Heavy hearts, this weekend. The stark reality of our world can be overwhelmingly sad but we must hang on to love, tolerance, respect, joy, beauty, compassion and hope. I’m joining in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly gathering of beautiful flower arrangements. It seems particularly appropriate to be appreciating beauty where we can find it.

The garden has been battered by heavy winds and rain all weekend and we woke up to more grey and driving rain this morning. It stopped raining about an hour ago, the clouds parted and the sun came out (fleetingly), so I rushed out into the garden, scissors in hand, and snipped some Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ and white snapdragons, and foliage from rosemary, Lonicera nitida, jasmine and Lysimachia. It smells delicious. I also cut a pink rosebud from the unknown climbing rose at the front of the house, which you can just see bottom left in the picture below.