Bank Holiday Whitterings - and a Puzzle!

Hello lovely people. How has your day been?


It’s been a gorgeous one here in the Black Country, beginning with absolutely crystal clear, cloudless blue skies very early on. We sat in the garden with our coffee, revelling in the gentle early morning warmth of a very autumnal sunshine.

Work continued apace on the raised bed and by mid-morning it was all in place and we were able to treat the wood.

Here it is in all it’s glory - up on some blocks at the moment to dry out and awaiting a bottom layer of gravel for drainage, compost and eventually the top soil. Whoop whoop!!

Ahem.

Is it sad to be so excited about a few planks of wood?! Yup. Thought so!! Our next project will be to build a chicken coop in readiness for some new feathery lodgers!

Moving swiftly on…


Now then. I was given two tomato plants a couple of months ago. One of them is producing clusters of lovely cherry -sized plum tomatoes which are ripening by the day. The other, which I was advised was a fruit with an unusual deep purple colour - isn‘t doing quite so well.

Oh it’s all big and green and bushy and tall and healthy and all that … but it’s behaving a very un-tomato like manner

For a start, its flowers look like this:-














And now…. It’s doing this:-

They almost look like green Chinese lanterns don’t they?


In fact - I don’t think it’s a tomato plant at all. It doesn’t smell remotely tomatoe-y, it’s leaves don’t look tomatoe-y . So what is it? Answers on a post card please - or failing that… on a blog comment!! All suggestions very gratefully received!

In other news, food gifts received yesterday comprised:-

A bag full of cooking apples from DDBF’s tree ….

And….

A selection of allotment produce (apart from the carrots!)  from my parent’s lotty!

Nice eh?!








This afternoon we popped to pick some Victoria plums at a local fruit farm. The trees have been kept at shoulder height to enable easy picking. There was certainly a bumper harvest! The little trees were absolutely LOADED with fruit. So much so that the boughs were actually breaking from the weight. It was heartbreaking to see so much produce going to waste. Pounds and pounds of perfectly good fruit lay at the base of the trees just waiting to rot away - I just wanted to gather it all up and squirrel it away! Trouble is - I’d already picked a carrier bag full and could not really warrant actually buying any more.

After 12 weeks sick leave, I’m going back to work tomorrow for the first time. I don’t mind telling you that I’m dreading it. I’m off to think happy thoughts and gaze at these gorgeous cloud photos I took yesterday evening.

Tomorrow I’m going to introduce you to our little menagerie. You can’t wait can you?!

See you soon!