Wet

Days and nights of continuous rain, and not much inclination to squelch along to the allotment. When we did get along in a lull yesterday afternoon we found that the dahlias had begun to flower.



Apart from that splash of colour, everything was a quagmire. Not the sort of conditions to be tramping over the earth, but beans needed picking, and the new growth of raspberry canes had begun in the space of a few days to lean outward from the parent canes. In fact there was a definite tendency towards the south.


I wonder if the amount of daylight is already declining to the extent that the canes are seeking the sun. Our plot is shaded by trees to the west, and by this time of year more than half of the plot is in the shade. If the canes are leaning towards the light, it would seem to mark the beginning of autumn - in mid August. In the past two weeks there's been quite a difference in the length of the evenings. It's now almost dark at 10 pm, and already I'm regretting the light nights of June.

Since the current year's canes have finished fruiting I should have cut them back and tied in the new growth, but the secateurs were safely at home. So I settled for the untidy job of tying the new canes in to the wires - a job that will have to be re-done neatly and securely in a few weeks. That was annoying, given that I'll soon be back to work full time and be fighting to find time for the allotment.

The rain had brought on the sunflowers. With a lot of luck they might flower and enhance the harvest theme.

I had a look at the rampant sunflowers on a neighbouring plot, and took the photo below. It strikes me now that it might be called 'sunflowers with sheds.' From some angles it seems as if the most prolific crop at the site is variegated garden sheds.
















After I'd taken the photo I looked down to see the fox looking at me.


After a moment it decided that its fleas were more interesting than my presence, and sat and had a good old scratch.