July was hot and humid with some amazing electrical storms to entertain – most dramatic in the evening just after the sun had set. The sky washing pink through the navy blue sky with huge white clouds, lighting with sheets of yellow as if the gods were having a laser show.
The Rudbeckia have taken over this year – I’m not complaining – I applaud plants that give me a show now that I’m not to garden too much; but just maybe it’s all a little too yellow and they love the garden so much that the show goes on!
My Gladioli came back for another year, the labels faded by the bright sunlight. These were brought here in the local market. My Echinacea was also brought here at a rare plant sale at Villa Erba in 
Even less gardening is done at this time of the year. Philip harvests tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce and an obliging self-sown cucumber plant. Just the one so we won't be inundated like last year. You can’t venture far into the borders because the air is full of mosquitoes. The peonies from earlier flowerings are making fat seed pods which will give me some autumn colour.
Our blackbirds suffered some fatalities – not we think from the marauding magpies but from one of the neighbouring cats. When Phil went to take more pictures, the nest was pulled downwards and all were gone. Then several days later we heard one baby and parents calling in their distressed tone. Moments later it settled on the concrete trough of pelargoniums; it was so unafraid that we managed several photographs before it flew away into the top of the Magnolia grandiflora – where it stayed well out of way of the cat and saving Philip a much disliked job (in the heat) of pruning.
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| Just a few tufty feathers on baby's head |
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| Baby is on the right hand trough |
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