The end of summer......

Summer, my friends, is drawing to a close here in Middle England. The garden looks weary, the fruit and vegetables are in glut mode, and the sun sets much earlier. This is something I have just noticed. The sun.

And I am sick to death of watering things.

Hah. Now that is not something you would have thought I would say, given my love affair with the garden, is it? Well, I am sick of All The Watering. Especially when the flowers are looking way past their best and all I want to do is yank them out by the roots and put them in the compost bin and greenery collection bin. And usually this does not happen till a little later. (That last statement meant that I had to go back through the annals of history, aka my sidebar, to check on the state of the garden each year. I got rather caught up in all the posts and have just emerged, 2 hours later.)

Now where was I.....

Things have been moving along here at RCR - David is coming home at the end of the week. Diana has been away for a few days. The blackberries are ripening in the hedgerows. Telephone conferences which last over 3 hours have been happening. Aquazumba classes. Aquarobics classes. Meetings. Appointments. Deadheading. And a whole lot more.

Down at the allotment, my long expired cucumber seeds (Use before 2009) have exploded all over the place, and the cucumber mountain has been growing by the day. So yesterday, I googled how to freeze cucumbers. I never, for a second, thought you could. Well, you can. So, I peeled and sliced and added an onion to the mix, and did what I was told to do - salt, cover, wait, drain, mix vinegar and sugar, cover, bag, freeze. Who knew. Apparently they stay crisp and taste great.

I will let you know in mid winter.

The apples. Well, the large pot  had to be hauled to the hob yesterday, and in went a huge pile of sliced apples. It was actually really nice to be on the conference call where I could wander round the house and stir the apples, and make coffee and toss out the dead flowers etc etc. I am hoping to get a couple of bags of apples from a friend soon. They freeze so well, and what a delight it is to have the freezer this year! I am making excellent use of it. If you could just see the pile of courgette bags.......

On the creative front, I have finished making the daisy squares at last. Now begins the sewing in of all the ends, and then it will be joined together. I am delighted with the colours so far. I also played with the squares while on that conference call. In the sun.

I did a great deal while on that conference call.

Missy starts school in a week or so. She is going to real school. Big School. I look at the photos and she is all long legs and gangliness at the moment, and she will love school, and making friends, and learning all sorts of things. But where has the time gone? She turns 5 next February. They start school unbelievably early here in the UK.

Ah well.....