South Africa comes to Oban

A mixed day today, sunny to begin with, when I took this Blip. I popped into the Walled Garden at Glencruitten before lunch to see if there were any runner beans worth picking. There were some, but large numbers of small ones coming on. Something has happened to them this year - I don't know what. Almost all of the peas have been completely chewed to the ground - after two sowing there are three plants left! 

Some gardening at home this afternoon, until it suddenly began to rain. I put up with it for a while, but eventually came in, took my gear off and got dry. Then of course the sun came out! Too bad!

I'm sure I've Blipped this poker before, but it's one of my favourites, so here it is again! It's Kniphofia rooperi, from the Eastern Cape in South Africa and more globular in shape than many pokers. The only downside of many of these pokers is the evergreen foliage, which does get rather windswept over the winter! But when it flowers all is forgiven.