End of Month View – October

Today was the last day of October, and what a day it was! Glorious sunshine and 23 degrees C – that was the temperature officially for London, in my garden it tipped slightly higher in the afternoon. Not a bad way to end October. The next few days the temperature is going to drop around 10 degrees. We will certainly notice that! I am sure today’s summerlike weather must have broken yet another weather record, but who’s counting, we seem to have broken one weather record after the other the last few years, weather records somehow seem to have gone out of fashion. Who cares, it was amazing today!

The wacky aphids are back!

Two years ago I wrote about the yellow-orange aphids invading my lovely Dregea sinensis, maybe you remember them? If not, or if you are new to my blog since then, let me fill you in: the aphids are called Aphis nerii and if you are from Florida or southern Spain you have probably seen them and hated the sight of them many times. If you are from more northern parts of the world you have probably not seen them or not even heard of them.

October GBBD in London

It’s that time again, Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and I can’t understand it’s a whole month since last GBBD post! October so far has been chilly and the rain we didn’t get all September we certainly have got the last 2 weeks. I went outside yesterday to take some photos for this post, in pouring rain with an umbrella, realising that I had not been out in the garden for more than a week because it’s been raining every time I wanted to go outside.  The forecast is promising us some warmer weather the next 4-5 days, and possibly no rain during the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday – but you never know, that might change again by the time we get to the end of the week.

End of Month View – September

September brought the summer back here in London, it’s been lovely! Not too hot, not too cold, hardly any rain and the few drops we have had have mainly come as some short thundery showers at night. Payback will come when my water bill arrives in November though, as I have had to water a lot more than I usually do at this time of year. It has been the driest September on record – mind you, we had the wettest January on record this year too so I suppose it kind of evens out! The weather forecast says we get to keep this lovely weather until the end of this week and that’s it, autumn will arrive whether we want it or not!

September beauties from London

It’s the middle of the month again, time for another Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post. In my garden it’s still very much summer, and with the glorious weather we have had the last 2 weeks – and is expecting the next couple of weeks, summer is very much on the agenda. In fact, by Thursday we might get above 25 degrees C, which we haven’t had since the first week of August – since August turned out to be the coldest in 20 or so years. The days are getting shorter and the leaves have started to fall, but as long as we have summer weather, who cares?!

End of month view – August

August in London has been unusually cold and windy with some really heavy downpours, some spectacular thunder and lightning and all I can say is; we have had a lot of weather. After the amazing spring and summer, August came crashing down and the temperature never really got much above 20 degrees C or so and some nights were much colder than in January and February. Yep, August has been a disappointment so, upwards and onwards, September looks more promising!

August GBBD in London

We have had a great summer so far, but August has brought cooler weather and some really heavy downpours. That’s been good for my parched garden although heavy rain for a few hours doesn’t last for long, I soon have to drag the hose out again. I don’t think I have ever watered as much as I have this summer and I have already decided I am not going to have as many pots next summer as I have this year. The plants in the pots need water at least every other day, the plants in the ground manage for much longer.

End of Month View - July

I heard on the BBC weather today that here in the south-east of England we have had warmer than average weather for the last 8 months in a row. I can believe that! We had an amazing summer last year, I didn’t think we would get a repeat this year, but here we are at the end of July and it looks like we really are repeating last year’s amazing summer. Long may it last!