Do you love it? Do you loathe it? Do you care?

Alright, I’ll call you “Olive” today (and hope your eye won’t pop at the thought), one of those lovely, juicy fruits, so plentiful that they bend their mothers’ branches in friendly, tortuous, Southern waves.

There was a time where your post would have made us, Northern dwellers, jealous, but believe me, we now have more sun here than we know what to do with ... which, regarding one of your previous posts in another thread, is cause for serious concern: Plenty of water, you wrote, about our thirsty Virginia. Water, you say? What’s that? It’s all been lost by the Water Companies who use sieves instead of pipes. But we’ll do our best and keep you posted. Meanwhile, I have to tell you, though, that Virginia is thriving and growing at an alarming rate which has us excited and very breathless.

 

I saw this and immediately thought of Olive from "On the Buses". Anna Karen who played her died in Feb 2022.

 

What bus?

 

The one I keep missing.

 

Try the double zero to nowhere, you can’t miss it.

 

I would be sympathetic, but that's one container. And the hanging baskets, of course, when they're well (and truly) hung I'm trying to keep two acres (minus the late lawn) irrigated! Survival irrigation, true, rather than 'packed, floriferous borders full of lush, happy plants', but even so it's an 18/24 battle Eucalyptus trees are rapidly becoming my vegetation of choice. I'm glad to hear that Virginia is thriving. Don't blame me if one day Mme Lab enters the bower never to be seen again....

 

Sun, what's that? Very few days of that up here this summer.

 

Brutal irony!
GB is a microcosm of a preposterous situation where, at any given time, half of our planet is being centrally-heated while the other half is being air-conditioned and, as the axial pendulum swings, the half that was air-conditioned is now centrally-heated and the half that was centrally-heated is now air-conditioned. Call it conundrum, or palindrome, whichever, Henry miller hit the mark with his “Air-conditioned Nightmare”.

Having said that, Sheal, I’d rather be in your shoes than ours at the moment.

 

We not only sympathise, we empathise. I remember from my days in the SOF the relentless heat already at 8am, the maddening cicadas, the uncontrollable fires, the locals disappearing between eleven and four, the lizzards zipping under stones, the donkeys hiding in the shadows, while I was reading Alphonse Daudet under a parasol, I remember it all.

So, as a consolation and in response to Lab’s “I hope you haven’t upset Noisette with your olives and your hazelnuts!”, here is, this time, a proper Hazelnut Meringue Cake baked this afternoon for you to enjoy:

 

Oh wow, look at that! Thankyou from the bottom of my bathroom scales
Getting back on topic, slightly, you've reminded me about all the things I love here.....the lizards, tree frogs, hoopoes, humming-bird moths, grillons, authorisation to read or fall asleep (or both) in the afternoon because it's too hot to work. Mojitos made with limes picked straight from the tree , the fact that at the very least everyone looks you in the eye and says 'Bonjour'.....the list is endless

 

You may enjoy this example of nature playing games as one of our courgettes apes an aquatic shape and joins its mosaic “mother” in our conservatory:

 

How about a swap for a few weeks?

 

Oh, temptress! “I can resist anything except ...” But you are North of Loch Ness, that’s monstrously far.

And Mme Lab says If we went, she’d try your bike and you’d never get it back!

 

What bower?

There won’t be a bower because I plan to control the thing with reputable secateurs.

There will also neither be an awning nor a canopy because the hanging baskets will need light from above.

Of course, that’s the thinking behind it, and I am aware that it is easy to think of control but that it can be difficult to control thinking ... especially in this heat.