Pencilled crane's-bill

Such a glorious September day, warm and sunny with just a light breeze. After spending a couple of hours report writing, I spent some time in the garden, cutting back vegetation around one of our ponds and doing a bit of weeding. The garden's really colourful at the moment - Michaelmas Daisies in multiple shades of pink and purple,  reddish-pink Sedum 'Autumn Joy', bright yellow Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', white Japanese Anemones and trailing Nasturtiums in shades of red, ornage and yellow all shout for attention. 

But many spring and early summer species, in softer shades of cream, pink and blue, are flowering again, having been cut back earlier in the season. One  of the prettiest of these is Pencilled Crane's-bill Geranium versicolor, a rather unassuming plant from a distance but the flowers are stunning when examined in detail.

In the afternoon we all went for a walk round Castor Hanglands, but didn't manage to stay together for very long. Alex and Ben strode ahead, while Pete looked for insects and Chris and I kept getting distracted by photographic opportunities. At one point we lost Chris, who got so far behind us all that he took a wrong turn and ended up walking almost twice as far as the rest of us. I'm not sure that this bodes well for any future family holidays, unless we can find a place that caters for all our different needs!