The very dull, dark, morning gave way to at least a lighter afternoon on which Jackie drove me to Patrick’s Patch and back. While she trawled Fairweather’s Garden Centre across the road I wandered around this community garden.
An early autumn fall of crab apples were attracting insects like the fly at centre right;
small pumpkins looked past their best;
a figure of a little girl with pigtails and blue wellies
was glimpsed behind a couple who were pleased to have discovered this garden;
a flower pot man displayed aged globe artichokes;
while a stylish lady invited us to look out for ladybirds, of which I found a few
fashioned from painted pebbles;
Aunt Sally and Worzel Gummidge tentatively held loving hands;
nearby apples ripened;
someone had gone home without a teething ring;
their dahlias looked much healthier than ours which have suffered from the drought, and
sunflowers bloomed in several beds.
On leaving Beaulieu we passed a pair of cyclists from earlier eras. Jackie just had time to drive on ahead and point her camera before these faster than expected wheelers whizzed on by.
Ian returned this afternoon in time to join Becky, Jackie and me for dinner. The young family ate separately this evening.
The rest of us enjoyed chicken marinaded in Nando’s Mango and Chilli sauce with Jackie’s savoury rice cooked in my stock from yesterday’s roast meal. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden; Becky drank Diet Coke; Ian, Moretti; and I, The Swashbuckler Western Cape Pilotage 2021.