Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Sweet Relief, and My Toes


It's cooler today, and we had more rain. I woke in the night and heard it pattering on the roof. Again, not a lot -- just a drizzle -- but better than nothing.

The Brugmansia seems to be thriving. We kept watering and watering it during our hot spells, and in return it has grown and now has five blossoms and 11 buds! The only way I could show the whole plant was to shoot it from above (and unfortunately I couldn't manage that without also showing you my toes).


Here it is from the side. Those zucchini-like things are buds for forthcoming flowers.


And here's what my weather app is telling me we can expect for the next 10 days. Woo hoo! If this proves true -- and that's a big IF, given how chancy the forecasts have been lately -- it will go a long way to setting the garden to rights after our drought. I don't think it will fully restore our water levels to where they should be, but this is just what we need for the plants -- repeated, soaking rain. And look how chilly it's going to get! Not sure the Brugmansia will like that.

I belatedly realized I forgot to tell you yesterday what happened with my ear-piercing plans. I intended to get it done Monday, but when I called our local piercing place, they said the woman who does it is on vacation until Thursday. I could have gone somewhere else -- I mean, it's London, and there are a zillion places to get pierced -- but instead I just scheduled an appointment for Thursday. So it's still happening, just not immediately.

I heard back from our travel insurer about my camera claim. They wanted more information, which I sent just now. So presumably that's grinding along. I'm hoping to go look at replacement cameras today. I've been reluctant to do so because I haven't wanted to leave Bailey alone, but I also have to live my life and the dog has to be comfortable getting along without me!


I'm still reading Derek Jarman's later diaries. Every once in a while I come across a passage like this -- where the words have been visibly redacted. I'm mystified about why this was done. Why not just eliminate that paragraph entirely, rather than show the blacked-out text? I can only assume that the lawyers intervened at a late stage in the editing process, and the words had to be redacted this way to avoid upsetting the type flow on all the ensuing pages. Of course it makes me wonder what he said!

4 comments:

  1. It's raining here at long last, a steady amount, I can hear our garden groaning with pleasure.

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  2. I woke up to the sound of rain trickling through the drainpipes, it was such a relief. The Brugmansia looks tropical and beautiful so is probably loving London at the moment.
    Jarman would have been a blogger if he had lived long enough.

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  3. I see nine days of rain forecast for you! I hope it happens in decent enough amounts to revive your garden. Everybody's garden really.

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  4. I had heard that Brugmansia is highly toxic and can have potent hallucinogenic effects. If your blog posts become too weird we shall know why ...

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