Saturday evening, 20-07-24

Good evening, all.  It's been another really nice day, not as hot as Thursday and Friday and with a refreshing breeze at times.  We had a little bit of rain in the afternoon but five minutes after it stopped the ground was dry again.

I had a very pleasant little stroll around the garden this morning, camera in hand.  It was just part of a very gentle and peaceful start to the day with nothing to get ready for until about ten fifteen as, because we were having one of our walks, I didn't do SET online live.

First of all, the runner beans are doing really well in the warmth and sunshine, trying to escape over the fence and producing loads of very attractive flowers.  The Elizabethans grew runner beans for their flowers rather than as a veg, I believe, and I can see why.  I prefer the write flowers to the scarlet ones though, in my own garden, because they fit with the colour vibe which is a pinky/white/blue/lilac sort of thing.  Scarlet would clash and they are part of the overall effect, not in a separate veg patch.

The dwarf beans have also finally got their act together.  The new seeds I put in two or three weeks ago have come up and, while this was accidental, it means there will be a longer fruiting time so can't moan about that!

I know I bang on about tomatoes non-stop, but I was genuinely excited to pick these two little beauties earlier to have with my lunch-time salad.  If you pop over to my SW/foody blog (link at the side) you can see them in situ - well, in salad, anyway - and they were, of course, delish.

There's a few more getting the idea now so, fingers crossed, soon I will be picking every morning.  That makes me very happy.

I've now had four cucumbers but only from one plant.  The other seems to have some nasty, fungally sort of thing so it produces lots of flowers but any baby cucumbers fall off.  I suppose I ought to have it out but further up the stem it looks more hopeful so fingers crossed.   They are very nice cucumbers.

And the salad leaves from the first planting were pretty much over while the second pot is ready for leaf cutting now.  So I cleared the first pot and have sown another lot for later on.  Nice.

And finally, I got some bedding dahlias from Longacres a while ago and the first one has started flowering.  Thankfully, it is the right colour for the bed.  The others are coming along but if they don't 'match' I can try replanting them at the front to keep the confused dahlia company.

They're very pretty, dahlias, aren't they, and very rewarding.

Anyway, enough garden waffle.

After a very leisurely start to the day, I met up with my SW friends for our Saturday walk.  This time it was at Writtle and, as always, a good chat was enjoyed by us all, as was the excellent coffee served in the Writtle Tea Rooms (sadly, closing in September).

Then I came home to potter in the garden a bit and then to just relax under the sunshade.  No, the spike isn't in yet, but Maxine has confirmed that they will do it when they come to paint the bit of ceiling so that's good.  For now, I wedge it in and it is fine.

I came in when it got cloudy and had a very pleasant snooze that set me up for the rest of the day.

And that was my day.  I hope yours has been a pleasant too although I gather some parts of the UK have had more rain than we had here.
Sleep well, everyone, sweet dreams.  xx