Friday Five: Our Garden in August

Due to very little rainfall over the Summer the water company that maintains the reservoirs has just imposed a hosepipe ban in this region and probably other water companies have done the same.  This is no problem for us as having lived in Italy we know about the need to conserve water in a dry season.  Plants in the covered yard get watered with bowls of washing up water and there's still some rainwater in the outside water butt.  The weedy-looking sunflowers, especially those in the front garden, have survived and have grown quite tall.  The grapes that Mr P grows by the wall have developed, but probably won't ripen so the bunches will be left for the birds as usual.  Mr P pruned the top branches of the magnolia tree as it was growing too tall. There was a recent appearance of flowers and the tree looks healthy.  The hydrangeas are colourful at the moment although the flower heads will eventually dry out.

The roses continue to produce buds and flowers as I routinely go around deadheading them.  The English lavender is still attracting bees.  I shall cut and gather the stems of the lavender bushes once the flower heads have dried out.  I'll put the stems in paper bags and store them.  Some dry flowers fall into the bags, but usually I keep them as stems as I like the fragrance of lavender in the house. The French lavender which is tender and won't survive frost has been re-potted and remains in the covered yard over the Winter months.  It's time to gather some seeds from dry seed heads especially the antirrhinums and favourite types of poppy.

When daughter D was staying with us we enjoyed gardening together with Mr P.  We planted the salvia bush Hot Lips (above) that I bought at the local Wentworth Woodhouse Garden Centre.  Hopefully it'll get established and fill out.  

English lavender, different kinds of fuschia and white heather - there's still colour from seasonal flowers in the garden.

As I sit quietly in our garden I'm still seeing butterflies - Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown or Gatekeeper.  They might appear drab-looking and their life cycle is fleeting because they live for only a short while, but I'm pleased to see small creatures in the garden. We've had a baby toad (or it could be a frog) in our garden that hides in the vegetation and then jumps out to give me a surprise, but it's welcome as we've had fewer slugs and other garden pests to deal with this Summer.  

There are more figs that are almost ready for gathering.  The small, green ones are unlikely to develop further. They'll eventually shrivel up, stay on the branches or drop to the ground.

I hope you have a good new month wherever you live. We've been pleased with our vegetable and fruit harvest. More figs were gathered along with lots of French beans that have been processed and put in the freezer, more tomatoes have been bottled and the sweet corn husks are filling out etc. Yesterday Mr P trimmed the hedge again especially around the back where it gets less attention.

Happy September!  Thank you for visiting.

 Linking with Riitta's Friday Bliss # 207

Daughter D's Birthday Treat

How I miss the River Thames where it flows through my home town!  Never mind, I'm sure we'll get back to Reading in the near future especially with a Berkshire great grandchild on the way.  Recently daughter D sent some photos of a walk by the river after going to the riverside lido in King's Meadows and she said I could share them on my blog.  She had chosen to go there for a swim and a spa session followed by a lunch as part of a birthday gift we had given her.  We're glad that she had a relaxing time and it was glorious weather for her treat.

We're also glad that her drive back to Reading went well and she continues to spend time in her garden and with her family.  What a wonderful Summer it has been!

Thank you for your visit.  Have a good week!

Books from the Local Library, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

All the books I reserved from the library recently are ones by authors I've previously enjoyed.  Often I read books in the crime/mystery category or historical novels.  I've started Stephen Booth's Drowned Lives.  His usual series is set in Derbyshire and I've read most of them featuring the police detectives Ben Cooper and Diana Fry with each one describing a place in the county that can be recognised from the description. However, Drowned Lives is a stand alone historical mystery novel, a story of hidden secrets among the inland waterways of South Staffordshire. 

The jacket blurb - "When a council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an odd old man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift he sends the stranger away.  But then the old man is murdered and the police arrive on Chris's doorstep asking questions to which he has no answers.  As Chris begins to look into the circumstances of the murder he discovers a deadly secret in the silt and mud of the local canals that he'll realise was better kept buried".   

In The Name of The Family is by Sarah Dunant.  I've already read Sacred Hearts and Blood and Beauty.  Internationally bestselling writer Sarah Dunant is well-known for her historical novels that have been translated into many languages .  Like Blood and Beauty, In The Name of The Family is a novel about the Borgias in Renaissance Italy.

The jacket blurb - Doing what Hilary Mantel did for Thomas Cromwell Sarah Dunant tackles the lives of Niccolo Machiavelli and the Borgias with total ease.

Elly Griffith's The Locked Room was published firstly as a hardback version earlier this year and then as a paperback and I've been able to get the paperback from the library after being in a queue.  The mystery is one of a series featuring the forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway and her Norfolk friends.

The jacket blurb - Ruth is in London clearing out her mother's belongings when she makes a surprising discovery; a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there.  The only clue is written on the back of the photo: Dawn, 1963.  Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery.  Then Covid-19 strikes. Ruth and her daughter Kate are locked down in their cottage.  Luckily the house next door is rented by a woman called Zoe and they become friendly while clapping for carers on their doorsteps.  Unfortunately events take a deadly turn.

Another favourite writer is Natasha Solomans writing under the name N.E. Solomans since this is her first thriller, The Bone Road.

The jacket blurb - High up on a mountain road in the Balkans, former Olympic cyclist Heather Bishop races her journalistic boyfriend Ryan.  But when he suddenly disappears during the ride, suspicion falls on her.  Local police inspector Simo Subotic already has his hands full investigating two bodies that have been washed up on the banks of the River Drina.  Something is telling him that the two cases are connected. Only together can Simo and Heather hope to uncover the truth in time.  Their search not only exposes the darkness of Ryan's past but exhumes dangerous secrets of the region still reeling from the trauma of war.  Are some secrets so devastating that they should remain buried? 

As I haven't read any books set in the Balkans I'm looking forward to learning more about this region. The other novels will also be of interest since there'll be new plots and settings in each of them. Some writers have used the time of the pandemic and their personal lockdowns to create imagined scenarios during a time of crisis.  This adds a contemporary and dramatic dimension to their work.

Thank you for coming by.  I hope the week ahead is a good one for you.