Mellow Fruitfulness

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As we were both up before dawn this morning we took a trip to the coast to catch sight of the dawn over the Isle of Wight. There was nothing to see. It was raining and the sky was covered in grey cloud.

John Keats famously described autumn as “a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. We haven’t had any mists yet in this delayed waning of the year. So I guess we must be patient.

Many flowers, such as

nicotiana

nicotiana

nasturtium

and nasturtiums continue to bloom.

There is, however, a certain amount of “mellow fruitfulness” in the form of

Crab apples

crab apples,

Rosa glauca hips

rosa glauca hips,

apple

just a few apples on a tree that was laden last year,

nicotiana sylvestris seed pods

and the seed clusters of six foot tall nicotiana sylvestris,

nicotiana sylvestris seeds

just one pod of which produced this cappuccino  chocolate cloud of minute seeds on the poppy tray.

I cannot remember how to calibrate my scanner to the laptop, so the last two photographs I e-mailed to Emily were produced by

Emily
Emily

photographing the prints and uploading them.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spiky pasta beef arrabiata and runner beans with which I drank more of the malbec.

45 comments

  1. It’s too bad you were not able to see the sunrise.
    We’ve had one foggy morning. I enjoyed looking at it because I did not have to drive in it–the fog had disappeared by the time I went out.
    Your flower photos are beautiful–there is still so much beauty and bounty in your garden.

  2. I do so love that evocative line ‘ ,,,,,,,a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’. The grey rain isn’t quite right is it. I’m a bit concerned about that spiky beef you had for dinner …….

  3. Apple trees are sometimes known to take a year off. Your apple in the photo, though, must have secretly known this was the year for its fifteen minutes of fame….

  4. What – no Isle of Wight? 🙂
    Well done for photographing the photograph to solve the problem :).
    Hey have you stolen our summer? I am still sleeping with my down cover.

  5. I thought “spiky” was a typo for spicy!
    Can you get tobacco out of nicotiana? Certainly nicotine comes from a plant with a similar name.
    I wouldn’t have known those “crab apples” were such. I thought they were always mostly green (perhaps I’ve been going for them when under-ripe). These look almost edible (and perhaps explain why crab apple jelly is often orange coloured).

  6. She is such a doll, your growing “real” Poppy. <3 I like how you called the seeds that look like dust, cappuccino chocolate was clever.
    The flowers are pretty, as the crabapples and apple are. The yellow flower and white with pink blooms, seemed like spring was still here. 🙂
    I enjoyed the story and wish the fog would have parted for you and Jackie. Dan Antion had not too much luck on his recent fog pictures but the mood and ambiance was nice ("no facilities" blog).
    You seem to be figuring the photos and hope not too frustrated, Derrick.

  7. John Keats would have loved your garden. “…but let us open our leaves like a flower and be passive and receptive — budding patiently under the eye of Apollo…”

  8. Ah – those rose hips!!! So lovely… And, it’s interesting to me that a plant as large as Nicotiana sylvestris has such tiny, tiny seeds. It serves as a good reminder that sometimes greatness start out small. Sorry you only got a few apples. 🙁

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