A warm sunny day with huge thunder clouds over the peaks; by late afternoon no sign of them actually doing anything over the valley. UV very high.

I spent a couple of hours in the garden this morning. Planted the Rose Campion plantlets I got at Georama in the east end of Road. It occured to me that I could have pulled the ones originally there out when I sorted the Lamb’s Ears, the young leaves look very alike. Mostly deadheading: Sweet Williams almost finished after their long bloom; Salvia Maynight and the Veronicas finished; the blue-purple Tradescantias finished. Squished some bugs on the Graham Thomas rose.

Indoors, the two orchids have more flowers open and buds still to open. They all seem quite happy in the Winter garden. The mass of flowers on the African Violets are beginning to go over, the blue one needs repotting I think. I added a new plant, Aechmea ‘Primera’. I had been hoping that the local supermarket would get some pink ones in again. They have had orange and yellow ones, but I saw a pink one in the winter and liked the purple flowers with the pink sepals (?). Today they had added a couple of pink and a couple of dark red, and they were on special offer.

I also bought a dehydrator. When the family’s freezer broke down they replaced it with a tiny one which only holds their food, so I had to think what I would do to preserve summer fruit. Bottling is of course one option but I dried some plums in the oven and liked them both raw and cooked, and a lot more dried plums fit into a storage jar, storage space also being a factor. Now I will get to experiment with drying fruit (and tomatoes) from the market.

I washed out a plastic pail which had had cat litter in it, punched holes in the bottom, filled it with soil and planted Watercress. DD had a big tub of watercress (photo 5) and although it doesn’t look exactly like the watercress that is sold in the UK, it tastes like it. I found some seeds when we went into Nelson. Watercress is one of those salads I miss in Canada… but no longer, I hope.