Awful neologism: ‘repurposing’

 

I finally gave up on the San Marzano tomatoes.  Our total useable crop amounted to one tomato.  The main benefit of growing the twenty-ish plants was the exercise in watering them and digging them up.  Martyn has hauled out the remains of the runner beans, and the bean poles are out and stored.  The raised beds are now host to some rooted cuttings, so their role is now as nursery beds. 

We’ve kept the best of the sage plants, surrounding it with potentilla, cistus, aquilegia and a solitary lavender.  The other raised bed is gradually filling up with little rosemary plants.  I’ve no doubt we’ll spend the next few months hoeing out seedlings of spinach, rocket, etc, as well as the ever-present oxalis and oak seedlings. The little greenhouse is pretty full again: the space gained by planting out cuttings and seedlings has been taken up with polyanthus and winter pansies, a few of which are already flowering.  We’ll shortly have vacancies in the hanging baskets and tubs, and the space in the greenhouse will be ready for geranium cuttings next spring after the frosts: we’ll start them in the conservatory.

Well, them’s the plans at least…

Autumn

 

The rudbeckia that arrived labelled ‘aubergine’ continues to give us pleasure, year after year.  The dwarf variety, Toto, we bought as plug plants have done very well, but seem to have a shorter flowering season than than the Rustic mix of previous years.  On the other hand they are much more compact, which suits our needs better: they don’t get leggy or require staking.

We have bought pansy and polyanthus plug plants from the same supplier, and they are potted up to grow on a bit before we plant them out.  The mini greenhouse is chock full: the rooted rosemary cuttings now total over forty, so if they make it through the winter, we’ll have the makings of a little hedge.

Cyclamens are flowering now, and we’re enjoying the fleeting lemon-yellow blooms on the autumn crocus Sternbergia.  From my armchair by the French windows I look out to an old butler sink: after a superb show of aquilegias in the spring and early summer, we now have lots of flowers on some fuchsias that over-wintered.  Also from that angle, I see the last of the fruit on the Sweet Olive tomatoes that have been feeding us for weeks now.  San Marzano tomatoes have been a real disappointment.  The ones in pots succumbed to blossom-end rot, no doubt because of under-watering.  The two cuttings I planted in the raised bed have brought some fruit to ripeness, but someone else eats them in the night.  Lesson learned.

Quite a funeral - and another in the offing

Michael, our brother-in-law, had many connexions to Rochester Cathedral, so we weren’t surprised at his wish for his funeral to be conducted there.  He and Martyn’s sister Sandra met through their musical involvement with the cathedral, and they were married there, 53 years ago.  Michael was for some time chairman of the Friends of the cathedral, and he and Sandra both volunteered as meeters and greeters for visitors.  Well, the funeral was comparable to many a state do: two anthems and a psalm sung by the cathedral choir, three hymns, a sermon, a eulogy bravely and flawlessly delivered by Sandra, and several tributes from friends and brother  masons, as well as the usual prayers and liturgical devices.  The congregation pretty much filled the choir: well over 200, we think.  The committal was up the road at the Crem, and by comparison was mercifully brief.

Some days before that, our lovely neighbour Rowena died peacefully, mere hours after going into the nearby hospice.  She had undergone much surgery and treatment after developing breast cancer in her late twenties, but the latest lot of treatment just made her feel awful, and did no good.  When she died she had just had her 39th birthday.  We last saw her when we witnessed her will a couple of weeks ago: she was very weak and jaundiced, so one has to be grateful that she is no longer suffering.

The late heatwave has abated, thank goodness.  We have had some pretty lively downpours, and I gather that there was thunder and lightning last night.  Didn’t wake me.  Out in the garden, most of the tomatoes are finished.  We’ll get a few more to pick - and possibly even a few San Marzanos.  The mini-greenhouse is chock full of cuttings, seedlings and bought plug plants, so I’d better restrain my propagating ambitions.

It’s that expensive time of year when the car needs re-insuring, plus a service and MoT.  The renewal quote came in with an increase of over 60%, so I’ve moved to another company.  Still a good bit more than last year, but even without a voluntary excess, it’s a lot cheaper than the quote from my current insurers.  Given the lousy service we had from the same insurer when the hot water cylinder leaked, we’ll be looking to insure the house and contents somewhere else as well.