Beautiful rain

We English complain so very much about the weather. The minute it rains we're at it … "ohhh what a horrid day" … " isn't this weather just awwwwful", we've all heard comments like these, or made them ourselves. And of course on a day like today, when a town just down the coast from us is having the second of a series of four days of exciting aerial displays the rain that has arrived is a great spoiler of fun, and deep disappointment for all if parts of the show have to be cancelled.

But if, like me, you have just planted up a flowerbed, then a solid, lengthy downpour is just what you need, especially when the lawn and beds are so very dry.

In the foreground you can see the area we had landscaped just under a year ago when the pond found its way into the garden. There have been some excitements with this along the way, as the waterfall was allowing more water to fall outside its confines than was helpful - resulting in the need for regular top ups. It should be OK now, and has nonetheless been giving us and the five fish a great deal of pleasure.

The bed in question, with hydrangeas at the back, was actually planted out about eight years ago, then cleared and replanted, and now cleared and planted yet again! It hasn't been very successful, in part due to neglect, but in part because, south facing and sitting beneath the yew as it does, it stays awfully dry. I have tried this time to plant up with things like salvia and sedum, sun lovers which don't mind dryness. I shall water assiduously while the plants settle, and post a fresh image once they are more established. But for now, I'm just enjoying the raindrops falling like lines of milky light from the sky and the wonderful colour of the maple as its leaves shine in the downpour

The cat chaps, on the other hand, are distinctly unimpressed. Rum has hidden his head under his paw and is waiting for it all to go away

and Raisin is outside on the windowledge, expressing his disgruntlement, as only a cat can.