Sunday

 Good morning and Happy Sunday to us all.  The sun is starting to shine and fingers crossed it will stay around today after the rain we had yesterday.  Only a bit but it was a nuisance.

As hoped, yesterday was a do-not-a-lot day.  I did the necessary, of course, and spent a considerable time thumbing through some recent foody magazines to identify the recipes I want to make.  I could just cut them out but I hand on my mags to Val so I don't want to do that.  I will use my printer to photocopy.

Apart from that, it was a gently, lazy sort of day.

I left some gammon ham in the slow cooker to  cook overnight and when I woke this morning the house smelled amazing.  It's all cooked now and cooling.  I might be able to slice it, I might not, either way is really doesn't matter, it tastes great and will be a good centre point for the roast dinner Beth< Alex and I are sharing later on.

I'm off to the allotment first thing (the usual picking, digging up, possibly watering and so on), then back for breakfast.  After that I will prep dinner and B and A are turning up just before two.  When they go, I have to prep tuition for tomorrow morning before having another lazy evening.

I took a few photos in the garden half an house ago.

Over the arch is the passion flower - not that it's flowered yet - that was a bit of a miracle as it came up several years after it was planted and, seemingly, died.  This year is the first year it's done anything much in the way of growing and I'm tying it up and over and down the other side.  I know plants don't grow down but it has no choice!
I don't think I will do any pruning this time as it's fairly 'thin' as you can see, but once the structure is there, I will prune as necessary to keep it under control.  And if that doesn't work, it will come out and I will think again!

I put my hand behind the flamenco apples so you can see how big they are growing.  Lovely jubbly!  I wonder when they will be ready - I looked it up and it said mid October.  It'll be the size of a melon by then!

They do turn a deep red in colour (it says) so these are nowhere near ready yet.

The cucumbers are coming to the end of their lives.  The fruit is now all at the top and while I can see seven fruit (two are titchy) on this bit, the rest is now just carrying leaves that are turning yellow, the fruit is taking longer to grow and the skins are becoming rough and marked.  They've been great this year and I will be sorry when they finish.

Finally, the dwarf French beans are coming along nicely.  There are now some flower buds emerging and, if we actually had some consistent warm weather, it would help a lot.  Still, I should get some sort of a harvest from them.

(you can see a couple of very ancient cucumber leaves on the left hand side)

Time to get going.
I've had my coffee and need to wash my hair before getting dressed and heading to the allotment.  I'm not doing anything noisy there so I can start as early as I like.
Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.  xx