Bottle brush plant

Walked into the greenhouse this morning to find my bottle brush plant is in bloom.
I bought it as a twig at a jumble sale years ago, and its got bigger and bigger, but hasn't ever flowered. Well it's making up for it now, beautiful fuzzy red flowers all over it, just like bottle brushes. I've read that in Oz the kangaroos nibble off the ends which encourages them to flower, but this could just be a fairy story. "What that Skippy, let it flower and then dead-head it? And there are two more Sheilas down the mineshaft?"

Also my grapes are really swelling. The rootstock goes out under the greenhouse foundations, so it must have picked up a lot of water during the heavy rain last weekend. There are wee seedling plants in the floor, where the odd grape must have fallen, they won't "come true" but I'll pot a few up and let friends have them. Figs are also doing well. And outside the roses are in full bloom, Albertine is an old climber, one flush only, but it has a fantastic perfume, and Silver Jubilee, which is a shrub rose that my girlfriends gave me for my silver wedding annivesary, are both out. But my real favourite is Buff Beauty, a climber that comes in pale yellow and fades to ivory. I grew several plants from 12 inch cuttings taken from the big garden that I support and they run all along one wall of the garden.

I also like species roses, especially Rosa Glauca, which as the name suggests has lovely blue tinted leaves, and a pretty single pink flower.

June is like the height of a firework display, hard to know where to look next.

Today I'm looking after my friend's dog. She and my dog adore each other so it's no trouble. N works in the cancer research charity shop on a Friday. She stopped while she was in a lot of pain, but her spine has settled and for the moment she's pain free, so she's going in to do half a day as they are short of helpers. She loves it anyway as she gets first chance to buy all the new things that come in. Currently she sporting a very smart designer label summer mac.

I'm trying to burn CDs of RAW format photo files to free up space on my dedicated hard drive. I hate doing it as it means fiddling about with the burner, and cataloguing files etc, but I have to get some more space. I also want to put a test submission into the plant library I submit to, to see if the new colour calibration on my monitor accords with theirs - I'm using the same system so it should. Then I can submit more files. I'd really like to buy a better monitor, one that's designed for photography/design, but can't afford it right now.

I got the link for the website that I did the holiday house interior shots for. It looks really good, the designer has even used one of my shots, of narcissi on a mantlepiece, as the masthead for the site. They've already had bookings, and those people have booked return trips, so it seems to be working out for my friends.

I really believe in paying things forward, it's the only way to make a difference in this word. It's amazing how often things you think are easy turn out to be something that someone else needs done, but hasn't a clue how to go about it. Sorry that sounds really cheesy, but when I used to drive to work I'd play a game of letting other cars out of side streets, and then watch to see if they'd let other people out, and it felt like I was spreading a little sanity each morning - and probably making myself 5 minutes late for work, but what the hell........