Late August Means Nothing Is Blooming

Rosa 'French Lace':


At this time of year, if someone asks me what's going on in the garden, I say "nothing."  It hardly seems worthwhile going out there.  But as Orwell wrote: 

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.”

That is nowhere more true than in one's own garden.   Orwell, if you can believe Wikipedia, gardened at one point in his life:  "...[Orwell] was relatively lonely in Southwold — pottering on the allotments", so maybe that insight was gained not while examining Fascism or satirizing government, but while pottering, which is English for gardening.  

I have found it so true:  I've passed by a spot endless times never noticing a six-foot-tall weed.  There is plenty of bloom out there even now--if nothing is blooming in my garden, why is the sidewalk covered with rose petals?  Why was I out there for hours yesterday deadheading, without even making a dent?
 

The Chamelaucium uncinatum, normally only a spring bloomer, is making an effort:

'Prospero' never stops, and in summer is helped along by Salvia 'Magic Spires'.

'French Lace' manages to be as elegant as it is in spring.

As  does  'Pope John Paul II'.

Some scattered Clematis bloom as well--how can I have not noticed?

And foliage--what about the foliage?

Has our brief spell of hot weather, so rare this year, hidden what is right in front of my nose?  Am I just avoiding the sun beating down?  Or am I wasting too much time on The Google?   Or is it...could it be...

That it!