We spent the hot summer’s cloudless day gardening; well, Jackie spent the day at it while I chipped in intermittently.
Jackie took advantage of what shade she could.
In addition to dead bloom decapitation and carting clippings to compost bins I produced some photographs.
The blooms and garden views in this gallery can be identified and enlarged in the usual manner.
The same applies to these images of bees clambering on verbena bonariensis and delving into a hosta; and to the comma butterfly.
In the first picture above Jackie is conversing with the moulting Nugget, looking every inch the butterball that Jill Weatherholt dubbed him on his last appearance. Our concern at the scraggy condition of our little avian familiar has diminished now the we have learned he is undergoing a normal summer process. The last, smallest, of these images is “Where’s Nugget?” (92). Bigification may be required.
This evening we dined on the Culinary Queen’s wholesome watercress soup with bread and butter, followed by tempura prawns and fresh salad, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I opened another bottle of the Rioja and consumed some of it.