Peonies

I was weeding today after the rain. It was impossible to weed last summer when there was no rain as our ground without moisture is just rock hard so we have much more than our fair share of weeds again and I desperately need to weed each time it rains as the weeds are out of control. I checked out my peonies (through the tall grass weeds) and they are just magnificent, breathtakingly beautiful! When we were in Canada in July the boys got fed up with me rushing off to look at peonies and admire them everywhere we went, I couldn't believe how many there were. They were prolific in the markets and supermarkets and florists. But not better than these....

At the top of the picture where the petals are standing up I discovered a neighbourhood of about 40 earwigs. They must have pressed the petals down and made a really large space in there.