Spiders like my Rosemary

Picture says it all, really

A few apples

Just three apples  from my Ashmead's Kernel  tree this year. Had over 100 good ones last season which is  possibly the reason. It's tired out poor thing although the scientists call it "biennial bearing" and further damn the variety as "erratic".

I think it's building itself up for next year, it's got about twice the normal number of leaves (see pic) so it should have made a whole lot of sugar.  It'll need a good cold winter though to make sure of a good crop. The cold tells the tree that it's really had a winter and now it's spring and kicks off the springy things like blossom. If trees had evolved wearing digital watches, it would have been simpler and, err, more digital. If you see an apple tree that does have a watch strapped to the trunk, let me know….

More about the Ashmead's Kernal

Local Hypericum

This is a bush we have in most of the gardens along my street. One of the less civilised Hypericums (aka St John's Wort), it's scruffy and self seeds fairly easily. No one has grubbed it out and replaced it with an "official" plant from a Garden Centre and if I ever upgrade this blog to scratch'n'sniff you'll understand why.
When it's sunny, the whole plant (not just the flowers) has a gorgeous and powerful scent. Think warm treacle, tobacco and rubber.

You'll sometimes see me leaning over garden walls and sniffing furtively at other people's tidy Hypericums. I'm just checking they haven't caught up with our variety :-)