Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She popped down to the canal for a walk this morning and got home before the temperature in London hit 33°C (91°F) later in the day.
I did some watering in Annie’s garden this morning and took a picture of a rose.
It was hot in the garden but not ridiculously hot, and Mrs Tootlepedal and I sat in the shade for a while. We had a lovely time on our visit, and we were sad to leave Annie and Evie, but we weren’t very unhappy about the chance to leave the heat behind.
We had to travel home at the hottest part of the day, but luckily we didn’t have to walk very far in the sun, and the train back to Carlisle was cool when we boarded it. It got quite warm as we headed north, but then we passed through a weather front on our way, and when we got off at Carlisle, not only was it a lot cooler, but it was also raining. We didn’t mind that at all.
Through a triumph of scheduling, the bus to Langholm left Carlisle three minutes before our train got in, so we had to kill an hour and quarter waiting for the next bus. We managed that with the aid of a nearby cafe, and found that the rain had stopped by the time that we got home. It was good to see a familiar sight.
The sun came out to welcome us back to the house, and it was lovely to walk round the garden in sunlit 15° temperatures. The volunteer poppies in the greenhouse had increased in our absence.
And the lupins had survived better than I had expected.
I took a a few ‘welcome home’ pictures of roses . . .
. . . and peonies.
It was easy to see that it had been raining just before we had got home . . .
. . . but the garden looked very fresh as a result.
The clematis over the garage door is almost over, but fortunately, the climbing hydrangea has burst into life to fill the gap.
I like the complexity of its flower arrangements.
It was good to be home again, and I hope to get back to regular blog posting and reading tomorrow. There may even be a flying bird of the day. There is a peony of the day today.
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You did well to post after your long day. I can’t remember if you leave from Euston or King’s Cross – Euston, I think??? But I saw a photo of a crazy number of people lined up outside there today. Hope you didn’t get caught up in the fray.
Enjoy sleeping in your own bed!
We left from Euston and curiously it was not very busy. We sat at a table for four and the seats beside us, although booked, were empty so we had a very comfortable journey all round.
91 degrees in London? Holy cats! Scotland’s temp is much more appealing, similar to Maine’s forecasted temp tomorrow. That climbing hydrangea is glorious.
It is glorious, I agree.
91 degrees, and I assume humid, in London in June does not bode well for the rest of the summer. I am sure it felt good to arrive back home to cooler weather.
I enjoyed the virtual walk through your gardens, especially that blue iris. Such a heavenly blue! I think you told me the name of that variety once, but I do not remember.
I think it is Siberian Iris Silver Edge.
It wasn’t very humid in London which made sleeping more comfortable than we expected but it is still good to be back in more gentle conditions in Langholm.
All your flowers are doing great and the clematis is realy special. We are also going to pass the 30°C today.
Just be happy that it’s a bit cooler at your place 🙂
We are very happy about that. I hope that your hot spell passes soon.
I loved that blue iris. Good you got home safely into much cooler weather. Sorry the bus timing was so awful.
Glad you had a reasonably confortable ourney home and found your flowers flourishing. The climbing hydrangea is a triumph.
Ninety degrees is harder to take each year and I’m thankful that I no longer have to work in it. I’m glad it was cooler when you got home.
The flowers seem to have done well while you were gone, especially the climbing hydrangea. I’ve never seen one do so well.
It looks after itself very well. We have to cut it back each year to stop it overwhelming the gutters. I find anything above 80 degrees quite hard these days though I used to love hot weather when I was young.
I was never a fan of hot weather. It drove me out of Florida when I worked there when I was younger.
Fortunately your garden doesn’t appear to have missed you much. You were obviously not in charge of Annie’s dead heading.
We did a bit of dead heading but it was very hot so we might have missed a few. The garden had survived our absence remarkably well.
All’s well with the world now that you two are safely back home. The flowers in your garden look lovely and fresh and that hydrangea is remarkable for its size and the beauty and intricacy of its make up- who’d have thought it would look like that!
It is a fine plant and is home to several birds’ nests too.
Welcome back!
Thank you.
I dislike travelling by train. Looking out at the countryside on the journey is a fabulous attraction for me, but the train travels too fast to get a really good look at anything interesting that is noticed. Travelling in heat makes the journey far worse. I’m glad to hear you both got off quite unscathed. Cheers.
It was a pleasant journey and once you get up to the north, the views are good even from a fast train.
That’s good to know. I hope your train travels won’t be affected by the strikes. Petrol prices are forcing everyone to cut back, so much so some people cannot afford to get to work. The government make it a complicated issue when it isn’t. Windfall tax the oil companies. Wages have to go up.
We are not intending to go anywhere by train for a while so the strikes are not affecting us at the moment.