afternoon

Temperature at 2.30 29C wind breezy 0-25 kph crickets were cricketing but it was too windy for a good audio recording unfortunately.

There is the hole in the living room wall through which the chimney flue will go later today or tomorrow

 every day a few more Californian poppies open in the sun

 The one Echium is now about 5 meters high good job its not been a windy year although it is well sheltered.

 Just starting to flower and the bees are loving it, I wish we had bought a bee hive there are plenty of flowers around

 An Acer that turns a lovely pink then russet colour in the Autumn but is a vivid green this time of year.

 Fresias have done very well and the scent is so delicate

 My favourite Azalea still flowering

 and my second favourite one just starting to flower

I have been lifting the soil level in the front so it looks a bit bare at the moment but the cycad and bananas are settling in very well despite the dry weather.

 All of the holly trees are in flower at the moment it looks like it might be a good year for berries, we have about 7 some quite small but good with the berries and growing fast.

 Plain white and lovely carpeting a fair bit of the ground under the trees.

 Seat number 1

 This is the bluebell that isn't the Spanish kind it grows very well here and I have not seen any of the ones that we call Spanish in England.

 Hotentot fig that I thought had died last year but is now doing quite well, they can become a bit of a pest but easy enough to pull up if they get out of control.

 Seats 2 and 3 and a table

 Fields below freshly turned today and all ready for Maize planting

 Over the road more mature apple trees are in full blossom and humming with bees

 The first strawberries have set...hundreds of them.

Hoping for less wind and some audio this evening.