In June, she'll change her tune

[shewhomust]

Climbing the stairs to the attic this afternoon, as I do several times every day, I looked out of the window down onto the elder trees hn the back garden. They are laden with disks of white flowers. That can't have happened overnight, surely, as spring gave way to summer (by the calendar, at least)? But if not, how have I not noticed it until now?

Later I went out for a walk, up to the top of the hill and along the main road, and it is true that suddenly there are dog roses in the hedgerows and summer flowers everywhere: but our garden is shaded, and usually lags behind.

Anyway, summer now. This long strange spring is over. We have no plans to rush out and socialise in groups of six.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Funny that! Nor do we!

[athenais]

I follow a lot of British gardeners at Twitter and everyone says their trees have suddenly burst into bloom (not the fruit trees, those already did their thing). And apparently the roses are now in full flush there, whereas my garden has nothing left but two fading bushes and twelve of only foliage.

[shewhomust]

Great minds ...

[shewhomust]

Your roses seem to be spring flowers, which always disconcerts me - I think of them as a mark of high summer.

So it's not just me who was taken by surprise, then?

[athenais]

I thought so, too, when I lived 800 miles further north. But here in the Bay Area our roses start blooming in April, which is pretty far advanced in the spring. Summer generally starts (in terms of gardens) in May. So our roses are the harbingers, not the apex, of summer.

Someday I'll get to visit the David Austin Roses gardens in Shropshire. I'm compiling a big list of places I still need to visit in the UK. Durham is already on it.

[shewhomust]

I'm compiling a big list of places I still need to visit in the UK. Durham is already on it.

Excellent! There will be gardens...