Last Saturday, when I wrote my last piece a day early, the weather was glorious! Hot sunshine, hardly a cloud in the sky, just a gentle breeze to stop it getting too hot, but a lovely 25ºC in the shade. That changed on Sunday, just in time for the trout fishing day, to what we have now. Nice mornings that fool you, afternoons that don't get much over 20ºC with thunderstorms rumbling around and unpredictably dumping rain and hail on me every time I put my nose out of the back door, while the evenings are cool but calmer after about 9pm. It is great growing weather for weeds and wild plants, not great for setting off seeds of courgette and butternut squash and impossible to get the thyme seedlings to do anything more than pout. But it has brought out the bee orchids, and this year, I've managed a couple of cracking photos of them too!
The various alliums we have growing are putting on a lot of green growth, although rather floppy. At least the onions are mostly growing under frames to keep the worst ravages of cat bottom under control, so they are supported, while the growing habit of shallots is such that they are quite perky. The garlic have lovely strong stems and leaves, but when I lifted one today to go with broad beans, it looked like a very healthy leek underground. I think they need a bit of sunshine and heat to bulk out. Not that the forecasts are promising any of that for the moment.
The Fergus Memorial Rose (aka Orange King) is now out and looking magnificent! I could go a bundle on roses if they put on displays like this all the time! Actually I am fond of roses, but I like them to have perfume - this one doesn't seem to, but with this, the colour was the important aspect.
The electrical activity is making writing this very challenging - it is taking about 8 goes to get a photo loaded up and inserted which is not doing my blood pressure any favours, so I think I will finish with a short word about the trout fishing day, and go and do something else.
The trout fishing day is run by the fishing club la Gaule Baugeoise, who stock the lake with trout of the right size, manage the fishing tickets and provide snack food at lunchtime. The Comité des Fêtes du Vieil Baugé, of which I am a member, provide a drinks stand all day long - coffee, wine, beer and soft drinks, served with a smile. Very successful events in past years have seen over a hundred rods, and a three hour long. lunchtime rush for drinks from 11:30am. This year was more sedate, in part due to the weather, in part due to a very long holiday weekend (known in the media as a viaduct holiday weekend), and in part due to people feeling less like splashing the cash than they used to. Even so, there were perhaps 70 rods and a continuous stream of drinkers and we didn't get too wet, and my feet stopped hurting about 2 hours after I got home. A success overall I think!
So I'm now going to quit while I'm ahead, and wish you a very good week!
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