Clinging Precariously

Knowing that we could expect heavy rain this afternoon, Jackie spent all morning

trimming Wedding Day on the Agriframes Arch which would be bound to be ravaged.

She completed the task as the rain began.

I carried out dead heading, a little clearing up, and photography.

Phlox are doing very well this year.

It is the season for dahlias

and Japanese anemones.

Fuchsias are enjoying it too. These examples are Garden News, Magellanica, Mrs Popple, Hawksmoor, and Sarah’s Delta.

Roses picked out by my lens include Alan Titchmarsh, Summer Time, a pink climber, Deep Secret, and Lady Emma Hamilton.

Other gems include two varieties of eryngium; blue agapanthus contrasting nicely with pale calendulas; the swamp lily Crinum Powellia; whiskery St Johns wort; White Pearl sweet peas and; potted begonias reclining on the rusty rocker, now a little unsafe to use for its intended purpose.

In addition to the clematis still sprawling on the Agriframes Arch above, we have many others, including

Polish Spirit in the Dragon Bed and on the barrier trellis, and Purpurea Plena Elegans in the Rose Garden.

Rather like the Head Gardener, bees such as these clinging precariously to lavender, to salvias, and to verbena bonariensis, were working against the rain clock.

This afternoon I posted “A Knight’s Tale (10: After the Revolution)”

Our dinner this evening consisted of chicken breasts cooked in Nando’s chilli, lemon, and mango sauce, and Jackie’s savoury rice, with which she drank Cotes de Provence rosé 2020, and I drank more of the Fleurie.

88 comments

  1. Your gallery of beautiful roses never fails to delight – even on a wet summers day!
    Goodness what a marvellous spectacle – who needs olympic gymnastics when we have the precarious antics of bees in your wonderful garden?!
    It’s nice to see Polish Spirit again – it looks even more lovely than earlier in the year 🙂

  2. Both the bees and the Head Gardener worked hard to accomplish their tasks, and the flowers are obviously grateful for their joint attentions. Your roses are as splendid as ever, Derrick.

  3. I always love seeing the fuchsias! And the rusty rocker is wonderful to hold some begonias on it’s lap!
    The bees are hanging on. 🙂 Like them, I need to buzz and get busy!

    But, first…The word cling/clinging always makes me think of a song I heard in my childhood…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGxRpWg_aqU

    Thank you to you and Jackie for bringing joy to each day. 🙂
    (((HUGS)))

  4. I love that bee clinging precariously. Your garden is so beautiful, and it’s definitely a full-time job to keep it that way. I hope you get just the right amount of rain.

    1. The rain has helped a lot this year, although Jackie has sometimes had to empty the pots to stop their contents getting waterlogged – and water a lot in the dry periods. Thanks very much, Merril

  5. It’s always fun to see plants we share. In this instance, it’s the St. John’s wort (native in East Texas) and the Crinum lily (although our species is different).

    1. We have been here 7 years. The Rose Garden, for example, we created after spending a year digging out rubbish, including a buried bath. Many of the other shrubs were already here, although choked by brambles. As we have cleared away the jungle they have responded to the light. Thank you for your comments and for asking, More

  6. Jackie has tidied up the plants nicely enough to have made them less susceptible to rains, torrents may have other tricks up their sleeves. Today’s flowers look special.

  7. It is hard to pick a favorite among these floral beauties. I am enjoying all the blooms and lushness in your gardens. You and Jackie have done a wonderful job.

    1. I think all the rain has helped, although heavy winds have caused more damage overnight, including tearing a limb off the rose she worked on yesterday, and smashing a few pots. Thanks a lot, Sheree

  8. The color and variety in your garden is outstanding. You seem to have the right mix of sun and rain. Summers here in the supposedly rainy Seattle area are always dry but especially this year. We’ve hardly had any rain at all for the last couple of months. I thought I smelled rain, though, a few minutes ago. We’ll see.

  9. Thank you to doesitevenmatter3 for providing the background music for my second viewing of the denizens of your lovely garden (and Jackie hard at work!). Nandos is another South African connection 🙂

  10. Gardens are so demanding. We have been away for only five days at the seaside in Yorkshire and I see this morning that there is a full weekends work ahead.

  11. Dear Derrick,
    we did same in our garden today and now the rain started.
    Fine pictures of your flowers. Thanks for sharing
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

  12. This is a stunning gallery of pictures – the peace before the storm. It is quite strange reading your daily posts after your historical ones: contrast of plenty, colour, security even in these times. The contrast of the title struck me too – ‘Clinging Precariously’ being a bee on a flower when your previous post eloquently described humans holding on.

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