Still picking and painting… thank you Sally, Rod… and geese for Linda

(The random nature of my posts reflects my state of mind)

My much neglected vegetable plot and greenhouse are managing fine without me, and still supplying pickings. dscn9938

In August I meant to clean and re-stain all our external and internal woodwork. I finally started a couple of weeks ago. dscn9898

There’s an awful lot of it, and a lot of other important commitments, so I am like a jack-in-the-box – out if the sun shines, in doing other stuff the instant it looks like rain. I have become weather alert, but this had me foxed. dscn9902 dscn9901 dscn9900

The bits that are done look good, but most of the porch and the left-hand run of windows are still to finish.dscn9948 dscn9949

In between my other commitments there are the other, other commitments – four lectures in four different towns (I’m getting a little less fearful with each one) – and one more to go (with others in the pipeline).

Surviving the Death Railway is travelling the world – thank you to all my fellow bloggers who have bought copies, and to Sally Cronin for generously writing about my work and to Rod on Fragmented Mind for his wonderful review.

Photo for Linda – what I did when I was told to be careful of the geese.hilary-chasing-geese_2

 

The waiting season

I find myself prowling the garden, waiting for the dramas of autumn. Some of them are underway already. DSCN8467 Though summer has not yet retired and tomatoes and apples (Blenheim Orange) are still ripening, DSCN8471 DSCN8466This rhododendron (Morgenrot) thinks it is spring. DSCN8473

No idea what this frog is thinking. We have no pond, but I bump into frogs a few times every year (he is a frog; he is smooth-skinned and he jumps). DSCN8463There are roses (Alec’s Red – knockout scent and cosmos (Chocamocha) in flower and even the odd sweet pea.DSCN8502DSCN8481 DSCN8496 What I am really waiting for is the maples to change colour. I am impatient to know which of my new seedlings has the best autumn glow. This impatience is foolish, I must not wish the summer away and the marigolds (Calendula) in the veg plot are still covered in blooms a joy to behold.DSCN8458And there is plenty of drama (Pampas Grass) in the botanical gardens. IMG_1260

Temporary absence

I’m going away… for ten days. I am sorry for all your posts I will miss, but my only hope of sanity is to leap into the future when I return. By this time I hope some more tomatoes will be ripening and that neighbours will have picked the ones that are already ripe. DSCN8240 - Version 2 DSCN8239  DSCN8281 - Version 2 DSCN8237

I look forward to eating our unnamed delicious apples (the tree came labelled Victoria plum).DSCN8280and in late in October our Blenheim Orange.DSCN8287 But sadly, we will not be eating tasty leeks next spring, because the dastardly leek moth hath got them – useful information here: http://www.getseedy.co.uk/2011/09/whos-been-eating-my-leeks/

Another end-of-season reward is the cyclamen that are popping up all round the garden.DSCN8272 DSCN8292 - Version 2

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See you late September.

 

One tomato, two tomato, three tomato… and some maples

My husband was a little underwhelmed by his first sight of lunch today.
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We love tomatoes and I thought with the new greenhouse we would have a splendid crop of homegrown ones. Sadly, all the ones I started in the greenhouse have not fared well after being transferred to the vegetable plot. The blazing heat, our sandy soil and my erratic watering and feeding (though I tried) have not been to their liking, so every kind of rot has set in and this is all that is left.

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And they’re not as healthy as they look. The one plant I kept in the greenhouse is looking much happier, so next year I will fill the greenhouse with them.

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However my little nursery bed of seedling maples has come through the summer in brave force and I think there are some interesting plants here.

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I was a little alarmed to see that the parent of most of these, Matsukaze, is already showing some Autumn colour. I don’t understand where the summer went or how the year is slipping past so swiftly.

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At least the birds and the hedgehogs are flourishing. Outside my writing room window very new half-coloured robins, bluetits, great tits and coal tits and, I think, a willow warbler (who resists the efforts of the paparazzi ) all flit about constantly (very good for concentration) while the ground is patrolled by pigeons, dunnocks and blackbirds (one with a grey head). We hear the hedgehogs at night and they polish off a plate of mealworms etc every night. I am torn between my desk and the outside, but the seasons won’t wait, so I must try and get out more.