After the rain…

After a week of torrential rain and storms, yesterday the sun came out, and the humidity shot to 100%. Hot, sticky and totally uncomfortable. The rain is still here but only intermittent and in the evening. Only two days of summer left.

Autumn is supposed to be just around the corner. But it doesn’t feel like it. But maybe the plants and trees have an inbuilt radar for the season change.

There are still Frangipani flowers bravely hanging on in the tree, but more are now scattered on the ground, along with the decaying, rusty leaves. A daily job (well it should be, but more like a couple of times a week) to rake them up and put in the bin. No good for compost as they have a rust disease.

The Poinciana has flowered for the second time, first time was in November. It is very confused about the seasons. But now it knows Autumn is coming and is starting to lay a beautiful carpet of discarded petals on the drive.

The paper daisies did not like all the rain, they are a dry climate plant, and many of the buds have rotted before opening. Some are in pots and I was leaving them to finish flowering. If we get more rain it may be sooner rather than later before I compost them.

Do you remember the saga of the pumpkin? (Check it out here and here). Well their structure has been dismantled and is waiting for the next project. The poor, sad pumpkin ended its days in the rubbish bin. Not too sure why it died so did not compost it.

But Jack’s other babies are powering ahead. They are loving this hot, humid weather. Sitting out in the full sun. Jack has just moved them on to larger pots. They have all had the exact same treatment, so it is quite interesting to see the different rates of growth. You can see 3 very different sizes in this photo.Finally I will show you this beautiful little chrysalis. It was under the leaves of the big Desert Rose that we pruned and re-potted a couple of days ago. It fell to the ground, so Jack rescued it and attached it to a container. I do not know what sort of butterfly will emerge but I hope it does survive. If it doesn’t emerge before next Monday we will take it on holiday with us…

Postscript… Thank you Jack for finding the details of the chrysalis. It is the Common Crow Butterfly and you can find the details of its life cycle here.