It's bizarre. Here we are in November, Bonfire Night's over, and with this grotty weather it hasn't really got light at all this weekend, yet in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, not only are the "usual suspects" - autumn flowers like salvias and fuchsias - still giving a fabulous show (and they are still covered in bees!), other flowers such as the "Black-Eyed Susan vine" (Thunbergia) have only just started flowering, and the Cobaea scandens [above - click to embiggen] in "the top field" at the end of the garden has gone completely, utterly mad! Too many flowers to count, in a five-foot-by-five-foot curtain hanging from the washing-line! Shame one needs a brolly and galoshes to traverse the jungle and the dead-leaf-slime carpet to actually see them...
Changing the subject completely, a somewhat obscure name appeared in the obituaries yesterday. Miss Nicole Josy has departed for Fabulon (or at least one of its tackier ante-rooms).
Who? I hear you cry.
Well, as one half of the duo who were the Belgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1973, she created one of the most - ahem - memorable impressions in the history of that eternal kitsch-fest. As I said when when I featured it for Tacky Music Monday back in January 2017:
It has purple bell-bottoms and matching platform boots. It has backing singers in proto-Golden Girls fright wigs. It's completely incomprehensible. It's Baby, Baby by Nicole & Hugo!
Once seen, it can never be "unseen".
I was just out sprinkling the garden with water, and I too noticed the bee' were still bumbling flower to flower. Of course, we are till unseasonably warm. Although the great oak decided to dump it's branches of leaves over night. The garden and lawn is polluted this am.
ReplyDeleteOne benefit to this terrible weather is that we haven't had to water the pots for weeks! Bees foraging and dead leaf-mush all over the garden at the same time, however, is a remarkable experience... Jx
DeleteNil point?
ReplyDeleteYour cup and saucer vine is seducing me, I'm thinking of next year's hanging basket.
It's a great seducer... Not sure how well it would work in a hanging basket though, as unlike the Lophospermum/Asarina/Maurandya/Rhodochiton family, which are self-twining, it has long (and rampant) tendrils that sucker it to any kind of support, including itself. Jx
DeleteA local wasp nest is still giving me grief every time I walk past, although I noticed a steep decline in buzzy activity yesterday - it seems wasps don't like the rain either. I nearly slipped on some leaf slime - dangerous stuff!
ReplyDeleteSx
We've seen very few wasps this year, surprisingly. Then again, there are so many trees in our area they have a lot of habitats to choose from, I guess. Jx
DeleteWe've had a showery day, but a lot of things here are showing signs of sun damage. And the re/purple leaves of cordylines and suchlike are more green/brown. They'll bounce back, but right now...blechh
ReplyDeleteIt was a similar situation here in July - but as you say, it's remarkable how some plants bounce back from scorching. Jx
DeleteSo much purple ! that's Pride sorted
ReplyDeleteShould we draw straws who's going to be Hugo and who's dressing as Nicole..? Jx
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