Hi Friends,
It's that time of year when work in the garden is now mostly maintenance, keeping everything fed, watered & happy.....which means away from wood pigeons.....& sparrows.....& snails......et al. Then comes my favourite bit, which is harvesting our own fresh food to cook & eat. Our garden is about 30 feet wide & 130 feet long, like many such gardens attached to 1930s houses. It has 3 mature fruit trees - an apple ('Charles Ross', according to my Mum!), a pear (conference) & greengage. Roughly two thirds of this space is grass (I couldn't dignify our pretty but messy patch full of wildflowers by calling it 'lawn') with big flower borders & the remaining third is our productive veggie garden. These pictures aren't great as were taken on my phone, at a time of day when the sun was bright & there were lots of strange-looking shadows, but they should give an idea of what summer at 'Hagstones' looks like:
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| Luscious ivy on our old pear tree |
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| From under the greengage tree |
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| Geranium 'Rozanne', wild borage & alchemilla mollis |
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| Penstemons I grew from seed, with a tiny self-sown foxglove (Who doesn't love a freebie?) |
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| Under our whitebeam tree, which I mended with sellotape when it was a sapling! |
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| Purple alium 'Sensation' seed heads |
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The calendula are fab this year. I like to grow a row of these in front of my outdoor tomatoes.
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A peek into the greenhouse
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| Cucumber No. 3 growing away nicely |
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| A vision of shiny purple loveliness - what a sexy beast! |
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Lots of bunches forming on our 'Black Hamburg'
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From the back of our veggie plot - sorry, it's a bit dark!
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On the kitchen front, there's more preserving in progress. I'm like a squirrel between now & autumn with a real drive to make & store lovely things for winter. Today I've prepped a whole load of lemons & put them to soak, ready to make lemon marmalade tomorrow.
The whole house will smell just gorgeous when that's bubbling on the hob, which will make a pleasant change from Eau de Litter Tray.........
......which brings me neatly on to Albert Whiskers' trip to the vet this morning. A very kind person gave us a a stronger cat carrier, which compared to his old one is 'The Alcatraz'. Unusually, he didn't race off to hide in the linen cupboard at first sight of it (the MO of our previous cats). Instead, he insisted on finishing his breakfast before being picked up, but as soon as he was in it, he barged the top & side doors to see if they would bow sufficiently to effect another escape, before seeing if digging his way out would feasible. All Houdini attempts this time failed, I'm pleased to report. A couple of attempted clawings on route, but no escapes this time & the BHO was able to arrive home minus lacerations. The vet thought he was absolutely lovely.....a 'real boy cat' with his big face & huge paws. The fight damage to his face/eye won't be a problem, it's already much better & his fur is growing back. We were surprised to hear that both his canine teeth are broken.......as the vet said, he's clearly 'seen some action'. So, he had his inoculations, his boosters are booked for the end of this month & then.......the moment he is so desperate for............it will be Albert Whiskers' Going Outside Day!!
And that, is the end of my ramblings for today. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Back soon,
C x
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