Friday 2nd July 2021, 3.45pm (day 3,599)

If you’ve been sneezing a lot lately, you’re assuredly not the only one. The noses know we are at peak pollen season.
This is a follow-up shot to last Monday’s shot. As we have more flowers on the squash/pumpkin/potential producer of large orange fruit, but a lack of insects buzzing around inside our house in the brief hours of flowering, we’ve been doing our own pollination, with cotton buds. It’s a good thing my hay fever has gone down over the years — though the weather was so revolting today that I doubt there was any of this stuff doing the rounds outside. If you don’t believe a whole country’s weather can turn from Mediterranean to Arctic in three days, you’ve never been here in June.
This tulip is open and ready for business. Come and get it with those hairy stamens right now baby. Or so to speak.