SPECTACULAR SPANISH STORM.

Just had a quick look at Garden Voices and posters talking about rain and floods in areas where it doesn't normally rain in August. Same here this morning - thunder, lightening, sheets of rain - for over an hour. Bliss! Wonderful smell of lavender and eucalyptus afterwards and everything glowing now the dust has washed off.

PRETTY PORTALUCAS.

Must show you these. They look nothing in the pot until the sun comes out and then they show you their fully glory....pink, red, yellow and orange, all in one pot. And when you want more, just break off the tendrils and stick 'em in soil. They flower from May until late September, are a native of Brazil and they just love it here.

They like to dangle over the pot, so I imagine they're susceptible to rot if they're put in the ground with other plants that might need more water. A perfect plant to hang on the trellis or in planters on a window sill. I'm going to buy a lot more and have them everywhere!

SUCCESS WITH HIBISCUS

It's only taken four years to discover the secret of caring for hibiscus in our garden.
They prefer a bit of dappled shade and they like the soil dried out a little bit in between waterings. I've drowned them and killed them before. So to celebrate the survival of the red and pale apricot we bought 4 months or so ago, we've added a gorgeous double-headed apricot and a pale lilacy pink one. They look lovely under the small pergola.

UNPRECEDENTED COOL TEMPERATURES IN AUGUST.

No, I'm not complaining - the sou'westerly breezes coming in have been a welcome relief from the usual eyeball searing heat we get in August. And the plants are grateful too: the hibiscus are thriving, a stephanotis is in full bloom and winding its way through a dark red bourganvillea and the avocada grown from a pip has quadrupled its size. There are seven new leaves ready to burst forth. Everything under the patio and the two pergolas is grateful for a bit of shade.

Very sadly, I'm still waiting for the Clematis Bill Mackenzie to show its yellow drooping flowers, but not a sign - just loads of leaves which are starting to turn brown. Maybe we have to wait another year and make sure we nurse it along in the winter.

There's not a great deal to do in the garden, apart from regularly clearing up the leaves of the pink trumpet vine and the campsis radicans in the lower pergola.
Remember Mathilde's urn, with the instructions "mariposas please". Well here it is. It's a very old pot and was full of cracks which el jefe had to break and Araldite together.

I think she'll be very pleased with this when we take it round tomorrow, which is a religious holiday. We have been invited to lunch, which will be a first.

AUGUST 1ST GARDEN PARABLE::

THE CRACKED POT.

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for the task for which it was created, but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfections and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself and I want to apologise to you. I have been able to deliver only half of my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work and you don’t get full value from your efforts”, the pot said.

The water bearer said “as we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path. Do you notice that there are flowers only on your side of the path but not on the other pot’s side? That is because I have always known about your flaw. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path and every day, while we walk back from the stream, you have watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without your being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace this house”.

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots but, it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

Take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. There is a lot of good out there. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.

Thank you, all my crackpot friends….you know who you are!