MORE THAN YOU THINK

Have been out tidying - pruning roses, shearing lavender and santolina, clearing a`way the old lovage stems (good for peashooters if dried).
Then picked a few plums - it is that moment when the juice runs down you chin - ah! Another courgette.

R has been heaving out bindweed and hacking down hogweed - well I think she has also been cutting down the wild angelica but never mind.

We talk of grass and plants, of birds and animals and so on but there are other interesting things growing in a garden like this lichen. The patterns are fascinating and each can take hundreds of years to grow.

Another is the moss on the dry stone wall at the far end beyond the veg beds.

and down by the pond (yet to go)(well be replaced) are liverworts - a mix of a bit of this and that.

There are strange fungi like this gelatinous one in the gravel and the orange peel fungus (you can see where it gets its name) in moss on a dead branch.

 Of course fungi can grow in the most unusual places -

Autumn is the season of fungi and though it is only August the trees are turning and the weather is cold. My sister says she has had the heating on for the last two weeks.
This is supposed to mean that growth slows but tell that to the grass on the lawn.

Another flourishing item in the garden is watercress - so ~I accept the challenge and here is a poem about it.

WATERCRESS

When he walks in

you can sense the bitterness,

his feet anchored to the past.

He floats across the room,

swims through the undercurrent,

waves with the flow.

He was carefully selected

for his rather metallic taste, 

hard and sharp-edged.

The chef had him

checked for parasites

but he was clean.

He put his keenness to good use

in the soup kitchen.

Now he has risen to the top, 

his name first on most menus.

Yeh, yeh, I know, what a load of . . . . 

Finally, you know I mentioned that I was a small white ball basher - well here is the result!

Actually, having won this I have to pay for a year's insurance and have my name engraved on it, R tolerates its presence on the bookcase in the hall (just) and so - was it worth it?

Pond men here with Gary Primrose and digger - here we go!