Its Show Time

You could predict that the weather would turn really nasty with the timing of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show on Wednesday and true to form there were pictures in our local paper of stoic folk in the mud trying to look like it did not matter, but for small local businesses it must have been the last straw as at least half the people that were going to go did not bother.
I took the day off as it was so bad and sat at home and watched the weather do its worst.
At work it was spent re - staking plants that have grown taller than expected and getting to gripd with the bindweed which has been bad this year.

It is so satisfying when you find that a plant you have moved has done well and enjoys its new space. At home we put quite a few of the heucheras that we bought with us between the side of the house and the garage a shady funnel of a place and they look brilliant.At Milborne Port I moved a canna that had been stuck at the back of a border and got swamoed by anything else in a pot at the end of a walk.In the pot had been some hostas that had not liked the full sun and always looked toasted. Both look incredible now.

You can tell its the summer holidays

What I love about August is that the roads going to work each morning are so quiet.Apart from the odd combine sneaking out while it is quiet.There is nothing worse than one crawling along on a busy afternoon with a dozen irate and increasingly impatient drivers in its wake.The trailers that move the straw and grain around are worse as they seem to be in just as much of a hurry as the rest of us, indicators are for wimps must be their motto.

The battle with slugs continues unabated they do seem to be getting bigger and are becoming more desperate to get at young shoots.   I now know why they are so attracted to new plantings - apparently when you handle them you bruise them and the smell they give off is nectar to slugs, that will explain why self seeded plants do not get the same damage- obvious when you think about it.
The Olympics are coming to an end and normally I would be glad but they have been pretty good this time, done in the usual stylish British way. Even sitting outside our Post Office in Sherborne basking in the glow of our local boy who won a gold in the shooting made me feel patriotic, something I am not normally inclined to do as patriotism usually means dying for a cause in some senseless war but this - thank goodness, is a bit different.We did quite well which I hope will stand us in good stead in the very uncertain future where I feel we are going to need all the friends we can get.