Project 365 day 167: Ox-eye daisy

Unusually, I took photos before breakfast today: I found shafts of sunlight catching the ox-eye daisies when hanging up the laundry. I love these big daisies, which my mum called moon daisies, and I think it's the first year I've noticed them in the garden. We've not done a lot of mowing this year, and the grass is reverting to the wild flower meadow it probably was for centuries: this part is full of red clover, buttercups, daisies, speedwell, vetch, birds foot trefoil and more, as well as many different grasses. In a former life, when I drove from home outside Durham to work in Sunderland, I used to delight in the vast banks of oxe-eye daisies beside the A690 at Houghton cut.

This morning I supported J at her online Art Talk group; she was sharing her enthusiasm for Kandinsky, whose work has inspired her to explore and develop her own abstract animation. It's been hot and humid, and this afternoon we stayed in the shade on the deck, J using her assistive technology to organise her social activities on Facebook while I potted on more plants, watered copiously and hung yellow sticky traps to try to tackle the greenhouse whitefly. I've picked the first batch of elderflowers for cordial and brought in a big pile of rhubarb, which is the only thing ready to eat in the garden at present, while P has prepared more beds and planted two trays of lettuces. Late this evening the constantly flashing lightning eventually brought some brief, torrential downpours. I hope tomorrow sees some more persistent rain - we water the vegetable beds, but the orchard, the overgrown soft fruit bed and the many trees are all desperate for water.