Thunderstorms

Today and yesterday we've had a lot of on and off thunderstorms, more thunder yesterday and heavier downpours today. (We've been lucky though since other parts in Sweden have had problems with flooding. It hasn't been THAT bad here) It's still been pretty warm and sunny in-between though.



Heavy rain! Can you see the water bounce on the street?



A TINY bit of water!



The pelargonium in daylight (well sort of, it's pretty dark because of the weather. LOL)



An another pelargonium bud


I assume the thunder is what's messing with my phone/internet connection/TV tonight (I've got them all from the same company) even if it's too distant for me to hear. I can't get online right now but I'll put this entry up as soon as I can.

A late evening on the balcony!

Evenings are the time I can enjoy my balcony the most, at least during the current heat wave. When the sun's about to set it's finally cool enough on the balcony but it's still light enough to water and tend to the plants and even do what I did last night, just sat down and enjoyed the peace, munched on some sweet peas, wild strawberries, chive and parsley and tried to solve a crossword puzzle. I stayed out there until it was past eleven. The only downside was that one of the pizza guys were working late and took smoke breaks ever so often which forced me inside until the air had cleared.



I got a little visitor too, my second cat



She even tried helping me with my crossword! LOL



I've just found a bud in my Busy Lizzy/Flitiga Lisa...



...and a fully open flower in my pelargonium

More from my mom's garden

I took some more photos at my mom's garden yesterday afternoon. Luckily they haven't had as many deer as usually in the garden for while now (only a few) so they've gotten to keep some of their flowers. One of the good things with a balcony is that I have less deer and slug problems. LOL



Gorgeous peonies/pioner



I couldn't pick a favorite photo






Isn't their climbing rose, Alchymist, absolutely stunning?
This is only a small part if it, it's HUGE!!! (It's more yellow IRL)



Irises by the pond and even small Hostas/Funkior that's survived
the deer (they're favorite dish an are usually just small stumps, in
a less deer frequented gardens they're a lot bigger than this though)



"The Saringe Rose".


This rose comes from my grandmother's childhood home in
a tiny village called Saringe. The plant has moved around in my family depending on who's had a garden at the moment. It lived in my old garden before and moved to my mom in 2005. It's the only rose I brought with me out of all the stunning roses I had. My brother also got a part of it for his new garden last year. The mother plant is HUGE! I'll ask my mom if she's got photos of it.



My mom's cat! He's the brother of my two spoiled brats.



Meadow Rue/Akljeruta (Thalictrum aquilegiifolium)



Close up

My furry visitor

Once of my cats decided to join me on the balcony again yesterday.



The corner has never looked as pretty
as with a little furry garden ornament



Sitting on my lap



One of the pelargonium buds has started to open. I love the color!



This is how the window looks right now

Strawberries and chive

Doesn't that sound like a tasteful combination? Eh.. maybe not! Okay, I promise not to eat them together. LOL

Yesterday my mom brought me a chive/gräslök and another strawberry plant, WITH berries this time (my stepfather accidentally dug it up while digging for potatoes). If the move will survive the move in spote if the heat I might actually get some berries to eat (my other plant has refused to flower so far)

I've rearranged thing a bit and but the pansy pot in the corner instead since they're starting to reach their end and at the moment the chive and one of my pelargoniums have joined the petunias on the table instead.

These photos are taken in the evening so the light is a little bit better this time, of not perfect.



The table



Close up of the table with Petunias, Chive/Gräslök and Pelargonium.



Petunia and Sweet Alyssum/Strandkrassing (in less hard light than last time)



The corner in better light as well, now with Pansies /Penséer


The Bleeding Heart/Löjtnantshjärta has started to become yellow not but since it shares the pot with the Wild Strawberry it gets to stay for a while longer until it will move back to my mom. (I really appreciate being able to borrow perennials from her garden instead of trying to keep them on the balcony during the winter)



The new strawberry



Wild Strawberry/Smultron
(the plant has started to trail all over the other pots)



More tomato flowers, this time in the Yellow Pear
(the last photos was from Tiny Tim)



And the bonus flower bed.

Maintenance work

Last night/evening I did some maintenance work on the balcony. You know weeding, watering, removing dead flowers, turning pots and things like that. Because of the heat wave you can only do this late in the evening when things have cooled down a bit and lately I've been too busy "mini vacationing" to do more than watering so I was a bit behind in my chores.



Curious kitty!


My balcony isn't kitty proofed so I can't let my cats out there but last night I badly needed to open up the door more than the narrow cat-safe opening to let in some cool air (I've got mosquito/cat net in my bedroom window so I can keep it fully open but it's just not enough) and of course two scared but very curious kitties followed me out on the balcony. It slowed down my maintenance work a bit to keep them safe but it was worth it.

And yes, I know there is (or rather WAS) weeds in the Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna pot *blushes* It's gone now though!



My poor, bald, lanky Hydrangea/Hortensia


It was time to remove the withering flowers from my Hydrangea to leave room for new branches (and hopefully new buds) but the poor thing is looking miserable right now (and so is the photo, the flash was really messing with me here). The Hydrangea REALLY doesn't like the heat wave but I hope trimming away the withering flowers will help it to feel a bit refreshed.



Lovely Petunias! How could I ever find them boring?



And look! One of the Wild Strawberries/Smultron is starting to turn red.



Pale blue Lobelia


I know the photo is quite blurry but I still think it's beautiful. I love the almost magical glow the flowers have gotten in this photo.

Heat wave

As I mentioned earlier we have a heat wave in Sweden right now! Phew! Today's been the hottest day so far with +36°C out on the balcony = way too hot for both me and some of my plants. (Let's face it, I'm Swedish! Complaining about the weather is a HUGE part of the Swedish mentality, no matter if it's too hot or too rainy. LOL)

There are only a few ours early in the day that when I can use the balcony and then I can't go out there until late evening. And the bright sun shining from a clear blue sky causes a really bad light for taking photos as well with harsh shadows and washed out colors. But I still want to document the growth and a lot of thing's happened since the last photos (all the heath and sun have finally encouraged my plants to GROW, as long as I give them plenty of water).



As you can tell the thee flower boxes have become a bit more lush.










Or you WOULD have been able to tell if it wasn't for the harsh shadows.



The corner is staring to look like a jungle (a lot prettier IRL than in this photo)



I've been able to find the first (yummy!) Sweet Pea pods



There's buds in two of the pelargonium plants






The Hydrangea/Hortensia bud seen in the last entry has begun to blossom.



I've also spotted tomato flowers (but no baby tomatoes yet)



And look at how big the radishes are (I soon need to remove some of them
to give room for the others, I just want them to be a little bit bigger first


The striped Petunia has gotten a lot of flowers...



...and so has the tiny, pink one...



...and the tiny purple one as well



Pale blue trailing Lobelia



Pink trailing Lobelia