Neighbour's flowers - NOT amateur radio

Quite a colourful display in a neighbour's garden this morning. It is now late summer (autumn according to the weather forecasters) and he still has a great deal of colour. In his back garden he has lots of apples.

Patio flowers - NOT amateur radio

The flowers on our patios and in the hanging baskets have been pretty good this year. The picture shows some of these.

Garden flowers - NOT amateur radio

From the sound of it, my brother in Devon has had far less rain than us. His lawns are already brown, whereas ours are still largely green. The photo shows the flowers on our patio earlier.

Chelsea Flower Show - NOT amateur radio

For our 70th birthdays, my brother-in-law bought us tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show.This is the most famous flower show in the UK. We went by train and tube. It was surprisingly busy. The flowers were amazing.

Cambridge Market - NOT amateur radio

These flowers were on sale in Cambridge Market on Wednesday. Next door was a stall selling sweets.

Flowers on the approach to Kings - NOT amateur radio

At this time of year the flowers on the Backs (of colleges) in Cambridge, UK look their best. The ones in the photo are on the approach to Kings.

Boots and flowers - NOT amateur radio

Our local Montessori school has found a great way to use odd boots and make the place inviting too.

Flowers - NOT amateur radio

Sometimes our friends joke that our house looks like a florist shop! Indeed my wife likes flowers around the house. As well as lots of orchids we have others such as these carnations and gypsophila.

Patio flowers - NOT amateur radio

For weeks, our lawns have been brown and parched, but they are at last recovering after some rain.  They may get a trim later, although it looks like more rain!

Surprisingly, the flowers in pots on our patio have done quite well as the photo shows.

Patio flowers - NOT amateur radio

Our grass is very brown. We never water the grass, but it usually recovers fine after our rain (frequent).

The flowers usually get watered every other day and look fine this year. Our cosmos has only just flowered and we expected this to be out weeks ago.

Flowers - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday an old friend was 70. When we called, we had to take a photo of the clematis and roses by her front door. They always have great roses in their front garden.

Best ever - NOT amateur radio

Today we visited a garden in north Norfolk. It was, without doubt, the best collection of azaleas and rhododendrons I have ever seen.

Flowers - NOT amateur radio

The collage shows some of the spring flowers seen recently on walks. Although it is dull today, one feels spring has finally arrived after a long, wet, winter.

Last year's - NOT amateur radio

Our amaryllis plant from last year has now really started to grow, with a bud appearing yesterday. The photo was taken this morning. Barring disasters, it should be quite big next week. This was a total surprise as we thought it wasn't going to grow! I just love watching these grow.

Will it or won't it? - NOT amateur radio

At the moment we have 3 amaryllis plants. One is way out with plenty of flowers, one is growing well and this one.

It is hard to tell if this one is coming out. There appear to be some shoots but another week and it will be clearer.

Amaryllis - NOT amateur radio

We have three of these magic plants. Just how do they grow so tall so fast and produce such magnificent flowers?

Autumn cyclamen - NOT amateur radio

Autumn cyclamen at Anglesey Abbey earlier this week. Photo taken by my wife. At every time of the year there is something to enjoy there. Dahlias are nearing their end and in a few months the first daffodils will be out.

Toadflax - NOT amateur radio

This was growing wild just a few metres from our bungalow. It must have flowered very recently as I'd not seen it before today.

See https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/10295/Linaria-vulgaris/Details

Hollyhocks - NOT amateur radio

Today I dug out our impatiens (busy Lizzy) in readiness to plant primroses there over the winter. Most of the impatiens were well past their best. Once the frosts come, that will be it. Primroses give colour all winter and need little attention.

Our hollyhocks did well this year and they are still flowering, so these will not be cut back just yet. Our tomatoes have done well too. Our sweet peas were disappointing.

Summer here in the UK started warm and dry. In later months it has been less great.

Patio flowers - NOT amateur radio

These flowers are on our patio. At the moment there is a riot of colour.