Berries! Lots of Berries!

Blackberries, Elderberries and Cotoneaster Berries, too

It seems early to me to have these massive harvests of berries about the place, but here they are already.

And the cotoneaster bushes are absolutely weighed down with berries. They’re pulling all the branches down, they’re so heavy.

They’ll be gratefully consumed by some creatures, if not human ones.

Of course, the gardens in the neighbourhood are also loaded down with flowers of all kinds. Above are some black-eyed Susans, lilac and hydrangeas.

I particularly liked the hydrangeas because of all the different colours on the one shrub.

Not all is pretty in the neighbourhood, though. Fly tippers have reached the city centre. They’ve been a scourge of the countryside for a while, but now they’re taking liberties everywhere. Including on a pavement just around the corner from me near our little theatre.

These saucepan lids are this week’s garden-wall-find. I felt obliged to take a picture of them because when I have a problem with not having both parts of a saucepan, it is always the lid that’s missing, never the pan.

This person has somehow mislaid the pans and not the lids. I shall be forever puzzled. And impressed.

I must try harder in the future to lose both the pan and the lid, and then I won’t have a problem.

Actually, there was another garden-wall-find that PupperJack was particularly interested in — a hamster cage.

Awww — he turned his little furry face to me and pleaded for a hamster. But I remained hard-hearted. No hamster for PupperJack.

I know what he’s up to!

Then we ambled on around a corner and were greeted with all this exoticism — banana trees! And glorious lilies. Wonderful.

Update on my new webstore — above screenshot — which has been taking such a long time to get going that it’s not really new anymore. It’s more like my old new webstore, but not yet open.

So many hold-ups!

Above left — What do you think, PupperJack? What do you reckon to Susan’s continuing attempts to get her webstore running properly?

PupperJack tried to get away but when cornered, merely looked dubious.

Above right — No, really , though — what do you reckon, PupperJack?

PupperJack — Oh, all right — if you insist — it’s all rarrr! Rarrrr … Rarrr … Rarrr …

August reminded me of one of my favourite summer poems by John Clare (1793–1864)

I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lilies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o’er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play

But I’ve spent most of August Working Like a Dog — which has a National Day of its own — on 5th August.

Obviously, not working like a PupperJack-dog but, you know, he’s working like a dog who’s worried his kibble might run out by snoopervising me to work like a dog. On this blimmin’ store …

Dennett started the Photo-a-Day Challenge to help combat the pandemic blues. Since then many others kindly share their week with us:

Erika Burkhalter, Anne Bonfert, Tracy Aston, Lisa Bolin, Juan O. Aguilera, David Wade Chambers, June Nguyen, Mia Verita, LensAfield, Barbara Radisavljevic, Diana Lotti, Barb Dalton, Kim Zuch, K. Barrett, Penny Grubb, Ellie Jacobson, Shruthi Sundaram, Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Ann James, Louise Peacock, Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms)

(If your name should, or should not, be on this list, please let me know.)

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Read more from me: © Susan Alison 2023