Today’s guest picture comes from Venetia, my Somerset correspondent. She has ventured east lately and visited Nuffield House, the home of William Morris, the car manufacturer. This radiator temperature gauge caught her eye.
I note that one of the joys of modern life is not having to worry about your car radiator boiling every time you come to a steep hill or you get stuck in a traffic jam on a hot day. Not everything has taken a turn for the worse.
Our weather took a turn for the worse though and it was grey and windy all day. Every now and again, it started to drizzle as well. I got up late for breakfast and finally got dressed just before midday, having had coffee with Mrs Tootlepedal and our neighbour Liz while I was still in my dressing gown. Life in the slow lane.
I did go out into the garden just after noon and I had a look around. I think that I have been a bit too disparaging about the dahlias. They are trying their best and made a good show amidst the gloom today, both seen from a distance…
…and looked into closely.
The poppies continue to flourish and although we dead head dozens each day, more keep coming.
The nasturtium growing up the wall beside the front door is enjoying the weather more than I am…
…but the cosmos are rather unhappy and are being very slow to come out.
Mrs Tootlepedal’s beans are recovering after a slow start….
…and we had some of both with our evening meal.
I went back inside for more sitting down.
Once indoors, I spent quite a lot of time grappling with an extra difficult prize crossword, though I might have saved some of that time if I had discovered that the enumeration for two of the clues was wrong which accounted for quite a lot of the difficulty as it made the puzzle impossible to solve.
I finally realised that there must be a mistake, checked on the newspaper’s website and got the correct information which put me on the right track but even then it took some hard work and research to get the thing finished. Who knew that there was a god called Xipe Chec?
Late in the afternoon, I finally got out into the garden in a useful way and mowed the middle lawn, shredded some rose cuttings and trimmed the second last of the box balls.
The drizzle looked as though it might hold off for a bit more so I went for a walk round Gaskell’s while Mrs Tootlepedal cooked the tea.
It was really far too gloomy to take pictures but naturally I took quite a few.
There are some wild flowers still to be see beside the road and paths…
…and in places, the path can hardly be seen for the vegetation.
I saw one of the many umbellifera showing all three stages on one stem…
…and another plant further on which had got to the final stage.
There were lots of signs of the turning of the year.
A lot of our oak trees in different places seem to have galls on their leafs this year. I passed more on this walk and I had to look hard to find any acorns.
It was easier to spot sloes (sloely ripening) and any amount of haws.
There wasn’t as much fungus about as I had hoped…
…but there was plenty of lichen.
The park wall had brighter moments with ivy leaved toadflax and a contoneaster.
I had a look at the potentillas along the dam when I got home. They are still doing well.
My arm is improving slowly which is comforting and there is nothing in life that a week of warm sunny weather wouldn’t cure.
The flying bird of the day is a poppy which had risen above its friends this morning.
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Another plethora of wonderful photos of many different types of subjects. There are times when reading your blog makes me very jealous, I wish that I had your endless supply of great subjects like you do.
I would swap some views for some birds.
I’ve heard that nasturtiums could climb but I’ve never seen one do it until now.
I’ve never seen that kind of oak leaf gall either, or an ivy leaved toadflax.
I like that last poppy.
I am glad to be able to show you something after all that you have shown me.
What an unusual place for a temperature gauge, and lovely so see such beautiful chrome. You’re absolutely right about not everything being a turn for the worse in the automotive world. The items that I remember from my childhood and early teens that have totally disappeared are frost shields. They were pieces of plastic in various sizes, usually roughly rectangular in shape, that were ringed with sponge rubber. You glued the rubber to the side windows or rear window of a car in the winter, hoping that the shield would seal and you’d have a port hole through which you could see to drive. I am very appreciative of the defrosting systems in current vehicles! And I believe I’ve mentioned the joys of seat heaters before . . .
And not breaking down all the time….but seat heaters may be more than I need.
Sudden revelation: My poppies wouldn’t have petered out if I had deadheaded them. I never think of them as a dead-headable plant so I learned something today.
Definitely, it works.
CCEEHIPX. I. will. not. waste any more time anagramming…
I can still remember a childhood daytrip to a safari park being ruined by the car’s radiator overheating. The flowers are proving colourful despite the weather.
There is a surprising amount of colour, I agree.
Those poppies have been and still are a triumph.
Congratulations on excellent crossword research of which I was a beneficiary.
Glad your arm is improving albeit slowly. Enjoyed scrolling through flowers both garden and wild.
For a gloomy day you surely managed plenty of beautiful pictures! I must say, your nasturtium plant looks so pretty… mine is nearly dried up. It’d had one last hoorah before this current heat spell sent it packing.
No chance of any wilting from heat here.
Our hot spell broke, and I hope it stays that way. Happy medium would be fine.
It would indeed.
Lovely even in the gloom but fingers crossed that better weather will come with autumn.
The change of season is slowly creeping into your lovely photos but the colourful dahlias and poppies keep hope going for a long end to the summer. Two days of sunshine here have brightened things up no end!
We had a grey bank holiday
Superb nature shots. 🙂
Those poppies seem to shine with an inner light. The footpath looks inviting and colorful; your extra rain seems to have kept all fresh and lovely. My watering of the gardens at this point is mainly to keep plantings alive until the rains start again here in October.