So much weather in June! The header photo rather sums up my feelings of rapid changeability – flowers in the garden one minute, then gone the next.
Here in the UK we’ve sweltered in temperatures above 34C. We’ve had prolonged drought. There have been cold winds. And now this week we’re having a ‘mini-monsoon’, the temperatures dropping so it feels and looks more like October. Yesterday along Wenlock Edge there was even fog, and this morning when I went outside to survey the plant life, it was to find autumnal spans of spiders’ webs glistening with raindrops, and the newly opened sunflower looking as if it wished to go back in its bud. It looked so forlorn staring at the place in the leaden sky where the sun should be.
On top of that, the last of the Teasing Georgia’s roses have been trashed and mashed, the foxgloves that were so stunning are all gone, and the allium seed heads (that look like floral fireworks ) are alive with the tiniest crab spiders, all busy being rather sinister despite being scarcely more than two millimetres across, and just out of their eggs. This first photo makes said arthropod look monster sized. For a better sense of scale look out for the spider on the second allium shot. It’s near the bottom edge, left of the flower stalk.
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But all is not lost in the garden. The late spring flowers may have been washed away, but the spires of verbascum are just opening, the yellow doronicum is doing its best to stand in for the sun, and geranium Rozanne is now on parade until the first frosts. Of course, as things are going, that could be next week. Who knows?
Changing Seasons (versions 2 and 1)
Tish Farrell 
Great images Tish – and you’re certainly right about the weather 🙂
Cheers, Debbie. It’s definitely weird, isn’t it – even by English standards.
And who says our weather isn’t changing? Someone told me he thinks the earth is re-tilting so that soon, we’ll reverse and the north and south poles will be sideways across the earth. Everyone has a theory. It has been lovely for the past five days, minus rain, but before that, cold, rain, cold rain. Today it’s warm rain. Maybe storms later. Lots of wind. Tornadoes. All the flowers are at least a month late. For a long time, there weren’t any pictures to take. It was raining constantly, so we went out only during the couple of hours here and there with sun. It is supposed to get hot and humid, now … which would be more or less normal for this time of year. Somehow, I doubt it. There IS no normal this year.
You sound to have had even more weather than we have had. No normal anywhere it seems – in any department.
Every 200,000 years earth’s magnetic poles reverse. But I think it is a slow process, not sure, would have to research it. Weather is so strange: when it is sunny, I think it will always be that way, and then I am so disappointed with foggy day after foggy day. Then, I think it will always be that way, but if I just wait, the weather changes again.
I was about to comment on your Alchemilla Mollis (Ladies Mantle) with water droplets all over the leaves, until I read down a bit further and saw Geranium, nonetheless beautiful Tish!
I certainly can commiserate with you on the seasons and all at once! Here in Virginia (US) not a bad winter, if you can stand 30F with 30 mph winds all winter, followed by 45 days of dark, cloudy and down right gloomy weather and rain, so much rain. I heard about a man name Noah building a boat! The rains stopped, then we had August in May, now it is June, and we just go over two weeks of early May in late June, now today we are back to mid to upper 80’s F with 95% humidity! Just plain Bizarre!! No adjusting to any of it! I feel your pain Tish! 😦
I think your roller coaster weather outdoes ours by a long chalk. So I’m feeling your pain too, Mitch.
Marvelous set of pics. Have not seen a crab spider in a month. What a fascinating hover fly, too. Any idea of the species?
I suppose with the heat people are comparing to the Summer of ’76!
Summer of ’76 – absolutely they are claiming it as hot as or hotter 🙂 Don’t know about the hover fly species, but it’s very pretty.
“…roses trashed and mashed” is soooo right! My poor delicate pink blooms on the wall of the house are now scattered in pieces all over the courtyard and they’d only really started to bloom 😦
Gorgeous photos Tish: I love the web with the raindrops on it and I must look out for the tiny crab spiders, I have never see one!
Once I started looking last year (as inspired by Ark in SA) I began to find them all over the garden. I’d never seen them before either.
I shall have a closer look.
The verbascum and matching bee is delightful.
They go together so well don’t they 🙂
Enjoyed the photos, Tish. It’s hot and humid here and rabbits happened to a few of my flowers, but other than that, so far, so good. I hope things even out a bit there soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the weekend.
janet
I live in dread of rabbits. Naughty that they ate your flowers. Happy weekend to you too.
Deer are bad, too. One night when we lived in Cleveland, they ate all the flower parts of my daylilies! And I saw a cheeky chipmunk on my tomato plant enjoying sweet cherry tomatoes!
Oh now that must have caused a conflict – chipmunk and tomato – so sweet, but so very annoying 🙂
Same here, regarding temperatures and weather…..
I’ve just read that at Stelvio is snowing ….! Incredible.
But we have your photos , as a consolation….
Wonderful, all of them !
Snowing, Anna, goodness. Glad you like the pix.
Beautiful photographs Tish.
Alison
Yes what crazy weather we’ve had, i was really coldlast night so I went to bed early. Have a peep at these if you have a minute, https://lucidgypsy.com/2013/05/20/a-nightmare-in-the-garden/
Just to let you know. Squeezed the lemons, added a bit more juice, rosemary and 2 chilies, and topped off with olive oil.
It’s back in the fridge.
About a month, yes?
Yes a month. Then as you start using the lemons, keep the jar in the fridge, and if they start rising to the surface above the juice, add a bit more olive oil. It stops them going fusty. Reminded me to go and look out the jar in my fridge. Am now thinking of them finely chopped in a minty herby bulgar wheat salad. Mm.
Lovely images Tish;. Your weather does sound pretty extreme. Hopefully it will settle a little for the rest of summer and autumn.
That verbascum looks fabulous, Tish, and I can so picture the disconsolate sunflower from your description. It seems to be all change in July, though. Our garden is shooting up in all directions. 🙂 🙂 Wonderful photos!
Happy shooting and growing, Jo 🙂
It is unsettling I know. I love your commentary with your beautiful photos. Trashed and mashed roses – that sums it up.
Thanks a lot, Paula. Still no sign of promised storm. Am now melting into keyboard. Hope you’re not overheating 🙂
I have an aircon in my office and at home. We are used to these extremes 😦
We don’t have much air con here, except in Aldi supermarket this morning. It was blissful.
Excellent entry. I love that spikey flower thing in the first photo.
Thanks a lot, Max.