Almost a month…

…has gone by; I’ve been somewhat busy. Here’s what’s been going on outside, in wall-to-wall sunshine interspersed with monsoon-like showers:

July: fruit starting to ripen…

See what a difference a month makes:

August: almost there!

and the roses have stopped for now. If you look closely at the first picture, you will also see blackberries in the corner. Being picked & eaten now! The figs are also ripening one by one:

A fig beginning to ripen…

The day-lilies are still romping away:

Day-lilies screening a potato patch…

and their slightly-later-flowering cousins the Montbretias are making ready to steal the show, here from the Enchanter’s Nightshade:

That’s probably not a Great Crested Newt…

Some more of the Poundland bulbs:

Some kind of Gladioli?

What a fabulous investment they have been! But better still, this little beauty was hauled out of a skip at the Household Recycling Centre, for free:

Definitely a Hydrangea…

…Petiolaris?

 

 

 

 

These are generally available for free too:

“Plain” ordinary Buddleia…

But I don’t feel guilty for having spent £2 at the market on three massive pots of Bizzie Lizzies, when it became evident that my window box plants sadly hadn’t survived the desert-like conditions caused by my forgetting to water them…

£1.33-worth of Bizzie Lizzies!

Hoping for some foraging time shortly; it’s time to make some jam!