Summer's lease

It's a very fragrant time in my garden. Trachelospermum jasminoides climbs the trellis outside the sitting room patio doors. Son gave me this plant, years ago, and I think of him every time I see or smell it. 

Then there are lilies, 

and nicotiana. I'd never grown these till last year and I love them - why did I never grow them before? They have the tiniest seeds - dust, merely - and grow into these large plants. Isn't nature amazing? My lovely granny used to say - "All this, from one tiny seed!" and I agree. She was talking about cabbages, but the same applies to anything, really. 

And then phlox

and night-scented stocks - headily fragrant. 

 

Daughter 2, her husband and Littlest Granddaughter paid a flying visit so that the parents could go to a wedding. They brought back some flowers from the venue: a slightly odd, but lovely, mixture of alliums, delphiniums, snapdragons, roses and campanula.

Littlest and I played with tiny ducks - among other things. 

Another day, Mr L and I took the big grandchildren to the Glasgow Science Museum. They're now 12 and 14, and interact differently with the installations compared to how they did last time, several years ago. 

The London family brought their guinea pigs with them, and left them with us because the family is coming back in a week or two for all of August. 

We used to have guinea pigs when our children were small. They're cute. Very squeaky. The children were also cute. Ah, to be young again. Still, being old isn't so bad, though my arm still hurts a lot, some days. I'd be better resting it, maybe. But I don't. That would be boring.