To be honest, yesterday was a "Lazy Day" - hot and sunny, just made for pottering about and doing nothing in particular. Have you gathered that I am enjoying retirement? The thought of wrestling with the journey into London and spending the day in a stuffy classroom was not a pleasant one, and I'm glad I don't have to do that sort of thing any more. Late in the day we sat in the garden and shared a bottle of Rosé wine and some nibbles as the sun went down. Perfect.
Anyway, all I can offer you today is a selection of photos
First off, my Rose bush "Sunset Boulevard". Two shots of the same two blooms - taken 24 hours apart:
Quite a few of the Japanese Anemones are out now:
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| "September Charm" (spot the spider) |
And the Buddleia is also flowering.
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| Buddleia Davidii "Royal Purple" |
Whether it is due to the Buddleia (sometimes known colloquially at The Butterfly Bush), or something else, there have been a lot more butterflies in the garden this week. I have seen three or four Red Admirals, a couple of Whites of some sort, a couple of little blue ones (too mobile to identify), and this dainty Comma:
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| Comma |
The chillis are coming along quite nicely...
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| "Cayenne" |
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| "Aji Benito" |
So are the tomatoes...
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| "Ailsa Craig" |
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| "Marmande" |
The first Cucumber will be harvested very soon.
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| Cucumber "Passandra" |
And there are plenty more following on...
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| "Passandra" |
Good progress with the Runner Beans, though no pods big enough to harvest just yet.
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| Runner Bean "Scarlet Emperor" |
The Lemongrass is revelling in the warm weather.
Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever be using any of it in the kitchen. I have read that there are basically two types of Lemongrass, one of which is used in cooking, and one of which is used in the cosmetics industry. I think mine is the latter. The stems are thin and very dark red, with none of the bulbous bases that I associate with the culinary variety. Does anyone have any knowledge in this area to offer?
Our row of buddleias on the plot are flowering now and the perfume is intense. I'm hoping that they draw in lots of butterflies this year as there was a dearth of them last year. Retirement has much to recommend it.
ReplyDeleteI've cooked with the ornamental lemon grass - we were staying at a
ReplyDeletefriend's house in Thailand and I didn't realise it wasn't the
culinary one. No one died!
Thanks for the reassurance, Barbara! Actually, I know that the red-stemmed one is not poisonous, but it also doesn't seem to be very succulent. And the leaves are so sharp!
DeleteYou are so far ahead of us with your produce Mark,
ReplyDeleteFor example our Buddleia have only just come to bud and our tomatoes have flowers although they haven't opened yet. No sun again today...hopefully we won't miss the whole growing season!