A Downpour and TLC

 I have a lot of news since my last entry. It has been a very busy time. 

The village flower show was held last weekend and we kept our entries down this year for the simple reason of having less stress. I was not happy about my sweetpeas which have been abysmal this year, but I managed to find enough and came first in both classes winning the Jimmy Young cup. He was a local man who grew amazing sweetpeas. My brother James won his cup in the next village this year as well. My dahlias also won in three classes and I got a cup.

My most spectacular dahlia was Firecracker.

But our veggies had no placements ..... courgettes and tomatoes. We didn`t think they were that good anyway. Better luck with them next year perhaps.
 

The following day was Fairy/Dinosaur day. This year the charity was MND. We raised £250. 

A few days earlier I had a feeling of despondency due to the garden not looking at all wonderful. Many things had died prematurely, we had lost the plums and a kind of tattiness prevailed. But in between we had an incredible downpour which lasted 40 minutes and gave us 4 inches of water. Our lane literally turned into a river and our garden was flooded.

 

 On the day, the weather was just right and the garden looked wonderful .... hollyhocks a mile high, sunflowers towering above, dahlias doing their thing and even the sweetpeas perked up. All thanks to the downpour.

We had more compliments about the garden than ever and this was a welcome boost for flagging garden spirits.  People were wondering how we got to grow things so tall. Well we don`t do anything special except perhaps adding farmyard manure and giving it all tlc.

Here is Verity having a glitter tattoo with Hollie.

And this is my great nephew Hugo digging for dinosaurs.
 

Families brought their own picnics and found spaces around the garden, which was very nice to see.

All in all a lovely day and I hope, enjoyed by all.