first thoughts for today’s six were our six drought damaged Hydrangeas but I need something more uplifting as maybe you do too. So today, it’s the few flowers we have left and their scent. Interestingly, the gardening charity RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey have had such problems with their hydrangea collection this summer that they are thinking of moving them North to its gardens in Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire, to allow them to thrive away from drought and heat.
The beautiful rose we were give for our Golden Wedding 9 years ago flowered earlier in the year and is now having a second go. Its scent is proper old fashioned rose, the sort that as kids we used to try to make into perfume!
Crown Princess Margareta, a fragrant English Rose
We are keeping our Sweet Peas watered with grey water and watering cans and they are giving us colour and scent which is delightful. We get our Sweet Peas from Sarah Raven as plug plants each year, rather extravagant but such lovely varieties.
Sweet Pea – Dark Velvet
Sweet Pea – Prince of Orange
From The Clouds of Scent Sweet Pea Collection
Sweet Pea – Lady Collier
Those Sweet Peas fill us with perfume all day and when the sun goes down, we have Night Scented Stock, which daughter no 2, a bad sleeper, used to call ‘Night flowers,’ as we took her for a garden walk to settle her back into sleep. Some may think they look a bit scruffy and inconsequential in the daytime but their scent at night more than makes up for that.
The herbs fill the air with their particular, foody smells but maybe they are for next week.
I’d like to recommend a beautiful little book, “Led By The Nose’ by Jenny Joseph, its subtitle ‘A Garden of Smells.’ You may know her name from her wonderful poem, “Warning” which you can read here if you’d like to. This delightful book follows her garden month by month, not by colour or what she can see in her garden but the smells that lead her and the reader around by the nose.
Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts Six on Saturday Pop over and in the comments, you’ll find so many delightful posts from keen gardeners all over the world.
My dear SIL in Atlanta sent me a book to make me smile, hopefully laugh out loud – and I did! I loved this story but the laughs were definitely balanced by rueful smiles and some tears. For many of the situations, I was thinking, “Been there, done that and not always happy about it!”
There was also so much love, a great deal of joy, lots of infectious humour and characters who really got under my skin. It is so beautifully constructed and as one reviewer said, “heartbreakingly honest.’Â Ann Patchett’s comment on the front is spot on. 
Our Sweet Peas in the kitchen fill the room with their lovely scent. I love the reflection in the shiny hob too.
Our tomatoes are ripening. I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the very dark ones but they are both pretty and tasty.
Last week was all our white flowers and this week the golden orange hues have caught my eye. As we in Cornwall move into our 5th heatwave and a hosepipe ban, I don’t know how much longer the flowers will last. They have all been going over more quickly than usual already given we have had no real rain since early June, just a smidge of Cornish mizzle last week.
We’ll concentrate our watering, with watering cans, on the food we are growing especially the tomatoes and sweetcorn and hope that the leeks, kale and kalettes will survive. The autumn raspberries are looking very small and really need lots of rain…..and then sun!
Courgette flower
Orange Cosmos
Begonias in a chimney
These were seedlings I was given as volunteer harvest at Community Roots and I didn’t get the name.
California Poppies
Nearly 7′ Sunflower
And today, a very short, sweet poem by Emily Dickinson. I’m not sure that yellow is so rare in nature but like that the sunflower picture gives us blue too.
Nature rarer uses Yellow
Than another Hue.
Saves she all of that for Sunsets
Prodigal of Blue
Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts Six on Saturday. Pop over and in the comments, find so many delightful posts.
A bit late this month with the Happiness calendar….
Friends came over for tea in the garden this afternoon and brought a beautiful little posy of flowers from their garden,
Thanks P&J
As part of my clearing, I came across a very small booklet that I had as a child – a picture book version of Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies. I was reminded of Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs Doasyoyuwouldbedoneby, both characters whose words we should all live by – The Golden Rule in fact. I’ve written about the Golden Rule several times before. Here’s one should you wish to check it out.
Today was a beautiful summer day, temperature about 23C, blue skies, sunshine and a gentle breeze and we have spent much time in the garden, some reading, some weeding and a lot of birdcrastinating.
We’ve had more butterflies than we’ve been seeing, our squirrel came by and we’ve watched the delightful Long Tail Tits and Blue Tits enjoying the seeds on the Crinodendron Hookerianum.
Squirrel
Long tail tits
Blue tit in the Crinodendron
Close up, getting the seeds
and the new word for you:
I love white flowers in the garden. They lift dark corners and sometimes even catch the light of the moon.
Daisies
And a poem for you, White Flowers by Mary Oliver whose work I always find interesting.
if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, Jim from Garden Ruminations where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.
We started with six Sunflower seedlings and one by one the snails enjoyed feasting on the leaves until we had just three left. The first of those has flowered and is glorious and loved by the bees.
I showed you the seed bomb flowers yesterday and this morning there was also a single small red poppy.
The following posters have been up on a bill board in town since early April. I love the thoughts here and am so pleased that they haven’t been spoiled over these months.
Some time ago I planted the seed bombs I bought in Amsterdam and we’ve been watching them carefully to see what might emerge. So, we have some Rocket, pretty flowers but a bit straggly, some very tall Field Mustard with lovely bright yellow flowers and just one flower of Dwarf Morning Glory, a beautiful bloom and I hope for more.
Early leaves
Rocket
Field Mustard
Dwarf Morning Glory
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