Pelargoniums

 

I haven't been sitting on my balcony much this summer, except for a very short while now and then. On sunny days it's been way too hot - and otherwise too windy (or even wet). The balcony faces south-west and the sun comes round the corner around noon and stays until sunset. SW is also usually where our winds and rain come from here, though... And the showers we've had this summer have often been of the torrential kind. 

The pelargoniums (geraniums) that I bought back around Midsummer have been thriving, though. Because of the weather situation they've remained standing on the wooden bench against the wall under the windows (the most protected place); and I've been out to water them manually almost every evening. (A couple of times earlier in the summer when there were storm warnings issued, I took them in over night.)

The photo above is from today - which for a change has been rather rainy, and the temperature suddenly as low as around 14C (57F) all day!

The photo below is from my blog post 23 June, when I had just bought them:  

Photo from my blog post 23 June

  

Drought

 

Even if we've not really had "extremely" hot weather here lately, it has continued to be an exceptionally dry summer - and the evidence of that keep increasing now that we're half way into August. The all yellow tree caught my eye in the old cemetery today, and the other two examples of trees looking like they're kind of giving up are from last week.

 

I was tired over the weekend and haven't been doing much. Today I went into town for a pharmacy errand before lunch; and managed that, but felt no inspiration for anything "extra" - and also felt quite exhausted on my way back. Not even sure I can blame the tiredness on the weather (semi-cloudy and not really hot). Sitting down for a proper break before walking back home might have been better - I just didn't really feel in the mood for that either!

 

 
Late this afternoon we did get a short rain shower, which felt refreshing - but it did not last long. We may be getting a bit more later in the week - but how much remains to be seen! 

No Eclipse for Skywatch Friday

While some parts of the world could see a total solar eclipse on 12 August, here in Sweden, we could only hope to perhaps catch a glimpse of a partial one. All I could see from my own balcony on Thursday evening was some clouds illuminated by the sinking sun, though (Probably just as well, as I was not in possession of proper equipment for staring right at an eclipse anyway!) The sky still looked kind of dramatic anyway, though.

 Linking to Skywatch Friday

 

On Second Thought...

 ... perhaps I was a bit premature in declaring a sense of autumn in the air already?

Anyway, today we were back to a clear blue sky with just a few decorative fluffy white clouds, and pleasant summery temperatures around 21-22C (~70F), with only a light breeze.

I phoned my hairdresser in the morning, and she was able to squeeze me in for a haircut  at 1 pm. So I just had sandwich for lunch, and then set off on a walk into town around 12:15. 

 

The city park and the little square across the river from there were full of people enjoying the sun.

See that low wooden chair in the foreground? That's new for this summer and the woman sitting in it seemed to find it the perfect place to spend her lunch break (or whatever! - maybe she was still on holidays...) 

After my haircut (which only takes about 20 minutes), I also took the opportunity of a couple of other minor errands. As so often when in town, I visited the tea shop by the main square and stocked up on some loose leaf teas. Then I passed through one of my favourite clothes shops - just to have a "peek" really, but my eyes happened to fall on a denim shirt that I liked... So I tried that on, and ended up buying it. Not quite an impulse buy, really, as I have been on the lookout for something like it for a while. I bought it in a size large enough to wear on top of a t-shirt, so it can also be used as a light summer jacket.

 

On my way back, I stopped at the ice cream café in the park, and had small beaker of vegan mango ice-cream at one of their tables outdoors, before taking on the rest of the walk home. 

In my previous post I mentioned Goldenrod in bloom (Swedish: gullris), but didn't supply a close-up - as on that day I hadn't actually been up close to them... Yesterday, I did come closer to some in the old cemetery, though. So if anyone is still feeling unsure of what kind of flower I was referring to, here's a photo:

We have a proverb in Swedish that would translate "A beloved child has many names". And of course it's also quite common that many children have the same name... So to clarify: The Latin "family name" for this plant is Solidago - while the variety common here in Sweden /(since way back) is Solidago virgaurea. Historically it's been used for various medicinal purposes, without any known negative side-effects (Wikipedia says). It's also not known for causing allergies/hay-fever - and is not regarded as invasive. 

Some other (from our point of view 'foreign') species of Solidago have also been spreading in Sweden in later years, though, and are regarded as invasive. I think (or assume) that the ones that I see around where I live are the old trusted kind, though. 

A First Sense of Autumn

 

On my walk yesterday I had a first sense of Autumn/Fall approaching*... Even if summer  here has not been as persistently hot and dry as further south in Europe, it's still been very dry for this area. We've had a few showers lately, but not really a whole lot of rain in total - so the ground is still very dry, and many wild grassy areas have turned brown.

*Meteorological autumn starts on September 1, while astronomical autumn begins with the equinox on September 22, 2026.  

Goldenrod is in bloom now in many places, along roads, or like in the photo above, on the slopes along the railway. There used to be a lot of Goldenrod growing in the "wild corner" of my grandparents'/parents' garden (my dad's childhood home, which then served us as summer cottage for a number of years, before my parents moved there to live in their own retirement years). My mum used to take in some to dry, which she then put in vases for winter decorations - sometimes together with other dried flowers.

In the old cemetery, one can already wade through "fallen leaves" in some places - although I think most of what we see just now is not really leaves, but remnants of tree blooms or seed pods (above, linden trees). After a few windy days, a lot of them just now, though!

 Rowan berries are turning red (even if still more orange than properly red).

And flower beds keep on changing and "maturing"...

 

 

 

The two top flower bed photos are from mid July, the next two from 1st August, the last two from 9th August.