Brighter

Thankfully I'm feeling a bit better than yesterday - still a bad night, and Joe now has it (poor thing) but despite the prickly throat and sore nose I was able to cope with his demands today. And in the spirit of things looking up and all that, I took a few photos in the garden this afternoon.

I said in a previous post that we have a shady bed on one side of the garden. It doesn't get any sun until late afternoon - but then the whole things lights up. We've got a few different varieties of euphorbia but this zingy one is my current favourite.

We had a hailstorm earlier today. And the wind was so strong it blew my washing off the line onto the ground. I won't repeat what I said whilst coughing and spluttering, wrestling with the line and keeping an eye on Houdini Joe, trying to escape his bouncy chair in the kitchen. 

I'm dying to try growing hellebores from seed once the little pods appear. I don't know if there are any rules but will give it a try and see what happens.

Elsewhere, I've divided up a very congested planter full of Alpine strawberries and put them into proper terracotta strawberry pots. They look nice already and the flowers are a good sign that the fruit will follow.

Speaking of fruit (although I think it may actually be a vegetable) the rhubarb's doing well and I'll be harvesting it soon. Which means crumble, compote and cake.

We have some herbs next to the back door: oregano, chives, rosemary, thyme, mint... I'll add a few more soon. They have a huge variety here. Any excuse for a visit.

The alliums are about to burst open. Which means big globes of purple then spiky seed heads for in the house...

The lavender's showing signs of flowering...

And the geranium's coping despite being plonked on the table without much protection from the elements. 

Even the sweet peas are managing to hold on through the crazy weather. There are marigolds to pot up yet, and the recently-planted nasturtiums will soon be romping through the beds. No sign of the echinacea I planted though. Fingers crossed they grow - I've always wanted some. Must be the seed head thing again...