Midsummer sun and rain

While the rest of the country has been sweltering in a heat wave, here, in Edinburgh, we have had warm sun alternating with heavy rain. Good for the garden if a little tricky for the gardener. As a result everything is growing fast. We had our first peas: the beautiful and tasty blauwschocker. Just a taste but there are plenty more to come. The garden flowers are at their midsummer best, with this midsummer madness round the pond bringing me joy every time I look out of the patio doors. In amongst all this there is bog cotton, water buttercup, campion, poppies, a water lily, an iris about to flower, a snowfall of philadelphus petals on the ground. I can sit and look at the this for hours. Bella is also enjoying the garden just now, here setting out across a rainy patio, having dodged the mad foxglove which is growing right in front of the door. She enjoys the rain as well as the sun. One evening I lay on the floor beside her, watching the frogs (photo from a previous evening). We had…