We didn’t realise quite how big the Kalette plants would get when we planted them in the border! It’ll be fun eating them in due course.
Just one of the three enormous Kalette plants
I shared the August Happiness plan with you some weeks ago. Here is the September plan, this time for self-care, something many of us ignore.
self-care_september
I am taking a break from blogging for a few weeks. I have published almost every day for almost seven years and it will seem odd not to write every day but I WILL be back in this beautiful Blogging Community and all is well. 🙂
I was in Penryn today and found this gloriously full planter in my favourite colours, one of the plants being Heliotrope which really lives up to its nickname of Cherry Pie.
Heliotrope
Side view with millstone and flowers
Our Dahlias are blooming.
White Dahlia
The Canna is in flower too.
Canna and Zebra Grass
Thank you all very much for so many thoughts about the the pink flower yesterday.  I think Heyjude and Arkenatum might have the right id, Crinum.  I hadn’t said that the stems were about 2ft tall and they do look a bit like Amaryllis. I really should have taken a photo of  the whole border.
We harvested all our shallots a few weeks ago and now their skins have all dried, I have cleaned them up and they sit, golden and gorgeous, waiting to be used.
Home grown crop
Our new protective table cover is jolly.
Chickens
There were lots of these unusual flowers at the Meudon Hotel, great long borders of them. I’d love it if someone could identify it for me – no leaves, just long pink stalks with the large blooms on top, no perfume sadly.
We have so enjoyed our night away and this silver sea was our view this morning as we drew the curtains.
Early morning view from our room
The walk through the gardens is beautiful and at the bottom of the gardens is the beach. We turned right along the South West coastal path and had an excellent stomp with beautiful views.
View from our walk
We spent the afternoon sitting by the hotel pond reading and trying to take photos of the dragonflies. I just managed by using sport mode on my camera.
On our way back from town, we came upon two young neighbours trying out the family tandem for the first time and what an enjoyable time they were having.
Having fun
Walking around Newlyn before going to see Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman at the Newlyn Filmhouse, we spotted a lovely weathervane.
Weather vane in Newlyn
In the cafe upstairs, before the film, we were both taken by the decoupage on the tables.
Decoupage
The film, by the way, is stunning,  offering an unflinching, true-life examination of race relations in 1970s America that is just as frighteningly relevant in today’s tumultuous world.
I love the white in our Suffragette garden. There is no purple left as the Clematis has all been blown away but the Japanese Anemones are lovely .
Japanese Anemones
I have picked all the ripe Cherry Tomatoes and ‘sun-dried’ them in the oven today.
Cherry tomatoes
Our lovely friend Kath, to whom this blog is dedicated, once gave me the recipe for Courgette Soup and it is very tasty. Kath and Charlie had a small house in Meyssac in Southern France and we visited a couple of times. Each time, when the villagers knew that K&C were having visitors, they were asked by the neighbours, “Which soup are you making for them?” which we all loved. We used our own courgettes (our crop has been rather small) and some from our lovely neighbour Sue’s allotment.
Today, I give you a poem, ‘My Dog’ by Ian MacMillan, a poet we met several times when we lived in Yorkshire and whose work invariably makes me smile. There has been correspondence in the Guardian letters page of the  human names people give to their dogs which disconcerts some people. I think this name beats the lot.  Try to get hold of the rest of the poem to discover the wonderful name Ian gives his cat!
My Dog
by Ian McMillan (I Found This Shirt, Carcanet)
April is the Cruellest Month might seem like a strange name for a dog, and sometimes I think it is when I’m shouting her name on the high moors in the driving wind.
‘April is the Cruellest Month!’ I shout, ‘April is the Cruellest Month!’ and my dog runs up to me, barking, wagging her tail, and I feel slightly, ever so slightly embarrassed.
But then when people say as they walk by me on the high moors in the driving wind, ‘Can a month bark?’ ‘Can April wag its tail?’ I swell with pride because my dog’s name is image, and metaphor, and poetry.
I won Ian’s book, “I Found This Shirt”, in a raffle at one of his readings and he wrote in it for me with his usual dry humour.
When we met Daughter No 1 in Exeter the other day, we took her a jar of our freshly made Blackberry and Apple Jam. Last night M sent us a photo of the cream tea that she made with the scrumptious jam!
Cream Tea with B&A Jam
The Fuchsia that we were given last Summer is blooming beautifully after being cut hard down.
Fuchsia
The Bill Mackenzie Clematis is coming into flower. Â There are dozens of buds so it will just get better and better.
The broken Gladioli is down to its last few blooms and they are still beautiful.
Leftover Gladioli
The Spring flowering Clematis Montana is showing several blooms!
Montana Rubens
We have bulbs, due next Spring, throwing up all their greenery. The Clematis Armandii, which flowers in the winter has been flowering freely! Is anyone else finding plants not knowing which season we are in?
