Too darned hot!

I've lost the label from this rose, it's one of the David Austen roses.

Is climate change just a myth, if you listen to the ginger incumbent in the White House and believe what he says, then yes, it is a myth. Never mind what the thermometer might say, he is right, he knows he's right. God save us all if we listen to him or his appointees. I however will believe what I can see and feel, it's now seven pm, the sun has disappeared but the temperature is still 22.6 or 72+ in old money. It's been yet another scorcher of a day, not what I signed up for when we moved back from Spain to escape the summers, maybe Iceland would have been a better choice. I might hate it, but the garden loves all the heat,

Much easier to pick of the berries if you're sitting down.

we have given up picking the blackcurrants, the last bush to be done gave us 7kg from just two thirds of the bush. We have made around eighteen lt. of Ribena, hopefully we wont run out this year. Only four of the blackcurrant bushes got picked, three have been left, the birds are welcome to them, for years we have always cheated,

we prune the bushes and then pick off the fruits at our leisure, although all the books tell you this is the wrong time to prune , it's always worked for us, maybe too well. Simon is experimenting with drying blackcurrants in the de-hydrator, it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

The last seven pounds, or 3.5kg.

The redcurrants also cropped very well, we have had ten kg. from four bushes, fortunately I have a good sale for redcurrants and sold the lot, we didn't need any for ourselves this year.

The first three.

The newest Peach tree has now been picked, the nursery said not to expect any fruit this year,

well it gave us thirty five beautiful peaches, we have saved some for eating, the rest are now boiling away in kilner jars for winter deserts. The older tree is in the old tunnel and about a week behind, this tree seems to have about the same number of fruits.
The flower gardens have also been enjoying this new Mediterranean climate, in fact everything enjoys it except me.

Gertrude Jekyll.

The roses started early and are still going strong,

the Bergamot looks wonderful,

I moved the Inula to give it more breathing room and it has responded well to the transfer.

Lucifer and Linaria look lovely together,

and I have never seen so many flowers on the Hypericums, they also started early and have kept going.

The Hydrangeas are also looking really good.
 Yesterday for me was a very special day,

Common lizard, not so common for me.

I saw my first ever lizard in Ireland, it stayed where it was for some time, allowing me time to get the camera, although the photo's not great, I took it through the shut French doors, I didn't want to disturb it. It's one of several things I do miss about Spain, we had so many different types of lizards, frogs, toads and Salamanders.

I can never resist  brightly coloured flowers, this lovey dense red Achillea was a must, it looks good in the newest bed.