Apologies friends - there has been almost a week without a post. That is mainly because we attended our 2nd youngest's daughters' graduation in Dubdee, then satayed a day in Galsgow (where our youngest is studying) and then met my parents in Greenock (they are on a N Europe Cruise... why would anyone want to stop in Greenock?) and took them down the coast to Largs and then across the water (on the ferry) to the isle of Cumbrae for fish and chips at Millport.
There will be a few photos coming up - we went to the botanical gardens in Dundee to take pre graduation photos - kind of like people do for weddings - and had a nice day out.

Then today I spent half the day tackling the jungle that summer has brought on. The grass has riotted between the daffodil leaves - they all got the lawn mower treatment today, while the buttercups have tried to overrun the strawberry patch and others in the rabbit-fenced allotment - they got the pull and twist treatment today, while over the fence the willowherbs, the nettles and the docks have tried to reclaim the wilderness from the potqatoes, the comfrey and the fruit-trees - they all got the machette treatment (cane knife treatment) thought the nettles fought back soo that I can still feel my right hand tingle as I type8 hours later, whuile the cane knife tried to take the top off my middle left finger as I had over sharpened it with the whet stone.

So it has all been go followed by a few hours at the beach with the son's dog trying to get him to swim out to the seals at the mouth of the River Ythan.

But back to the garden. Where do I begin - the fuchsias rampant, the fuchsia cuttings - most have taken!!!, the foxgloves - a real swathe of white and pink forming a wildlife glade, the dreaded Giant Hogweeds threatening the river bank, the basket tomatoes - we have a few fruits growing, the seedlings in the greenbhouse - half still alive, half dead, the dusty miller sedlings are growing great, the seedlings in the incubator - doing great - unplugged them and put into greenhouse (still in incubator) and they baked to oblivion in only 4 hours AAAAAAGHHHHH- the pollarded rowans, the rose garden (or lack of) or the biggest and best revelation of all the lupins.

Lupin hill is a real mass of colour. They have absolutely run riot these last two months. There are only 5 plants but they have each formed a huge great bush of colour.
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There are lupins along the sides of just one cutting between Aberdeen and Dundee- just south of Stratcoe - and I saw them blooming again this year - much wider dispersal along the cutting but each still looks like just the one stalk to one plant. I didn't get a picture but should have done. It was this bank that inspired me to put our lupins on the bank. They are just at the one cutting and none of the others - on both sides of the road so I am fairly sure that they must have been planted deliberately otherwise why would it be only on othis one cutting.
At the Tesco's roundabout in Ellon there are also one to two dozen lupins appearing this year. I don't remember seeing them before and they are all widely separated - maybe 1 p lant every 2 metres or so with just the one spike each (so probably either first or second year spike) so I think that they two were planted. When the graduate daughter gets home with car #2 I will pop up there and get some piccies. There are also some purple orchids further along the bank and they must be natural dispersal as I can't imagine the road-people planting those (apologies if I am wrong).

I would type a big long post about roadside plants but my shoulder is sore from swinging the cane knife, my arm tingles from the nettles and my finger hurts from the cut so I'm a physical wreck after only one day in the garden - so much for being a professional - the old hands would laugh at me and call me soft (as I am) but I will get harder so that by the time I go back to Libya in 2 weeks time I'll be a finely tuned instrument ready to go soft again.