The weather was kind to us today, with no rain and the sun shining most of the shirt-sleeves warm day.
I hadn’t slept well so was feeling rather tired. I therefore spent several hours in the company of J.B.Priestley’s “Literature and Western Man”, before wandering round the garden with my camera.
Having battened down the hatches in our normal manner over the last week, I was pleased to note that most of our pots and garden furniture were not blown over and the weeping birch still stands.
Nasturtiums are a good temperature barometer. The first frost renders the tendrils limp and the blooms and leaves jelly-like. We have had no sign of that this year.
The hebes and roses like yellow Laura Ford seem to have emerged very early for next spring;
hot lips remain sun-kissed, as do various clematises; roses such as Peach Abundance and Gloriana continue to flourish, while Hawkshead is just one of our thriving fuchsias, and the starlike gaura is the only one that has ever survived for us.
Clerodendrum and iris foetidissima seeds promise a good crop next summer.
This evening we all dined on tender roast lamb; crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; firm sage and onion stuffing; crunchy carrots; soft broccoli stems; and meaty gravy, with which I drank Mighty Murray Shiraz.