Oh my goodness! Here we are at the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and still it doesn’t feel like summer! Whilst we’ve had a few sunny days, the skies have mostly been overcast. Still, the cycle of nature continues to turn and here in our little garden, some of my favourite flowers are blooming, even with overcast skies. Geraniums are relatively easy to grow and there are many hardy varieties to choose from which flower throughout the summer months.
With longer days,
Summer flowers open;
Oh my, geraniums!
Unfortunately, I’ve lost most of their names but I think the 2nd photo shows Johnson’s Blue, and the 3rd photo shows Bob’s Blunder.
Finally, here is a picture from our small garden, under a grey sky:
In the northern hemisphere, the sun is at its highest point and the wheel of the year begins again. I hope that we do get some warmer days even as each day passes it is a little shorter than the previous one.
Happy Summer Solstice 🧡🌞
Ashley
A Different View 
Thank you, Ashley, for the uplifting message and the photo of your beautiful garden! I like geraniums and always have them in my garden. I don’t think we will see a true summer this year, but that is better than the headway in Greece!
Joanna
Dear Joanna, thank you for your lovely comments. I’m afraid my clumsy fingers pressed ‘publish’ 3 days ahead of today (20th) the actual solstice, so you saw this post earlier than intended. Perhaps, summer will simply be late this year! 🤗🌹🙋♂️
We can always hope!
Joanna
What a beautiful garden!
Happy summer solstice, Ashley 🙋🏻♂️
Thank you, Claudio. It’s our little piece of heaven, even under grey skies. Happy summer Solstice to you 🙋♂️
midsummer? wowsers
🪻🌷🌼🌻🌺🥀🌹🌸💐
👍 tanks Graham 😎
welcs ash 😍
Ah, my old fingers! How’d I do tat? 🥴🤣
🤩🤣
So fast it goes , already the longest day. Yes, we do need a bit more warmth, there is always hope.
Love your Geraniums, they are as beautiful as in Kew Gardens, Ashley. Your whole garden looks so varied and colourful. Beautiful to sit outside – when it is not raining 🙂 and enjoy every single flower.
Happy Summer Solstice, Ashley ♥
Dear Ute, thank you for your lovely comments. What you didn’t see, behind the camera was the garden shed. So, today, the longest day, the shed was painted, a joint effort, I even treated the shed roof. A long day so when the sun does eventually arrive, we shall be ready to chill. 🤗❤️🙋♂️
What a lovely garden! We’ve finally gotten some sun, so perhaps some will cross the ocean to you. (K)
Thank you, Kerfe. The weather is not good this year & I have seen no butterflies in the garden since the beginning of June! I record, daily, any butterflies in our garden (have done this for many years) but this June, nothing, so far! We need less wind & some warmth. 🤞🤞
I love butterflies! I haven’t seen many in the park this year either.
Happy summer solstice, Ashley! Your geranium haiku reminds me so much of Issa and the absolute joy he’d express about nature in his own haiku. Glorious stuff, my friend. 😊🌸
Hi Mike, thank you. That is a wonderful compliment 🙇♂️
I love the delight and surprise in the third line!
Seems summers run hot and cold these days. Hope yours turns out well for you and your garden.
Thank you D. for your lovely response. I’m hoping also that we’ll see some sunshine & perhaps a little heat before too long. 🌹🙋♂️
Happy Summer Solstice, Ashtree! I always enjoy your hokku and your photos. You and Carol have a very beautiful garden!!
Thank you, Edo-san for your lovely comments. Hoping you have cleared away the trees that came down recently. Maybe you celebrated the solstice with a bonfire? 🙋♂️
Hi Graham, something weird happened. Your comment (via email) arrived but when I ‘View Comment’ it’s not showing on my blog! Odd! I was going to say: Thanks Graham. Fingers crossed we’ll see some heat & sunshine before too long!
One of life’s mysteries, Ashley. It’s probably hiding with the sun.
There you are! It must have been the clouds, Graham!
