We had a nice heavy rainfall last night, starting around 12:30, but none of the lightning or hail that accompanied the storm as it mades it way toward the coast. The hail I could do without, but I was looking forward to some exciting thunder and lightning action.
The forecast had suggested rain continuing throughout today, but I awoke to warm golden sunshine and took my coffee out to the garden to enjoy the Camelot-like weather and to marvel at the magic a night of rain works in the garden. And also to doing the edging, trimming away all the tall bits of grass a lawn mower can't cut around the rocks.
More of the red roses on the fence had opened in the morning sunshine and I tried again to get a better sense of their fragrance, even to the point of tasting a rose petal.
It's a scent as lovely as the flowers themselves, but I'm no closer to being writer enough to make you think you can smell them.
This tiny white flower has appeared in the garden this week. I've not a clue what it is, and no doubt someone will come forward to snark about it being a weed which we must eradicate.
But I'm kinda grooving on this little one (the flowers are about the size of the tip of my pinky finger), so for now, it can stay.
The garden's turning into a sort of rainbow flag now that all the dianthus have come into bloom alongside the pansies, and just in time, too. You can see in the shot above that the curly grass is now half as tall as the split rail fence, and keeping pace with the beebalm and the rudbeckia, both yet to bloom.
Here's a closer look at some buds that are forming on one of the rudbeckia plants. I've sort of lost track of which one was which, so these will be a great surprise when they do get started.
For a day supposed to feature much rain, it was wonderfully sunny today, with a toasty 74 degrees to encourage the plants to make the most of last night's rainfall.
On the way home tonight, I swung by the beach to see what sunset was looking like. It was, it seems, muted by these clouds, the eastern edge of another lightning and hail storm which fizzled out as it reached the bay.
Mary from City Garden has tagged me with a meme thing, but I'm just not going to get to that this evening. I'll try to work it in tomorrow, when I'm not so tired.
But meanwhile, you should surf on over to see Mary's blog if you've got the time, and read about her family's allotment on the Greek countryside. And we think we have challenges in the suburbs.
