Drizzle.

No gardening, its been raining the whole day. Not the useful sort of rain for a gardener, giving the ground a good soaking and filling the waterbutts, no, just relentless drizzle. There are a great many words in the English language that describe the different forms of rain.  In Shropshire today's weather would be described as dabbledy, in Suffolk gravely and in other regions dringey or sloppy or a smither. In Scotland this sort of fine, misty rain is called a smirr.
I went into Bath in the morning to collect a book ordered from Toppings , one of the two excellent independent bookshops in the city. How civilised both these shops are and, oh, the temptation to come out with far more purchases than intended! At Toppings there is the added pleasure of sitting down and being given a coffee and biscuit. I had to fight my way to the shop through crowds of tourists, all dressed alike in plastic ponchos with the name of their tour emblazoned on the back. Another group were seeing the sights under what were very likely newly purchased umbrellas. I had to smile, what an impression the weather was giving, it could not be more British than this! It wasn't a day for wandering about town so I was home by lunchtime and had a walk round the garden to see if the drizzle was having any good effect. No, its dry as a bone beneath the leaves!

The artichokes are fattening up nicely

but the lemons are not happy!