The climbing hydrangea

Well Readers, after two weeks, thousands of miles, two flights, numerous subway trains and taxis and lots of walking I’m back home and I suspect that you peeps in London have had a lot of rain, as everything has gone berserk. Just look at my climbing hydrangea! It’s absolutely covered in flowers and is going to be quite something in a few days time.

Here is the garden now (with the flowering currant that I was using for my bee experiment in the foreground)

…and this is what it looked like in mid-April. What a difference a few weeks makes! It’s always like this, I go off to Canada at the end of April and come back to a jungle.

The duckweed has taken over, so I foresee some removal in the (very near) future if I can get it out without decimating the tadpoles…

But on the other hand the marsh marigold is just past its peak…

and the bog bean is in flower! I love those raggedy blooms!

Elsewhere, the balm-leaved deadnettle (Lamium orvala) is attracting the bumblebees in spite of the rain…

The white lilac is just finishing…

and I fear that the green alkanet has gotten carried away with itself again.

In the front garden, both the buddleias have literally grown about 12 inches since we left…

and everything in my experimental containers in the front garden is doing very well, especially the Bowles Mauve and the catmint, which I feared had had it after a cat spent hours sitting on it last year. Plus my alliums look to be ready to pop…

The Kilmarnock Willow looks lovely…

and the Delosperma is just about to flower again.

The cat is less than impressed with our return, as I suspect we are a little too jetlagged to give her our full attention, plus you wouldn’t believe how much laundry two human beings can generate in just 14 days. But it’s so lovely to be home, rain or not, and we tried to stay awake through the Coronation, in spite of the whole thing feeling rather like Gormenghast for much of the proceedings (and if you haven’t read Mervyn Peake’s extraordinary trilogy, and if you like fantasy, it comes highly recommended). I was puzzled by the whole anointing thing going on behind screens, and would put a tenner on Penny Mordaunt somehow being our next prime minister if the whole performance with the sword is anything to go by (at least until the next election). Anyhow, Dear Readers, I am off for a quick dinner and an early night, as no doubt I shall be awake at 3 a.m. and wondering what time it is and what continent I’m on, so see you tomorrow!