Finally some sun. The past few weeks have been very dull. I don't mean existentially, I'm talking about the weather. For whatever meteorological reason we have had day after day of low grey cloud without a glimpse of sunshine. So it's been a relief to see the sun this week and some blue sky. I've even felt the warmth of the sun on my cheek from time to time!

 As noted in my previous entry flowers are few and far between at this point in the year. Midsummer's Day (remember that?) is more or less the peak and the beginning of the decline. Most sun=most plants. Gardeners have long tried to fight the inevitable by sourcing plants that will flower in the latter part of the calendar.

 Generally that means using plants from other hemispheres that are hardy or at least half-hardy in UK conditions. Despite the relocation their biological clocks tell them to start flowering when others have faded. So it was nice to see pale sunlight playing across this border at the music school.

 The pink flowers in the foreground are Hesperantha I think, possibly one of the H. coccinea cultivars? This is a southern African genus. In the background the crimson spikes are one of the ground covering mat forming Persicaria. Probably a cultivar of P. affinis which hails from the Himalayas.