I’m not surprised…

I read in yesterday’s newspaper that this month has been the most dismally overcast and the least sunny since sun records began in 1912!

Not only that but today there’s thunder, lightning and heavy rain which will make it the wettest August for four years. I’m not surprised that the forecast for the coming week isn’t much better either!

I’ve got to go to the Horticultural Society’s hut later on then I’m going to have a lazy day. I’m going to spend it mooching, reading and watching TV. No doubt I’ll drink too many cups of tea and eat far too many biscuits.

As for all the the things that I could, indeed should, be doing they can all wait for another day.

Some of you will have noticed that I’ve changed the header picture again. These vivid blue Cornflowers have been in flower for three months, as have the California poppies. I took this picture last Tuesday and as you can see I wasn’t the only one appreciating this bright beauty.

Have a good Sunday!

The Beautiful World

This morning here in London it’s dull and overcast again. That’s the fifth day running that it’s been like this. Although it’s been dry and mild the past few days it would be nice to see some sunshine. There’s also been a distinct autumnal feeling one or two mornings and evenings.

Photos like this and poems like this really do help to lift the spirit, and hopefully we’ll have a glorious autumn and an Indian summer.

I’m sure that you won’t be surprised to learn that, once again, there’s nothing on terrestrial TV next week worth mentioning except another Gardeners’ World special. Rachel’s Border is on Friday 5th Sepember BBC2 at 8.00pm in which Rachel de Thame presents a guided tour of the 20 metre long border she created from scratch last summer.

The Beautiful World is a poem by Margaret Ingall who has a love of gardening and nature.

This world’s so full of beauty

Don’t pass it by each day

Ignoring all the wonders

Beside you on your way.

The dancing days of Springtime

The Summer’s comely face

The burnished gold of Autumn

The Winter’s silver grace.

These are the gifts of glory

Bestowed with loving care

So stop and see the beauty

That’s here for all to share.

.

Have a good weekend!

Making whoopee!

On Friday afternoon there were lots of Large and Small White butterflies flitting and fluttering around the plot but these two, the lower being a much less common yellow Brimstone, appeared to be making whoopee!

Bring me sunshine

Sadly Daffy’s sunflower now looks like 1)  but thankfully there are more on the way including 2) and 3)  which seem to be singing Bring Me Sunshine.

1) 2) and 3)

This one clearly wasn’t told that it’s a  ‘Giant Single’ Sunflower as it’s only a metre high with the flower being  the size shown in this photo!

Frog ponderings (16)

The weather hasn’t been summery at all lately but ideal for frogs

I check the pond every time I’m at the plot but really don’t remember seeing Froglet when I took the photo!

As for Frog Newton he seems to there when I’m not!

I don’t think that he means Froglet when he writes There’s somebody new… so I wonder who it is?

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for the images.

It must be Thursday!

There are Gardeners’ World Specials being shown tomorrow and next Friday on BBC2 at 8.00pm.

This week it’s The Cottage Garden in which Rachel de Thame has some contemporary ideas as climate change threatens the survival of many plants.

Next week is River of Flowers with Sarah Raven who is encouraging people to create a river of wild flowers linking protected meadows and woodlands.

I always appreciate it when friends mention me in their blogs, and especially when it’s linked. Louise did that with her airbourne and two awards… entry that she did on Sunday. The aircraft that she saw were The Blades aerobatic team, although the website needs to be updated as their aircraft now wear this very smart scheme!

Sinta in her recently renamed blog Knittering (it was Garden Bootstrap) tagged me in her entry Me…a 1930s wife? She said she was just kidding but as she called me wonderful Mr Flighty I agreed to do it, but did the husband quiz not the wife one! According to my answers I would have been a good husband in the 1930’s!

Have a good weekend!

Weeds…

are the bane of every gardener. However as this excellent site says weeds are simply plants that are growing in the wrong place.

Even though I consider my allotment to be a wild plot and let various weeds, such as Rosebay Willowherb, grow I do spend much of my time digging, or pulling, up ones like Prickly Sow-thistle.

I’m almost tempted to let it become a weed  plot as many of them are really lovely flowers. However I’m sure that my plot neighbours would be very unhappy if I did that!

I did a draft of this entry on Friday and yesterday morning when I looked in the Independent newspaper I came across this article!

VP’s Open Garden

is on from today through to 21st September in aid of WaterAid.

Veg Plotting has to be congratulated on what I think is a brilliant idea. She has done a new blog VP’s Open Garden ‘Day’ which virtually opens her garden in aid of her favourite charity.

As well as doing this entry I’ve also included that new blog on my blogroll under A Good Cause.

Please visit her blog, enjoy looking round the garden, leave a comment and don’t forget to make a donation as well.  Another thing that you could do is mention, and link to, her Open Garden in one of your own posts.

Well done and good luck VP!

Books, tea and biscuits

I wish that I could be writing that these books were read whilst lawn lounging on the plot. Sadly the weather has been such that I’ve read them all sofa flying.

The Dig by John Preston is the absorbing fictional story of an archaeological dig in Suffolk during the summer of 1939. It was Classic fm’s Book of the Year 2007. [As an incidental footnote I found the first buried treasure of note on the plot last week. It was a small flint with an surprisingly sharp edge to it.]

Blue Sky July by Nia Wyn is a book that I wouldn’t normally read but I started it at the bookshop and found it so engaging that I had to take it home to finish that evening. It’s set in Cardiff between 1998 and 2005 being the true story of Nia and Joe, her brain injured son. I found it an absolute joy to read and is a book that will haunt me, as very few books have done, for a very long time.

Eating for England by Nigel Slater is a wonderful book which brings memories of childhood flooding back. I’m sure that, like me, readers will flick back and forth to see what he writes about such delights as Toblerone, Ribena, Sherbert Lemons and Branston Pickle. Of tea and biscuits he says that PG tips is life’s cure-all, a hug in a mug, and that he sometimes thinks that the dark chocolate digestive is probably the best biscuit in the world.

On Sunday evening put your book down for a while to watch the first of three programmes in a new series titled Pacific Abyss which is on BBC1 at 8.00pm. That’s followed by the two excellent Britain from Above programmes that I mentioned last week.

Have a good weekend!

Blog pottering

The weather is much better than yesterday, sunny rather than wet, so I shall visit the plot later on for a potter round. I shall stop by the hut to say hello, buy a few things that I need and have tea and a biscuit.

Yesterday my newspaper, The Independent, included this interesting article all about allotments.

It also mentions that tomorrow is the start of National Allotments Week.

In my entry last Wednesday I mentioned a Panorama programme that is being shown tomorrow evening. I was delighted to see this comment had been left by DL who appears to be one of the show’s team.

I don’t blog much over on MrFlighty but I have some good friends there so I keep it ticking over. I’ve recently joined two Group Blogs, Britishwildlife and Weathercheck, and post occasional entries on them, as I did yesterday.