Well as far as I'm concerned, living in this part of the UK, we've had a great summer. We've been very lucky to have avoided the severe weather that other parts of the country has endured. We've had lots of sun, but not the scorching heat that other parts have had, we've hardly had any rain, just the odd small shower, whereas other parts have been totally drenched and in parts flooded. We've had some wind, but nothing like the extreme high winds others have had - I swear my little area has it's own eco-climate. Never too hot, nor too cold, never too windy nor rainy. Therefore my garden has really prospered - although I'm not the only one who's said that they're surprised at how much more fruit seems to have grown this year.

Yesterday was a lovely day - not too hot, just nice and warm and with small white clouds scudding across the blue sky. I ventured out into the garden to take stock of what I have out there. I was greeted with a lovely display of the Purple Loosestrife, so gorgeous in colour...

The loosestrife a gorgeous purple with orange flashes from the mombretia

A great English country garden

The loose strife is such a great colour

The bright orange flashes of the mombretia really stand out to make the garden look so pretty. Then I walked through to the top lawn....

Old flower pots from my grandmother's home now grace my garden

These old plant pots were brought here by my grandparents back in the 1960's. I need to paint them again and maybe plant some petunias for next year. Anyway they make the entrance into that part of the garden look good!!!!

I then noticed the Japanese Anemone - wow, they are growing so much. I hadn't realised how well they have become with the small rain shower we had the other day....

My Japanese Anemone looking great after the rain

The rain has certainly helped the flowers

Anemones bloom in profusion

I spent ages looking at them - to have such a great amount of them is brilliant. Anyway, I then looked at the apples. Considering this apple tree was grown by me throwing an old apple down there about 25 years ago!!!! For the last few years, the apples have been rather few and far between and small too - but this year......

The branches are groaning under the weight of the apples

There were blackberries next to the apples

There is so much fruit here for just one person


More blackberries for supper!!
As you can see, not only are the apples growing in huge clumps, the blackberries are coming on in leaps and bounds too. Can you see how the dessert "Apple and Blackberry Crumble" comes to mind? Those apples are looking big too. Emily very kindly picked some apples and blackberries for me on Friday, but there's still loads and loads of them here.

Also a new plant has suddenly appeared, it came from the driveway, having prospered for years but since it had been trimmed it failed miserably. So imagine my surprise and delight when I saw it had decided to start anew in the garden opposite my lounge. Now I have this beautiful plant in full view.

The Himalayan Honeysuckle is a wonderful plant, with huge clusters of red flowers with some of them having white little flowers emerging from inside. Again, I honestly don't remember ever seeing as many flowers as this before.

Himalayan Honeysuckle in full bloom

I don't think I've ever seen the flowers like this

As I walked back round the house, I noticed the climber which goes all the way up my house, has got strange flowers on it. Does anyone know what it is?

Strange flowers from a climber going up my wall

Well folks, every day I'm sewing my patchwork blocks. So far I've done 10 blocks of 9" x 9", I can see it's going to take me quite a while to make enough for a quilted throw for a double bed. I'm thoroughly enjoying it too, it's been quite a while since I last did a patchwork quilt, although last year I did do some table mats etc, but I spent a lot of time making the soft toys - also some jewellry - I'm so busy nearly all the time, I'm really enjoying my time being retired!!! I hope you all have a great week too.