Delightful Floral Obstructions

 We most certainly deserved a day like today after the strong winds yesterday. It was beautiful. The sky was so blue.

We approached our visit with trepidation but amazingly, the sunflowers were still standing. A couple needed restaking but otherwise all fine.

I made a start on the compost heaps, having strimmed the path first. So with the smell of strimmed mint in my nostrils, I dived into the first heap, literally. I had to cut nettles back. The contents were pretty good .... three lovely barrowloads in the polytunnel and round the garden.The pallets have rotted away so they will need replacing before we start on the next bay.

Steve removed the shading from the polytunnel and noticed that the temperature inside, went up several degrees afterwards. Overall it has helped over the hottest weeks.

We harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers.

We also picked more apples. 

Lots have fallen and the guinea pigs are having a field day.

Nearly every path is a obstructed by flowers. It is moments like these that carry us through the winter months ... pushing yourself past helianthus and michaelmus daisies smothered in bees and other insects, dahlias bowed down with droopy heads, and coming eyeball to eyeball with sunflowers, angled at 45 degrees.

 During a peaceful teabreak, this 22 spot yellow ladybird landed on me. It is very small but quite spectacular.

I cleared the water trough and removed stinging nettles from the snug area. I had some ideas for planting underneath the seat. We took Gandalf indoors for the winter.

There were a few welcome surprises for mid-September.

After picking sweetpeas and dahlias, we made our way home after a very satisfying morning.