After a few days of cool and soggy weather, the skies cleared to some extent this morning. The soccer pitch was still too wet to practice on, so I went for a fast walk to break in my new exercise shoes (which I had bought on Saturday after the old ones fell apart last week.) So far, so good.

I was working from home and had a service done on my garage door just after lunch time. (They need it every couple of years to keep them silent-ish.) As he left, the sun beat down on the garden running alongside the pathway. "Hmm, I think it's time to haul the 40-150 out for a little pseudo macro shooting.

What we see here is, according to the LeafSnap app which seems to be correct, a wax begonia. Wikipedia has this to say about them:
"Native to South America, wax begonia is also found growing invasively in Florida, namely from the northern and central peninsula west to central panhandle, and also in Georgia. The plant may invade waysides, deforested areas, overgrazed pastureland, and wastelands.
Because they are such prolific seed producers, seeds are thought to be the primary way begonias spread when left unchecked. They can also root very easily, but this may not play much of a role under natural conditions."

Uh-huh, uh-huh. For you see, pretty as they are the little b@$tids have not confined themselves to the rockery garden along the path way, but are growing out of every crack and crevice in the damn concrete.

Also, bright and intense as the sun was at this time... later in the afternoon the skies clouded over and started rumbling, followed by the pitter, patter and THWACK!!! of hailstones, which eventually reduced to raindrops that would just fit into a 44 gallon drum, followed by light rain that has probably trashed my soccer pitch. Again.

But at least we had a sunny lunch, albeit with 70% humidity.