bunn

A bug's eye view of the sedum carpet.  I was a bit concerned that the bees were flying over it to get to the chive flowers beyond, but yesterday the sedum flowers really started opening in numbers, and the bees were definitely enjoying them. So that's good. 

My fig cutting that I took from our Cornwall fig (the one that was originally a 50p label fell off special from a garden centre bargain area) lost all its leaves when I planted it out here this spring. Probably too early, since the poor thing had been indoors over the winter and was not accustomed to wild winds from the sea.  But it has now regrouped and is leafing up again.  I doubt I shall get a fig from it this year, but maybe next, now it's getting used to the place. 

On Friday, coming back latish, we met a hedgehog in the road.  Philmophlegm did an excellent emergency stop, and we went and found the prickly wanderer, who had tootled slowly into the verge and was noisily struggling to climb it.   I escorted him well into the hedge.

 We wondered afterwards if we should have taken him further from the road, or even brought him home (he was only about 1/3 of a mile away).  Despite the usefulness of hedgehogs in a garden, and the generous number of slugs I am able to provide,  I think that would have been too high risk though -  I'm not entirely sure how the resident sighthounds would react to the presence of hedgepigs.  Also, I suppose, we might have ended up bringing him into badger territory.  It's been a while since I've seen a badger around here or heard one in the garden, but there were quite a few around a few years back.

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Today it is mizzling persistently and all the horizons are close and full of fog. At the same time, it is quite warm.  Rainforest weather... 

It's all looking depressingly shaggy out there now that the campanulas and roses are over.  I have to admit I have a major weakness when it comes to gardening in late June / July, which is that I just can't summon up the energy when it's hot, so everything goes bushy and gets overgrown.   Then, when it rains, I tell myself that everything is so shaggy I'll get totally soaked out if I go out there to chop at it while it's still wet, and things go from bad to worse!   I actually enjoy it when I manage to motivate myself to get out there, so I don't know why I keep putting it off...

On the positive side, the blackberry that I failed to remove from the greenhouse is now covered in berries ripe a good two weeks before anything else in the area, and the buddleia is in bloom and covered in Red Admirals and bumble bees.  I saw a honey bee on there this morning as well! *

And the pumpkins and squashes seem to be doing well, I have plenty of basil and tomatoes in the greenhouse and  in the other side of the strawberry bed, there is a riot of nasturtians.  You are supposed to be able to eat nasturtian seeds 'like capers'.  Must try this. 

Up on the hill there are loads of rather nice whortleberries. I am scoffing them by the handful on walks, and must try to remember to take a pot of some sort so I can grab more to make muffins.  And possibly, Jelly. 

*Slightly saddened that a single honey bee now merits a yay.  5,000 years of domestication and now English honey costs a fiver a jar. 

 "pseudocopulate" :  describes what excited male bees do to orchid flowers which instead of nectar,  offer the saucy delights of a flower shaped like a seductive lady bee to insect visitors.