Rain at last.

A couple of days ago, the rain was soft and gentle, and the tiny droplets looked so beautiful especially on the bronze fennel. I could have taken dozens of photos from every angle.

If the sun had shone too, they would have looked like diamonds.

Every plant seemed to have it's own adornments.

The sweet peas were harder to photograph, but the droplets accentuated the tendrils on them to perfection. My photos don't do it justice.

Since then the weather has gone much wilder and I have spent ages rescuing one particular iris plant from the margin of the pond. She is hell bent on drowning! I tried achoring her to a wire coathanger with paper clips - no good. So then I resorted to bulldog clips - success, I think. I had the wire coathangers fixed in place before the stone capping was done, so that the small pots that the plants came in could be held within the shape of the hanger, and the wire of the hangers could be moulded to the shape required. Until this awful gusty wind started, everything was going well.
I have some longish oval mesh pot/baskets which I will put some of the plants in when they are larger. These can then be topped with heavy pond gravel or chippings which should solve the problem. We are surrounded by tall trees, houses, fences, and walls so I would have thought our garden would be sheltered but this wind is blowing everything about and I have had to stake things that normally wouldn't need it.

We went out yesterday and managed to stay dry all day as it only rained when we were either under cover in shops, or in the car. However, on the motorway the rain was torrential and visibility was down to a minimum at times - it was quite frightening and fortunately only a very heavy shower which didn't last for long.

I am being very bad and blogging instead of (a) doing housework and (b) getting on with my entries for the next exhibition. I always find it difficult to finish things off to a good standard - the creative decorative bit is the fun part but there is sometimes just as much work involved in finishing a piece off. I'll just do the kitchen floor first!!