These teasels seemed to symbolise the day for me – a day when the temperature reached 40°C, which is a bit too hot, even for me and I like hot weather! It’s far too hot to do anything in the garden apart from water the plants, in the evenings so that the water doesn’t immediately evaporate. Hoping to feel some cooler air we took our lunch to eat by the lakeside at the Barrage des Olivettes, but even there, in the shade of trees at the water’s edge, it felt hot. I try to remind myself that soon enough I’ll be complaining about it being too cold in winter! Once again there were several varieties of dragonfly zipping from reed to reed and from leaf to leaf over the water – and once again I wasn’t quick enough to catch on camera the small blue darting ones or the large blue ones, but I did get some more views of the Scarlet Dragonfly:
olivesandartichokes 
I can almost feel the stillness in the hot air from your photos! The teasels are gorgeous, a favourite.
That is hot hot hot! And the dragonfly is very cool. Hope you get some relief soon.
Temperatures that high make doing just about anything a chore. For me, even chasing dragonflies for a good photo would be too much. Still, you did manage to capture red dragonflies again. I hope your temperatures cool a bit so that a lunch enjoyed lakeside is pleasant once again and not an endurance test.
But you had a relaxed and contented time and brought back some beautiful nature photos to remember when the winter winds howl outside the window . . .
I found a couple of dragonflies, exactly like the ones in your pictures, floating on the surface of the swimming pool yesterday. A sort of Icarus event in reverse.
Dry sounds good – it get far too humid in London 😉
The dragonflies elude me too. There is a very bright neon blue one that I have tried to photo but to no avail. I hope the days starts to cool off for you soon.