Our days are cool and grey, with a persistent westerly to bring the temperature down and discourage the insects from the abundant flowers in our garden. Of the butterflies, in the occasional patches when the sun's out we're mostly seeing red admirals, peacocks, tortoiseshells and....
....painted ladies, and mostly they're on the buddleia rather than on the verbena, achillea or lavender.
The bees and hover flies prefer the marjoram, which has been in flower for weeks, and the lavender which is doing very well considering it's a Mediterranean plant.
Our rabbit has settled very contentedly into the garden, popping out from his home under the shrubs every time he wants a meal. Fortunately for us, his main diet seems to be the grass, kept neatly trimmed for him by a man with a strimmer, though....
....close observation suggest that buttercup leaves are also on his menu. Pansies aren't, as they've never recovered from his arrival.
We're not seeing any other rabbits in the garden but he's sometimes seen with one of the three wood pigeons which grow fat on the larger seed rejected by the small birds.
On the subject of rabbits, we were pleased, on our rather damp walk this morning, to see, for the first time in some weeks, one of the rabbits in the farmer's field which has large areas of white in their coat. As I've said before, I'm amazed they survive as two red kites have nested in the high pine trees not two hundred metres from where this picture was taken.
I envy you your rain and lush, green grass Jon. Here on the Essex Riviera, we have had only two paltry showers since late May. Everywhere is parched and scorched and trying to maintain a garden with a watering can has little effect except for larger biceps and aching knees.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you Peter, but I'll swap our thin rain, grey skies, depressed temperatures and chill winds any time for a bit of your Riviera weather. The trick in hot climates is to do as little as possible. So if a plant dies, replace it with a cactus. If the sun's hot, find some shade and have another beer.
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