Floral Bliss #83 - Our UK garden in July

Our garden in July has been looking very colourful and will continue to do so for a few weeks yet as the roses produce new buds and blooms.  There are lavender bushes, phlox, pelargoniums, one or two carnations,  pansies and flowering shrubs.

 a box , a new olive tree and a new silvery mauve evergreen veronica hebe 'Caledonia'

Ferns are a favourite way of adding greenery in a shady corner under a pear tree by the vegetable plot.

The above collage shows the first lot of tomatoes to ripen. In the covered yard there's the bush variety producing cherry tomatoes and others are grown as cordons such as 'Gardener's Delight'. There is a round variety, 'Moneymaker' and several varieties of plum tomatoes, 'Cuor di Bue', 'San Marzano Romano' which has done well with a good crop. A longer plum variety, 'San Marzano', hasn't done so well this year.  The tomatoes growing outside against a wall are also beginning to ripen.  The long period of  sunshine has been good for them, but they need constant attention.

We continue to gather bowlfuls of ripe tomatoes.  Some are used for salads or for cooking now and others have been skinned, cooked and preserved in sterilized jars. We grow a few sweet peppers which we give to our family as we don't eat them ourselves.  The garlic has been lifted and dried.  We don't use a lot of  garlic or onions in cooking and I prefer leeks. However,  it's good to have some for flavouring food along with fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, parsley and different types of thyme. At the moment I have 'Silver Queen' and 'Orange Thyme' that are looking a bit sad even though they've been watered. I bought them when I visited a herb centre in Berkshire and I should have put them straight into the ground instead of leaving them in pots on the kitchen window sill.  At least I've been using the fresh leaves and I still have more herbs outside that I can gather. 

We gathered some broad beans, a few peas and now the runner beans are being harvested, but the crops grown in the veggie plot have been low this year and home grown can only supplement what we buy. We're enjoying lettuce and wild rocket in our lunch time salads.

The nectarine has produced a lot of fruit this year, but we lost  two or three when we had some strong winds. It's in a sunny corner and now securely fastened to a wall bracket.  The vines growing on the old wall in the front garden have produced large bunches of grapes again this year, but they are not table grapes and we grow them just for ornamentation and as a nostalgic reminder of Italy.  

I'm joining Riitta's Floral Bliss linkup this week.

In the mountains

This time last year we were in Italy for the Summer holidays. We could have done the same this year as we had been invited to a family wedding mid July, but regretfully we decided we couldn't return so soon after having been there in May. 

In the hot Summer months of July and August we go up into the mountains within the local national park. There are woods and streams as well as a flat, grassy plateau which is popular for camping, walking and horse riding.  Most families take a picnic, which is part of the enjoyment of a day out, although being a protected, unspoilt area there is only one small restaurant by a flowing stream.  The food there is good if you haven't brought a picnic and most people find a spot nearby in the shade of the trees and put their drinks in the water to keep cool. 

Further down the mountain we go and collect water to supplement the numerous bottles of mineral water we consume during the hot weather.  There's always a queue at the fountains in the area, but we chat with locals as we wait for our turn.

Last time I noticed some colourful, hand-painted bottles lined up by the side of the road and on a stall as we passed by.  There are very few houses in this area which can be very isolating for those who live there. In the Winter months there's snow and at other times there can be a sudden downpour of heavy rain.  Most of the houses and small hamlets are lower down the mountain.  Once there were only shepherd huts, but now they have been replaced by new builds.

One day last Summer Mr P took the visiting family up into the mountains to get our supply of mineral water from the fountain and I stayed at home.  They had found a new shop where they could get ice creams and a drink and after the family had gone back home to the UK we went back for more water and stopped for refreshments and some home made bread.  I was amazed at the provisions and household items you could get in the shop, but as it's the last one before going into the national park it provides for the local community or visitors that pass by. 

We spent a relaxing half hour sitting with a drink in the garden of the shop before taking the winding road back down the mountain to our village home.

Further down the lane from this group of houses belonging to members of the family is where we live.