It’s time for this month’s Happiness calendar.
I made a scrumptious Lemon Victoria Sponge cake for the volunteers today and it went down a storm. It was rather delicious!
We have a wonderful carrot harvesting team as I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when I used some of the carrots for the following week’s cake. We have a bunch of youngsters from toddler to nearly 9 years old who are superb at pulling up the carrots! All the parents gave permission for the photos to be used here
It’s been a busy morning harvesting – sweetcorn and tomatoes.
We had freshly boiled and buttered sweetcorn for lunch and I cooked four more cobs and cut off the corn to freeze. There’ll be more for lunch tomorrow.
The black tomatoes from one plant I have today made into a rich tomato chutney with a hint of cardamom. It’s delicious.
500g tomatoes made two and a half little jars of chutney
This afternoon one of my choirs, The Suitcase Singers, had our last gig of the summer at The Meudon Hotel.
Looking from the dining room down the garden.
In 2018 I was the Humanist Celbrant at a delightful wedding in the gardens of the Meudon Hotel.
The tomatoes are ripening well and the tiny ones are like eating sweets!
The raspberries are also doing well, just enough in a day to make a delicious dessert.
Meringue shell with vanilla creme fraiche and our raspberries
The following short poem came my way today and I found it very moving.
Let us all lay the extra place……..
Volunteer harvest on Tuesday was newly harvested carrots. We had some that evening, absolutely delicious and so much more carrotty than ones bought in shops! Today I have grated some to make an American Spiced Carrot Cake and frozen it away for next Tuesday at Roots.
The berries in the front garden are beautifully bright red.
I love this poem and I’m surprised I haven’t posted it before. It’s the philosophy behind my blog, how extraordinary ordinary things are. I hope you enjoy it too.
It’s been a day of harvesting today at Community Roots – all the onions and the ripe tomatoes all gathered in and room now to plant out the winter brassicas and the later salad crops.
Just one of the 7 varieties we grow – these are Costaluto Fiorentino
My job today was to organise a Tomato Tasting of all seven varieties. The favourite was the cherry tomato, Mango Lassi, sweet and delicious!
A Sunflower somehow planted itself in one of the poly-tunnels and we’ve been watching it carefully, not clearing it away. It has bent over and sprouted flowering stems from up and down the stem – 8 flowers so far and at least four more buds to open.
We gave up our allotment earlier this year and handed it on to a lovely young family who are having fun down there but we are still growing vegetables at home in our raised beds and in our new greenhouse.
The Sweetcorn is doing well, enjoying the heat we think. It’s very tall and there are a number of corn cobs developing with tassels beginning to show.
Sweet Corn and a volunteer Gladioli
Sweetcorn cob with tassels
We are growing the squash with the corn as I read about in Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer who shares her knowledge of indigenous wisdom.
Patti Pan squash
The Curly Kale is doing well and somehow seems not to attract the Cabbage White Butterfly.
Curly Kale
The Kalettes are growing strongly and despite some caterpillar damage seem to be doing okay.
Kalette plants
We love Leeks.
Leeks
The Courgettes are very slow but we have had two so far and there are two more on the way.
Courgettes
As last week, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, Jim from Garden Ruminations where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.
In my clearing out, I came across a book I’ve not seen for a while, Medieval Gardens and thought this poem perfect for today’s blog:
Latin 9th century.
Walafrid-Strabo: Hortulus (De Cultura Hortorum)
I loved how a blue borage bloom had landed on a vibrant green courgette leaf and near the gold of a courgette flower.
We have harvested our shallots today, a bit earlier than expected but with the heat and dryness they had stopped growing. They are a lovely colour but rather smaller than usual.
Here we have two expandable plastic pots with lids, not conventionally beautiful, I agree but they hold wonderful memories. They have been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with us on each of our many adventures starting in 1998!  We used them for our breakfasts in the cabins, for our picnics on the various trails and for desserts collected from the deli.
Sadly, we probably won’t be able to go again (the awful and very sad fire of last year destroyed so much that will take years to restore) though we do hope to be able to visit family and friends in 2028 perhaps.
We are getting beautiful sunsets at the moment and here the golden light is streaming into our hallway and being reflected in the mirror.
The Long Tail Tits are back! We havent seen them for a couple of years but today they were feeding in the morning and again in the evening. The photos were taken on a very long zoom from inside the kitchen so that I didn’t frighten them off.
We’ve harvested our first tomatoes today. The black one wasn’t really ready, the red cherry ones were delicious. 
I’m a bit late with this month’s Happiness calendar which is focussing on resilience and jumping back up after a set back. Hope some of the suggestions work for you should you be needing them.
It’s our first season in the greenhouse and we have some small tomatoes some of which are beginning to ripen.
I made a coffee cake for tomorrow’s market in town and made a mini one for us.
At Roots today there were lots of little fungi. I’ve tried to identify it but havent managed to.
There were lots of jobs today and 35 volunteers so everything got done! 
The fennel had been harvested and someone had put a marigold on the pale stems and green fronds which was a lovely colour mix.
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