There was no summer this year.
If I had been Mary Shelley, sheltering from a similarly sodden season in Switzerland, I should have written “Frankenstein”, but I am not suitably talented or tormented and so I spent my time identifying moths and cutting back hedges.
Now that it is officially autumn the sun has finally come out and we can stop lighting fires and sit in the garden instead.
Migration has started. The wires are beaded with massing swallows and just occasionally the tropical burble of bee eaters can be caught as they head south . The village roads are full of motorbikes touring through the Jura before the cold penetrates their very expensive leather kits. Local farmers thunder by bringing in hay that has lain too long in the rainy fields and the wood from the forest is being brought in by every ancient tractor still working.
Everybody is sawing and stacking wood. The village may not grow grapes or make cheese, but it has plenty of trees and there is always wood for the winter.
My dahlias have only just started to flower and they are in a race with the frost . One or two flame coloured flowers are betting on the autumn being warm still. I am a pessimist by nature and prefer to place my bet on our wood stack!
Cathy's real country garden 
Those dahlias are stunning!
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They need to get a move on!
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The wood stack is impressive! Nice and neat. I hope you’ll post pics of the dahlias in full bloom—I’m an optimist:)
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I have husband to thank for the neatness of the stack. I just encouraged from the house!
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Lovely post and pictures. Let’s hope that we have a lovely autumn and an Indian summer to make up for the rather indifferent summer we had. xx
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Hear hear ! Xx
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I’m betting on an Indian summer! Amelia
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This week looks very much like summer😊
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Beautiful descriptions.
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Thank you!
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We had a very hot, dry summer and could have used some of your excess rain! There are still 5 new dahlias in my gardens that have yet to flower, so like you, I’m hoping they get their act together before frost so at least I can label them for color (they were part of a mix called “sunset colors” and could be yellow, orange, apricot or pink.) Hope you don’t even need all that wood and winter is short.
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Many thanks! If only we could share out heat and water and make all gardeners happy!
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I keep hearing people complain about the weather this summer – as far as I’m concerned, we’ve had plenty of sunshine and blue skies and I have a deep tan to show for it! That’s my subjective take – yes, there were a few rainy days, but I don’t think it’s been any worse here than in the last thirty or forty years.
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You must have been on the right side of the Jura, as it was so wet here we had springs appear. Just had a day out further north in Alsace and it looks normal and dry, so it was obviously very localised.
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Yes, I’m on the Rhine, bordering the Grisons. Others tell me we had bad weather, but my subjective memory has eliminated the rain!
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I am all in favour of selective memory!
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By the way, I was very impressed by the sight of a flock of storks – maybe up to hundred – resting in a field a couple of weeks ago. Presumably on their way back to Africa and heading over the Alps before it gets too cold.
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