Garden Diary – Hurray, I can’t smell the cucumber cake!

Well, thank goodness for the gorgeous weather last week. Not much gardening got done but there was plenty of sitting around relaxing, which is frankly unheard of in this house.

Unfortunately I found myself with a dose of Covid which started the previous weekend, but fortunately the worst of it passed relatively quickly, just leaving me lethargic. Lethargic enough to sit around!

Normally when I sit with a coffee in the garden, I’ve hardly finished it before I’ve jumped up to do some job or another, intending to sit back down, but of course I never do. One job just leads on to another…

I’d much rather be fit and busy, but it was quite nice for a change to lie there with the September sun on me, admiring the intense blue sky. I also got to watch the wildlife going about its business.

By the Friday I harvested some chillies and sat with a needle and cotton threading them up to dry. A nice easy job.

On the Saturday the gardeners mate harvested three more of his cucumbers. Despite growing them for him, I don’t like them and really can’t stand the smell of them. Unfortunately (for me) homegrown cucumbers have an amazing amount of scent, and I’m normally moaning whilst he’s chopping them.

We’ve got so many ripening at the moment that we decided to made cucumber cake together. It’s a recipe we refined a few years ago when we had a glut.
I discovered that there was an advantage of having Covid, I couldn’t smell all that grated cucumber. There’s always a silver lining!

Friday 26th September 2025

Happy #flowersonfriday

We’ve had the most beautiful sunny week, unfortunately I’ve been sharing my week with COVID!

Feeling brighter today thank goodness, & the Nerine bulbs are flowering 🌿💕🙂💙☀️

#pinkfriday #pinkflowers

Chilli selection 2025

The black one is some sort of hybrid created by the bees 🐝 later turning red.

Naga yellow blaze – yellow

Naga Smooky Rainbow – short purple

Habanero – orange

Buena Mulata – long purple

Biquinho Red – little red droplets

#chillies #chilli

Saturday 27th September 2025

A hover-fly getting very excited, trying to make a new friend🌿🍎🐝🐞🍏 & the ladybird saying, 🎶 “that don’t impress me much” 😁

#wildlifephotography #wildlife #insects

Sunday 28th September 2025

I grew Rudbeckia goldsturm from seed 12 years ago, I’ve since split it & spread around the garden.

An easy reliable perennial about 2’ tall 🌿💛🌼💛🌿

Fabulous blue sky here this morning 😊

#SundayYellow #YellowFlowers

A week of cucumber & chilli harvesting, magnificent blue skies & warm days, ladybirds at every turn & covid allowing me to actually ‘sit’ in the garden enjoying it 🌿🐞💙🥒💕🧡🌶️

#SevenOnSunday #sitting #mygarden