30 plus degrees.

This is the sort of weather when I'm pleased to have a shade garden, there are plenty of places to be out of the sun.

The garden is bursting with colour. At the moment the stars of the show are abutilon suntense and Sambucas negrus. The abutilon has flopped all over the planting beneath it but is looking so lovely that I have left it be. I'll cut back once the flowers are over.

But the flowers that I wait for most eagerly are the roses. I brought little cuttings from our previous home and now, three years later, they are bulking up well. I stuck one or two in a very inhospitable spot beside the drive, with small hopes of success but Constance Spry is giving it her best shot.

Some of the rose names I have forgotten!

I've been going to the allotment in the cool of the evening to do some much-needed watering, watering cans only, it is tough work! On Bank Holiday Monday I couldn't resist a swim in the sea. We went early, before the crowds. It was slack tide and although the water was cold it felt wonderful to come back to a warm beach without the more usual wind that threatens to take the skin off your bones! We were home in the cool of the garden before nine, feeling rather pleased purselves!