Burnt Up

 We arrived home from the UK on Wednesday morning at 1.45am having had an eventful journey. We left Lincolnshire at 7am Tuesday and arrived at the Channel Tunnel with no problems,other than the 40C heat which persisted throughout daylight hours. However there was an hours delay on top of the hour John always allows for possible trouble!! Just outside Calais the motorway was shut with a 45 minute diversion. Then the trim on the bonnet started flacking in the wind and took three separate attempts to rectify. Despite the air conditioning in the car I was getting rather hot and bothered by this time and suggested that we stop at the hotel we normally use. As we had to be home for an obligatory blood test for me at 7am Wednesday morning John said that we would have to leave the hotel at 1 in the morning so we should just battle on. Fine, until we encountered a dreadful storm north of Limoge. The fork and sheet lining was flashing continually for about half an hour and all of a sudden a wall of water fell in front of us and we literally couldn't see anything. We had no idea where we were in relation to the road until at the very last second we saw the side railings which John miraculously avoided hitting. Phew, we have no plans to drive to England again in the near future.

Our neighbours had kindly offered to water for us whilst we were away but despite this the weeks of drought coupled with days of 40C temperatures and a boiling wind the garden had succumbed. Of course I started to water straight away but just to try and save a few plants. The soil is like powder, it is eroded from around the plant roots where I have been hoseing since May and even if the flowers manage to bloom they are destroyed by the sun in one day. 

We put the hibiscus in the porcherie for protection so now it is looking great.

The butterflies are still manageing to find nectar on a few survivors.

We will just have to start the Autumn cut back early this year ......when it's cooled a little of course. What a difference a year makes; last year we did not clear up at all because everything was flowering into November.