Once again I stayed inside with Vanity Fair, until a lull in the drizzle outside led me to photograph the signs of life.
Many of the new shoots, moss, blooms, in or out of season, and even a fresh white feather, bore jewels of nurturing precipitation. Clicking on any image will access the gallery in which each photo bears a title.
This evening Jackie and I dined on chicken Kiev, chips, and peas, with which she drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc and I drank La Petite Pierre vin rouge 2022.
Before this morning’s first shower descended I carried out a session of rose dead heading. Shirt sleeves kept me warm enough.
After a heavy spattering on our roof I introduced my lens to the sun briefly flirting with scudding cloud clusters.
Raindrops on various blooms and a few garden views came into view. The day, much of which I spent nearing the end of the second volume of Richard Church’s autobiography, continued with more overcast skies than with sunshine.
This evening we all dined on succulent roast pork with perfect tooth-testing crackling; crisp Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm broccoli and cauliflower; tender runner beans and spinach; and meaty gravy, with which Jackie drank more of the Lieblich and I drank Hacienda Uranus Garnacha Old Vines, 2020.
Shirtsleeves were just about adequate for my post-gale walk around the garden this cooler and brighter morning.
Once again plants, albeit somewhat weatherbeaten, most unlikely to be found together in the flower beds at this time of year are featured. The yellow climbing rose Summer Time, and the ginger lilies should, for example be over by now.
Today’s gallery harbours more plants not recently photographed which bear titles once accessed by a click on any image. I think the butterfly is a Speckled Wood, which we have not seen before in 2023.
Afterwards I made good headway on Nevil Shute’s “On the Beach” which I had begun reading a couple of days ago.
Elizabeth and Jacqueline visited this afternoon and were very impressed with and bought some of Flo’s all natural materials hand made jewellery. They also chatted with Ellie.
I then watched a recording of the rugby World Cup quarter final match between Wales and Argentina.
We then dined on oven fish and chips, onion rings, mushy peas and pickled onions, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Doom Bar.
I began my day by watching the ITV recording of last night’s rugby World Cup match between England and Argentina.
Although the air remained humid, the temperature hot, the breeze absent, we did at last receive rain, albeit warm.
It continued to require an effort to catch raindrops with my camera; the resultant images bearing titles in the gallery.
This afternoon I dozed through the rugby match between Japan and Chile, then gave my undivided attention to the game between Scotland and South Africa.
For dinner this evening Jackie produced her classic cottage pie; tasty ratatouille; crunchy carrots; and firm broccoli, with which she finished the Zesty and I drank François Dubessy GSM.
By this time the skies had darkened, the temperature dropped by several degrees, and a cool, light, breeze blew.
Neither seduced by the sultry heat that had by early afternoon almost dried the patio after much overnight and morning rain, nor the sunshine that for a short period bathed the garden, we spent some time laying down the usual plants and artefacts likely to suffer from the further storm forecast to rage from this evening onwards.
Jackie has this time pinned down the feet of her most vulnerable owl.
I also photographed flowers before the gloom descended.
Thereafter I took a large bite out of “Doctor Zhivago”.
This evening we all enjoyed succulent pork chops; crisp roast potatoes, the softer centred being sweet; crunchy carrots, and firm broccoli, with which Jackie drank more Sauvignon Blanc and I drank more of the Graves.
The morning’s drizzling overture reached a crashing crescendo as Jackie and I began loading our garden refuse into the Modus. My shirt was soaked in seconds, and I donned a raincoat for our trip to the Council dump, now rebranded as the Efford Recycling Centre.
This symphony’s variously placed movements were conducted throughout the day.
Jacqueline visited this afternoon and we enjoyed our usual mixture of reminiscences and updating.
Soon after 6.00 p.m. the skies cleared and the starring, brightly shining sun silhouetted trees against the sky, and cast shadows short and stretched. The rain had ceased after filling numerous receptacles.
Fierce gales that gusted throughout the night had somewhat lessened this morning, although they set up again with increased fervour, beating a tattoo on the unflinching Modus, as we set off for an afternoon forest drive.
An unusually long tailback on Christchurch Road gave us the opportunity to turn round and head for home, but we persevered. Eventually we saw that the cause had been a stationary large lorry with flashing lights which reversed into a side road in which was an emergency police car and another vehicle blocking the road. We have no idea what had happened, But of course drove past.
In a field alongside Sowley Lane entered by muddy ruts bearing puddles, on the surfaces of which swam gradually increasing raindrop ringlets,
a soggy group of horses silently tolerated their damp surroundings.
Further along the road a small herd of cattle cropped the verges and chomped branches stripped from trees with their lichen and ivy coated trunks surrounded by dripping ferns alongside
a glistening five-barred gate.
From May to October I customarily adopt footwear of sandals without socks. Throughout this July I have been getting cold feet. This is predicted to continue until September.
This morning I converted three more posts from Classic to Block edits. These were:
I gave the first of these a different header picture;
Wayback Machine was useful for the second. The correct pictures were all in my iMac Photos on the relevant date, but since they were missing in the post I didn’t know which of those I had published. Wayback provided the answer. One image was irrelevant, so I deleted it.
I was encouraged by a phone call from James of Peacock Computers saying that he and Owen are continuing to work on some of the issues and tackling the posts from the most recent backwards, whereas I am working forwards from the older ones. This means we are quite well coordinated.
This afternoon I ventured out on a dead heading session but was
soon driven in by the first of a series of rapid-fire heavy showers, spattering patio paving and windowpanes with explosive precipitation.
I read some of Lawrence Durrell’s novel Justine which I had begun a few days ago, then nipped out during a moderation of the deluge to finish the gardening task.
Between periods of darkening cloud sunlight buffed the surface of the
dripping plant pearls, with enough respite for me to capture them with my camera. As usual, each image in the gallery bears a title.
Within seconds after each deluge the brooding skies would change to cloud-scudded cerulean blue.
This evening we all dined on Jackie’s classic cottage pie; firm carrots and Brussel’s sprouts with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Bardolino.
During the early part of this wet day I recovered the photographs and set header pictures for the following posts:
Light rain did not deter Martin from applying his grouting to the patio. First he three times pressure cleaned the paving, spraying the cracks between them and locating the “hot spots” to ensure the correct depths would be filled. Far from being problematic, the precipitation aided the process, providing a temporary rainbow effect.
Fire logs and kindling alongside cut tulips and other flowers and
potted chrysanthemums.
Trays of bedding plants such as these primulas,
and pansies, and hyacinths, some of which bore their own liquid pearls.
Jackie deposited me at home and continued along Christchurch Road to collect the young family.
Once the day’s drizzle had desisted I made further inroads on the debris behind the oil tank and shed, transporting more to the Shady Path.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken and vegetable stewp and fresh crusty bread with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Mendoza Malbec 2021.