Finally, some rain. Not enough to penetrate the soil but enough to prepare it to absorb more if it comes. The temperature is cooler so it could fall. I bought a Geranium yesterday; Blushing Turtle – it looks like neither. It was left to soak overnight and planted it out in the dry, shady border today, whilst the rain was still spitting.

The surface soil looked damp but it was like dust below. The prepared hole took a whole bowl of washing up water and kettle dregs – and drained away in seconds, goodness knows where. I topped it up and watched as bubble holes appeared then gave it a bit of a stir with the trowel. It looked more like growing mud so popped the new plant in, firmed it into position and watered it in to be sure. It is quite light, stony soil and it will need to establish quickly because it won’t get much extra watering. It does get partial light there, but not many hours of direct sunshine

Very little is coming through over there although the Oxalis seems to be coming along. The Lupinus angustifolia flowered and is setting seed, the flowers were a bit of a disappointment tbh, such rapid growth to begin with that you could almost see them growing like a strange alien, but whether I did something wrong or the weather didn’t suit, they just grew up like stringy bottle brushes. They could have been planted far more densely. They also have a tendency to flopping over. Oh well, know better next time. The Alfalfa Medicago sativa Lucerne was planted out over there because the instructions said that it would be fine in dry spots. The instructions do not mean my dry spots, they are struggling and have not flowered, perhaps they will do better once it does begin to rain properly again. It might be the light, as others of these plants are doing better elsewhere in the garden but they also had more water. Intriguingly, there are selfset Medicago arabica that have clover like leaves with red spots but their common name is Spotted Medick. I wonder what the flowers will look like?

Finally, my Digitalis seedlings were planted out over there too. These do not look particularly interesting now but they each hold a grand ambition for next year. They probably won’t quite measure up to these but I am sure they will give it their best.

Isn’t it amazing that all these plants, wherever they sprout, whatever conditions they experience, each one is intrinsic to what it is and what it will become. It feels to me that there is an essential precept in this natural belongingness but as usual, the words take me further away from the awesomeness that each exists in its intrinsic beingness. There is a strong urge to anthropomorphise a conscious intent, that each ‘knows’ but each just is and each just does, until it isn’t.