Friday 1st to Sunday 10th October

Back in April I planted some tomato seeds.

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I kept them in my dining room, regularly watered them and was so pleased when they started to grow, I had loads of tiny little seedlings. Eventually I planted them out a few at a time. Many didn’t make it ☹️ but thankfully 3 survived. And they just kept on growing! as I lovingly watered them and spoke to them all through the Summer.

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I was very patient – and eventually they started to give me such lovely tomatoes. But some of them just wouldn’t seem to ripen ☹️

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A friend told me to put some in a paper bag with an already ripe tomato and leave in a drawer for a few days – it worked!

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Then along came the warm September and October sunshine which seemed to give them a real boost, I now have loads of tomatoes and their now ripening nicely outside on the vine – in October!

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I’m so proud of my perfect tomatoes 😀

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Saturday 25th to Thursday 30th September

Birdland Park & Gardens.

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Have you ever seen a headless penguin before?!

Have you ever heard flamingoes make any noise before?!

And talking of flamingoes …

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Look at this giant flamingo sculpture, which is due to be completed at Tampa International Airport in America in the Spring of 2022, based on an actual underwater picture of a foraging flamingo 🦩

And on a bit of a smaller scale, here’s just two of my favourite sculptures which were to be found at Blenheim Autumn Festival.

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This is Robyn’s Facebook status in 2016 …

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and exactly 5 years later we have the same problem, just in a different house!

How weird is that 🤯

My brother made me get up onto the flat roof 😱 to help him while he was replacing the tiles on the main roof, it was cold and windy up there. At least I had an opportunity to get an aerial look at all of my lovely tomatoes! 🤪

Saturday 11th to Friday 24th September

Bridewell Gardens – Bridewell is a mental health recovery service. They provide social and therapeutic horticulture in a working garden to adults living in Oxfordshire. Their goal is to help people into jobs or voluntary roles out in the wider community.

Here’s a couple of pics from Bridewell Gardens’ latest Open Day.

The Hot Border – the curved wall behind the hot border is thought to be shaped this way to give sunlight all through the day, a perfect spot for plants which need the sun.

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This bed is replanted several times through the year to give a seasonal display of colour, and provides many hours of work sowing seeds, preparing plants to plant out and of course weeding.

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The bees seemed to love the flowers in the Hot Border 🐝🐝

And from a visit to Daylesford Harvest Festival –

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Sheep shearing, fascinating isn’t it?

A professional shearer can shear up to 200 sheep a day. And yes sheep can get cold after they have been sheared! as they are left with only about 3mm of their fur 😱 That must be a real shock to them!

Warm and sunny weather again, which led to great excitement! Finally one of my tomatoes were starting to turn red 😀

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To mark Organ Donation Week (which began on 20th September) St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall was bathed in purple light to help raise awareness.

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Love this 😍

Here I am (a bit windswept!) paddling my feet in front of St. Michael’s Mount when on holiday in August this year.

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If you haven’t already, please discuss your organ donation decision with your families – “Leave them Certain”. It makes it so much easier if the situation ever arises, for everyone to make the right choices during an already difficult time.