A sunny blue sky start to the second day of July, 15C at 8:20. Bath is starting to wake up, I can hear the chug of cars in the background. More immediately my neighour is whistling a random tune and admonishing the dog in between times.
Above my head the buzz of bumble bees is loud, working the Genista aetnensis which is in full golden glory. Closer to the ground a bee is frantically tumbling amongst the cream stamens of one of the last fragile flowers of Papaver spicatum. Year after year it comes up in solitary splendour in a patch of gravel. The pale pinky orange flowers are quite hard to place colourwise.
The dominant scent at the top of the garden is one forlorn golden blaring lily trumpet, a relic from last year. Further down it is a mix of Wattakaka (Dregea sinensis), Lonicera similis v delavayi and Jasminum beesianum. The Wattakaka scent is not unpleasant some books say it is scented – well it is, but gently, but not in the way a lily or rose is.
One of the toad tribe, the golden one, is around and about this morning I guess until it heats up a bit. Playing grandmother’s footsteps, they do seem to sense when you are looking at them and when you are not.
Maybe it is a day for taking cuttings and sowing the Epimedium seeds collected from E wushanense Caramel?