AM to PM

Super photos! We have had a lot of rain this morning, but not as heavy as you have had, OH and I went to Preston (about 45 mins drive) and I was for stopping at my favourite nursery, halfway back. Just about a mile away from it, the rain eased, so - of course! - I stopped. I was after a tray of purple petunias (for the scent) but they had none left of any colour! I bought two beautiful planted-up baskets of veined purple Surfinias for £10. I wouldn't normally buy planted containers, but I couldn't resist them. I hope, with judicious dead-heading, they will last.

The sun is now out and all looks lovely (like your first pic) so I'm off into the garden!

just stopped her Melchi, sun is shining and all is well, water is still flowing but much less fast than it was an hour ago, thank goodnes.

Surfinias sound lovely, put a picture on so we can see them please. I need cheering up after all the rain and hail and water stood in the garden. I had just finished my shopping and got it into the house when it came down. I could see it was coming the sky got blacker and blacker and blacker. It moved away and then came back on itself as storms do. So we got double the water tipping down on us. Apparently the town is flooded out, glad I am not living down there today.

Really heavy rain can be quite alarming. We are generally very lucky here - the rain doesn't get going until the clouds are a little (not much!) further inland - not always, anyway...

I have posted a photo of the surfinias ;-)

I am so fed up with all the rain we are getting in Scotland. We are off to Greece on Friday for some sun.

Enjoy Linda hope you have a great time :O) Sun is shining here again now. But no sitting in the garden tonight, still water right up to the bbq and beyond. All the borders are stood in water, even the woodland border which is usually bone dry. lol :O)

What a difference in those two photos Barbara! We have had a downpour, thunder & lightning too, in the past hour. Now I shall not be saying thanks to you for sending it down here! :o)

Oh my, Barbara...it is almost unbelievable. Hope the water drain away very quickly. We have had no rain here yet.

Wow, I can't believe how quickly that happened. Let's hope it goes away just as quickly.

thank you everyone, sorry Shirley, the hailstones were hitting the house roof and shooting off up the garden like someone had fired them out of a gun. lol It is beginning to drain away, but no way that I am sitting out for the next few hours, it is still stood right up to the bbq. It did happen so very quickly. A car got stuck down town under a bridge with water up to the doors and another bridge where water stands has been closed. Amazing where all that water comes from. Just beginning to cloud up again. Can live without anymore rain for a few days at least.

Blimey!!!!! That's scary fast rain! Hope it stayed out of the house....good grief, unbelieveable!

Crumbs Olive we really will have to build your raft, shorts and suntop here today, I finished the pruning in the dog area and cut the back hedge, washing drying outside, never fetched it in until after 6pm, it kept clouding over and Brynner was agitated all day and refused to come out so I thought it was thundering somewhere.
We did have a shower about 8pm(ish)it never even wet the patio but its getting dark early.....BTW let me know if you need to borrow my son's kayak......

Lots or roads closed around us we got the worst of it. Think it rained that much over us Lincs that there was none left in the clouds to dump on your end of the county. Amazing storms, lightening again now. :O(

Karen it will not get into the house it just ran around it like a river, the crazy paving path met with the garden border and the water running from the roof all merged and ran around the house down into Pauls shed around the back. there were only two bags of dog food in there and I ventured out and lifted them out of it. It has all gone from around the shed now only stood by the table and chairs, beginning to go slowly. Maybe by the morning if we do not get any more.

Isn't that amazing, that it was so local?! Mum you will have got very wet removing that dog food! We've had just enough rain to water all my new plants in well again! I hope it doesn't get any worse!

No more rain tonight, although it has looked black and been flashing about a bit. Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow, it is hard to imagine that I sat there this morning and peeled the veggies and had my coffee and this afternoon I could not walk outside without being under foot in water. :O( ah well we shall see what tomorrow brings. :o) off to my bed for some shut eye. x

Here in balmy Bracknell, we had some moderate rain for about two minutes at about 6pm. And that was it. Hey ho.

Us too Andrew, weather very hot and stormy, oh dear Olive you are having what we had the other morning and was forecast for the weekend with 350 NGS gardens due to open...... but it did not happen here, thank goodness, let us hope that is it for now, when are we going to get some settled weather?

Thank goodness you did not get it, it would have ruined your gardens for the open day. I am hoping that is it for us, but it is very unsettled. Beautiful morning again here, just been out to sweep the mud off the paths but that is a thankless task. Too wet, will leave it for a few hours now. Try again later.

I had two lines of washing out and that is wetter than when I put it out. Its staying until it dries, no where else to put it. lol.

Plants have faired quite well to say it was so heavy, just been out and propped up some that had been laid low. The worst is the veggie - broad beans oh well it could have been much worse. Some roads still closed around us. Think they will open them up once it has gone done a little. People have to get to work and the detours are miles around for some people.

Right off to do some more clearing up, fingers crossed for all you who are showing your gardens, that you do not get these storms. Stay safe and have a good day. :O)

We went to an NGS Open Day last week on the Isle of Wight - it was their first opening and they had laid pallets down to form 'Pallett Alley' to enable visitors to walk across the lawn! Fabulous garden and well worth the visit. Oh yes, following the downpour of yesterday evening I have just gathered up 30 snails and slugs ... yuk! No guilt at putting them in the brown bin ... lol!

Think they might have drowned in the garden here yesterday. The poor mice which run circuits around the garden certainly will have been very wet. No where in the garden was safe the poor baby robins fledged early am and then that lot came down on them. Hope they stayed dry. The paths are covered in about half an inch of mud this morning, but it is too wet to sweep off just yet. Think it is forecast to settle more later on in the week, hope so. :O)

Oh no! Yuk!

Oww you had a tropical downpour there olive... hope all clears up quickly for you... kept coming over black but no rain down here .....

Holly - did you not get the downpour at about 6.30 pm yesterday? We had a puddle on the lawn - all gone now though. :o)

All water drained away apart from bits stood on stepping stones. Just the mud to clean up now. It certainly was tropical Hollyeves. Amazing storms hope they leave us alone today. :O)

Hope the mud isn't too sticky Mum. It rained very heavy here overnight then stopped and was very hot, then rained again, and now it's sunny again. Just perfect growing weather!! :))

Lovely day here but we just had a few drops of rain from one large dark cloud, I was chasing around getting in the washing not going to leave it out another night. lol :O) stopped very quickly hope that is it now, need some sunshine to settle the garden back down.

Pleased to hear its clearing up for you Olive, we never did get the storm just a few mins of thunder in the distance and one heavy shower that didn't even wet the patio, sunny day again here with a few black clouds just to annoy us I think......

thank you Lincs, don't think there was any water left up in the sky it had dropped it all on us here. lol :O) pleased you didn't get it. :O)

Great photos Olive, we had the same here. You still have a wonderful garden despite the weather.

Thank you stroller, it is much better this evening, the sun has shone for most of the day and dried things up considerably. :O) A storm has just gone to the west of us so I am pleased it missed us tonight. :O) the borders are still saturated.

We have had a real variety today - lovely first thing, then dull, then hot and sunny for a couple of hours, then thunder and lightning and heavy rain and now sunny again. It's all getting very lush as a result of the mixed weather we've been experiencing.

Yes and the trouble with that is the rain keeps topping up the garden and the grass is never dry enough to trim. lol never happy us gardeners are we!!! The only saving grace is that we do not have any watering to do. lol :O)

"Oh don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn't your life extremely flat
When there's nothing whatever to grumble at?"

WS Gilbert

Lol!

lol :O)

Lol:-D