Damp Basement

     After all the rain we had earlier this week, I was horrified to find puddles in my basement when I went down there this morning. It was actually in the crawl space so no furniture was damaged but some carpeting I had down there was pretty wet.

   Unfortunately, with the high humidity we have at the moment, it will take ages to dry out. I had to throw out some cardboard boxes which had soaked up quite a bit of the water, but stuff I had in plastic bags seems to be OK. It was a good reminder not to stockpile stuff down there so I will be doing a bit of decluttering soon.

The Grand Tour

    As I have said before, I have a pretty small garden around the house. However, all the borders are packed with plants, mostly perennials, that are really blooming with all the recent rain. So, today's post is a tour around "the estate"!

I'm afraid I am not much of a photographer, but this will give you an idea of what's blooming today.

This perennial is called Balloon Flower (Platycodon Grandiflorus) - you can see the balloon shape of the buds before they open.

I have slipped in an indoor violet as it is blooming so spectacularily!

Echinacea and some Bee Balm.

Self-seeding sweet peas - they come up every year but are just one colour and have no noticeable scent. Very pretty, nevertheless.

Phlox and more Bee Balm.

My first attempt at Sunflowers - they have really reached new heights this week!

    I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my garden. Today we had two thunderstorms with more heavy rain so I expect things will have grown even more by tomorrow - and the grass needs cut again!

 

More Bounty From the Garden

     Considering I only have a small patch of garden set aside for growing food, things are producing well. Today it was raspberries, haricot beans (my first attempt at growing them) and a large scallion for tomorrow's breakfast omelet.

The raspberries will be my dessert tonight. I have been nibbling a few each day but this is the first substantial picking. I will have the beans tonight too, with a lamb chop, mint sauce and new potatoes. Yum!!

 

 Big excitement today! I finally got a haircut after 8 months. It is such a relief to have a neat head of hair again. My hairdresser has been worked off her feet this week (the first week of opening) so I am very glad she managed to fit me in. I just hope I don't have to go so long before the next cut!

Everything's Growing Like Crazy

     Off to pick some lettuce leaves for a salad for my dinner, in between showers. We managed almost an hour of tennis first thing this morning before the heavens opened, and it has been raining intermittently all day since then. The garden is very soggy and there is lots of rain in the forecast for the next few days. No sign of any sun.

It's nice to be able to pick just what you need. Plus they needed thinning out.

   Susan came back for coffee after tennis (we were both slightly damp) and watched the tennis from Wimbledon, the women's semi-finals, two exciting matches. Tomorrow it's the men's turn and they should be exciting too.