Hi Ashley,
Your garden is amazing! Thanks for sharing the pictures and your haiku.
I hope you a good weekend!
Mark
Hi Mark, thank you for your wonderful comments. Hoping you too have a great weekend. Enjoy the coffee! ☕🙋♂️
Yes! Thank you very much for that. It’s greatly appreciated.
Such a pretty garden, Ashley! Enjoy your flowers which seem to be enjoying the wet weather! And hope you get a good summer as well.
Thank you, Harini, for your positive comments. 🙏🙏🙏
This garden is so beautiful. ❤️
Thank you, for your lovely comment! 🤗💐🙋♂️
It’s my pleasure.
Beautiful, Ashley. Indeed, the hill of summer again, and it’s only in these last few days we begin to feel summer has arrived. Let’s enjoy it, no matter how brief.
Thank you, Michael. You use a phrase that makes me turn once again to J A Baker’s book! It is such an evocative phrase ‘the hill of summer’. The warmer weather & sun has only arrived here today, Sunday & it’s glorious!
I love your garden, Ashley! Happy Summer Solstice to you, too!
For some unknown reason, your post didn’t show up in my WP Reader.
Thank you, Rosaliene, it is a joint effort between my wife & myself. (I’ve been blogging for about 10 years & I still find some difficulties with WP).
You’re not the only one when it comes to WP.
Nice garden and beautiful photos. The last picture about your garden is amazing. Maybe one day I’ll show you photos of my orchids on the blog. I have learned about orchids in the last year and I would like to learn about bonsai as well, but I think it is very difficult. Un abrazo 🙋♂️
Thank you, Sabius, for your wonderful comments. Yes, it would be good to see your orchid results! With regard to bonsai, I was tempted to try as I love to grow trees from seed, in pots in the garden. I grew some oak trees & when they became too big for our small garden, donated them to others, 2 of them on an island in Lough Neagh (Ram’s Island). A friend suggested I try bonsai instead but I think there would be too much work. I have 2 beech trees currently in a pot & my friend thought they’d make a great bonsai starter. I will see if I can add a photo (see above). My good wishes to you. Ashley
Hope you had a happy summer solstice Ashley. Here in the south west it had been one of those really misty days where you could hardly see the end of your nose! But towards the end of the evening we were delighted with a clearing of the sky – not too clear mind you but enough to experience a bright night. And with the full moon it was even better! Splendid photos too. Take care…
Thank you, Elaine, for your solstice wishes. Enjoy the summer days & lets hope for some warm sunshine before too long. 🌹🙋♂️
The 2nd one is Geranium platypetalum, in german “Breitkronblättriger Storchschnabel”.
The 3rd one is Geranium robertianum, named in Germany as “Gewöhnlicher Stink-Storchschnabel”.
🙂
Thank you, Gerhard! I shall make a note of these names in my garden diary! 👍🙋♂️
What a lovely garden, Ashley! Love your geraniums, so colourful. Thank you for this inspiring post!
Thank you, Kaushal, it’s small but a place of calm. 🙏
BUON INIZIO SETTIMANA
And to you! Thanks for visiting my blog. 🙋♂️
A TE
Your garden is really lovely, Ashley. I hope you get some summer weather soon, too. Here, it’s felt like the middle of summer for about a month already. Hope your solstice celebration was joyful! ☀️
Thank you, Lisa. Grey skies are common here but we seem to have had more this year than previous years. 🌹🙋♂️
Ashley,
Love the photos of your garden as well as the haiku. Your flowers are gorgeous!
Happy Summer! ~Nan
Thank you, Nancy. Happy summer. 😎
BUONA DOMENICA
Thank you. You too!
😉
I hope you are well and enjoying summer. It does seem wetter here than normal but gardening is still fun and the long days ☘️🦄
Thank you, Morag. We are….okay! There has been little in the way of sunshine this summer; plenty of grey skies & recently some warm days. 🤗🙋♂️
Yes here too. It’s great that you keep busy.