It's summer here in the UK and today it is set to get hot, about 27C. I know that for many of you who are from warmer climates that may not seem very hot. I remember reading a post from someone in the Philippines a few years ago complaining that it was cold there and they need to wear a coat, because the temperature had got down to 28C! But here in the UK, anything above 17C is warm, and anything above 22c is tropical!
Us Brits love to talk about the weather because it is always changing. if you ever visit the UK and don't know how to start a conversation, start by talking about the weather, we do it all the time. When we get even a speck of sunshine, most of us Brits try and get out in it if at all possible. We complain when its cold or wet, but I can guarantee that by the end of today I will hear someone complaining about how hot it is!
Today, I thought for a change I would take a few photos of my own. I have generally avoided using my photos since I joined Ecency and have usually used pictures either from Pixabay, or I have created them on NightCafe Studio. My phone camera is okay, but not brilliant. And I don't have one of the expensive cameras that a lot of you on here seem to have. But I do have an old Olympus VG-120, so I thought I'd brush that off and see what it can do. Or should i say what I can do.
I wanted to take some photos of my garden, but to be honest it's a mess at the moment. We have been having major work done to it for the last 3 years. My son has built a new conservatory/extension onto our bungalow, and he has been building small walls, a path and a couple of patio areas. So at the moment the garden looks more like a building site than a garden.
However, we do have a few plants that have survives the upheaval. So rather than take photos of them from a distance and show the mess that surrounds them, I thought I would set the camera to macro and concentrate on closeups. I am not a garden, so I can't tell you what all of these flowers are, but maybe someone out there knows what they are called.
I really love this beautiful yellow flower. The plant is quite a large one and at this time is a mass of these yellow flowers. I think it then develops small red berries.
I actually grew this one from a plug plant last year but, being completely disorganised like I am, I forgot to make a note of what it is. I also planted it in the wrong place, right in front of our bedroom window. The problem is we live in a bungalow, so our bedroom is downstairs, in fact we don't have an upstairs, and this plant is really tall. Some of the stems have grown to the level of the gutter. I will be moving these to grow along our garden fence once our garden is finished.
I am quite pleased with how this miniature rose is doing this year. It was bought as a gift for my wife by one of her friend. We had it in a large pot for many years. however it didn't do very well. mainly because we kept forgetting to water it! But last year, although it looked nearly dead, I decided to plant it in the ground. That seems to have done the trick, and today it is green and full of flowers (I had to lop of a lot of dead wood). Although, I have just noticed from the photo that it has some black spot on its leaves, so I may have to find out if there is something I can treat it with.
The last photograph I'm sharing today is of a Forget-Me-Not . But this isn't a normal one, this is a water Forget-Me-Not and is growing in our garden pond. The pond is only a year old, but it already has frogs, newts and tadpoles in it, along with numerous water bugs. Its not very big, but I love having water in the garden. I love to see all the life it brings. Although the gnats that it attracts aren't quite so good. My grandchildren love the pond too, and spend a lot of time catching frogs and newts when they visit, always putting them safely back of course.
So there you have it. A few photos of flowers from my garden. I may have to do more of my own photography now I've found our old camera.