What an amazing summer. I am lucky to be able to enjoy it, and spend long hours in the garden - mostly under shade!
The flowers have been glorious, especially a new one for our garden - Clarkia - with it's sugared almond colours.
One of my favourites though is the orange hawkweed, or 'Fox-and-Cubs', with it's intense burnt orange hue. John Clare mentions it in his poem 'july', which perfectly describes the swooning heat of high summer, and the Dog Days.
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The flowers have been glorious, especially a new one for our garden - Clarkia - with it's sugared almond colours.
One of my favourites though is the orange hawkweed, or 'Fox-and-Cubs', with it's intense burnt orange hue. John Clare mentions it in his poem 'july', which perfectly describes the swooning heat of high summer, and the Dog Days.
The landscape sleeps without a sound.
The breeze is stopt, the lazy bough
Hath not a leaf that dances now;
The tottergrass upon the hill,
And spiders’ threads, are standing still;
The feathers dropt from moorhen’s wing,
Which to the water’s surface cling,
Are steadfast, and as heavy seem
As stones beneath them in the stream;
Hawkweed and groundsel’s fanning downs
Unruffled keep their seedy crowns;
And in the oven-heated air,
Not one light thing is floating there,
Save that to the earnest eye,
The restless heat seems twittering by.
John Clare