No rain, nicotiana, bumble bees

It was supposed to rain this morning. Instead, a fine, blowy summer day with sunshine and white clouds. A good day for pottering in the garden, and potter we do.

There are two varieties of nicotiana, which I grew from seed this year. Both are now in flower. One has small cup-shaped flowers, pale green on the outside of the petals, and inside the colour of old claret, almost brown. The other, more unusual variety, has a remarkable corolla, cream on the outside, joined to form, above the calyx, a longish tube, which opens to form small, dark green, trumpet shapes, where carpels and stamens nestle, deep within, barely larger than pinheads. Green flowers, these.

There are lots of bumble bees around this year, such lovely creatures, minding their own business, in the lavender.