August rain

It has to rain in August, doesn't it.   Some May/June sunshine followed by a drought and then as soon as the school holidays start - hey presto!   Still, today I love it.   The heavy showers are interspersed with brief flashes of sunshine and it's mild enough for me to keep popping in and out of the garden to see all the good this delicious rain is doing.   Not even many slugs and snails about yet....

The dahlias are coming on just fine, so here is pink and white cactus dahlia Hayley Jane to say hello.   (The flower in the background has its back to us.)   I have managed to get a great deal of pink in the garden this summer which is a bit shocking as I'm not really a pink person.   But it's fabulous in dull weather.   Even a hydrangea which arrived white has gone pink in spite of my best efforts to turn it blue by adding iron filings to the soil.   Maybe I need to bury some rusty nails right into the soil?

Diana's bird bath by the house looks particularly striking in the rain - as well as being a good indicator of precipitation when I'm not here to see it for myself.