Muffled

This is a muflier (sp?) in French, and I think that makes it a snapdragon in English - though I am happy to be corrected. Having not had much of a garden before, the only flower names I know in English are ones my Mam grew - so this to me is a French flower. I have lots of mean moody shots of white ones in half shade, but this burst of brightness appeals to me more while uploading this tomorrow when the weather is not nearly so clement as today.

Today weather-wise? Cor wot a scorcher. No really. My thermometer (in the shade) was reading 35C. And I was back to the summer days from last year of ten minutes working in the garden, then twenty cooling off in the house. Too hot really. (I know, sacrilage to say that.) All my cool season plants were toppling over with heat exhaustion, as were we.

Worst off, as is often the way, was Mr B who spent most of the day on the roof. The south-facing bit of the roof. Sorting guttering and tiles so our electricity cupboard doesn't flood when it rains probably felt like a fairly low priority in that heat with those blue blue skies... but he perservered, and I passed stuff out to him and busied myself with clearing away rubble and being brave about walking across joists covered with loose ply (when I know the floor of the storey below is just joists...) to get tiles and other necessities for the worker. This being a labourer is pretty darn tiring, but I was allowed a few breaks to ferry kids to clubs and potter a bit in the garden. (Not happy leaving him working on the roof when I'm not there - not that I could do much to help him up there - but I did leave CarbBoy (playing outside at the time) with strict instructions that if he heard any muffled yells in English he was to go and get a grown up straight away. Happily he wasn't called upon and that particular corner of our complicated many-levelled jigsaw roof may no longer leak...)

And tonight CarbBoy's illness struck properly, having just bubbled under the surface for a few days, and he coughed and sneezed and grumped his way to bed.