Today’s weather was once more clear, bright, sunny, and cooler.
Bees continued collecting nectar throughout the garden. On my walk around I captured them on bidens, and on the more mature blooms of Festive Jewel.
Crisp young examples of the latter await their turn at contributing to the queen’s larder.
Tomatoes continue to ripen in readiness for ours.
It is a good thing I was not using film in my attempts to catch the myriad of fluttering snowflakes in the form of Small White butterflies while they swirled through the air. I settled for those landing on a poppy head and on a verbena bonarensis. Another took pity on me and perched on a petunia.
Orange crocosmia Emily Mckenzie brightens the Dead End Path and pink sweet peas dance in the Weeping Birch Bed.
Our Bishop of Llandaff in the New Bed was eaten by a vole a couple of years ago. Its deeper red companion has survived.
Another plant that has proved impossible to grow in the various beds tried by the Head Gardener is the gaura. This one is thriving in a pot.
Lady Emma Hamilton produces multiple flushes.
Rows of small begonias sparkle on the borders of beds like these alongside the Heligan Path.
Nugget darted in and out nearby. I am beginning to wonder whether he associates the click of the camera with the clink of a trowel.
One of the pictures above should provide a clue to today’s “Where’s Nugget?” (9)
Late this afternoon we took drive into the forest.
The only sign of life on Hatchet Pond was this pair of swans.
The others must have heard that members of an excited family were feeding the birds beside the nearby Beaulieu River.
Kite surfers and sailboarders struggled on the Solent at the end of Tanners Lane, where they were watched by a young man on the shore. I suppose I made it two watchers so I could legitimately borrow the title of Stan Barstow’s novel.
This evening we dined on Lidl’s rack of pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce; the Culinary Queen’s flavoursome mushroom rice; and the Head Gardener’s tender runner beans, with which Jackie drank Belgium’s Hoegaarden and I finished Tesco’s finest Chilean Malbec.