They say we are heading for another heat  wave –  well not so far.  Still waiting for some sunshine and  warmth without that chilly wind.  We have had yet more rain which at least means I don’t have to water the garden but we didn’t get enough to fill up the pond.     It is baby frog time so they will enjoy the damp weather I am sure.  I am so happy to see damselflies again at the pond.  There were a few red damsels and the odd blue one too.  I saw a couple who had mated and the male was holding onto the female with his grippers while she laid her eggs in the pond by some vegetation.  A third one (probably a male) kept trying to butt in.  There was also a lone blue one hanging about.

I am still trying to get a good photo of a small copper butterfly but this one will have to do in the mean time.

The red keys on my acer are tiny but very pretty against the bright green of the leaves.  My next door neighbour has a large red acer which has bright red keys and they glow when the sun catches them.

Lots of things are in flower just now and the place is absolutely buzzing with bees.  However just gone over are the honey lilies, weigela, syringia, stonecrop,  rhododendron, azalea, weigelia, aquilegia, hebe, saxifrages, forget-me-nots, and irises.

The stonecrop had amazing colours: bright yellow flowers, some green leaves, some purple leaves and some almost silvery with a coating of farina.

I do love Pattie’s Plum poppy and there were a few planted next to the cirsiums but I only have 2 left.  I don’t think they live very long so I need a few more.

In flower right now are: most of the roses, philadelphus, erigeron, purple clematis, nepeta, some hardy geraniums, briza grass, astrantia, some primroses, cowslips, lavender, foxgloves, deutzia, cirsium, thalictrum, orange geum and honeysuckle.  The wonderful fragrance in the garden comes from the honeysuckle, philadelphus and deutzia.  You do have to be closer to the roses to catch their fragrance.

Overall the garden is looking good just now with a few areas that are dissapointing.

The damp area that runs along the side of the ramp just annoys me now.  It looks great when the persicaria are up and flowering in august but until then it is just an eyesore and now the harling is split again and some persicaria is coming up behind it.

Snails (I think) have demolished the 3 agastache I had planted behind the garage and have had a good go at  the eupatorium and marigold on the patio.  One marigold was totally stripped but I saved a couple by putting them on the patio table.  I had used crushed oyster shells on the surface of the eupatorium pot but that did nothing.

In the conservatory 2 of  the lithops have now split but the smaller one has not done anything this year so far. ( I have now found out that they should had have a pot of their own as they are not all the same species so I have given them a little pot each now.)  I treated myself to 3 tiny new succulents when we went to the cactus  and succulent show Saughton Park and how anyone can remember the names of these things is beyond me – I am still learning how to pronounce them.  I have another couple in the post – who knew I would get interested in succulents?

So the weather forecast for today was 90 – 95 percent chance of rain all morning and we didn’t get any!