Will it ever stop raining??

I am still on the mend from my pancreatitis last month, taking it easy, sleeping a lot, not doing much and my garden is pretty much taking care of itself these days. Fortunately I guess, the rain has come back; we have had so much rain that the hosepipe ban we were threatened to have to struggle with until Christmas now is likely to be lifted within the next month or so. Good for the water reservoirs, good for our gardens, not so good for sun thirsty people of Britain.

Here is a weather forecast I pulled off the Internet yesterday, we really are due an exceptionally good July and August after all this rain! Is someone saving up for the Olympics? I guess you must be living on a different planet if you have missed that we are having the Summer Olympics and Para Olympics here in London this summer....even if you live on the other side of the world and is as little interested in sport as I am you probably have heard about the London 2012 by now. But something you probably don’t know is that it is my borough here in London that is having the main parts of the events! Every time you hear about ‘Newham’ the next couple of months on the TV it will be where I live they talk about. The three main arenas are in Stratford, only 3 miles from where I live, and a short walk from where my son lives. Shame neither my son nor I are the slightest interested in any of the sportevents :-) I must admit I am dreading the 2 mill extra people that are expected to invade us during the Olympics, the roads and public transport network can’t cope on normal days so how will they cope with all those extra people around?! I get all my shopping delivered and that’s what I am most worried about, will I actually get my shopping at all? As for the rest, I intend to hibernate in my garden, hope for all the nice, warm weather we haven’t had yet and not leave my house until it’s over!

All the rain has had a good effect on my garden, it is lush and green, although still very late since we have only had one good sunny period so far. But there is certainly a huge difference to see from a few weeks back :-)

My Clematis ‘Niobe’ has started flowering.

I bought 3 David Austin roses in January, they have now all got a permanent home and the first one has started flowering. Let me present you to Rosa Susan Williams-Ellis, isn’t she beautiful? True white roses are hard to find (and hard to photograph!), just a shame you can’t smell the lovely scent.

This one is a pot rose bought in a supermarket and planted out after it was finished flowering, it has been an absolute star for years!

Dopey, my dwarf rhododendron is now in full flower, he looks even better than my photos manage to convey.

A close-up of Dopey.

And lastly, my cat hasn’t been here for a while so I thought I would finish with a picture I took of him tonight. I think he is sensing I am ill as he is spending a lot of time lying next to me instead of being outside. He often does that when I am not well, giving me much more attention and asking for more cuddles than normally. He is great company, a good listener - hardly ever interrupts  :-)  See you next time, until then, take care.