Stargazer4moon's blog: "It depends on what occurs on the way."

Well that is funny I have been in the garden pruning, dead heading, weeding, picking up dropped plums etc. I need to cut the grass as it is so long again after growing unabated for 24 days. The Borrage is in flower still and is amazing as it has not really reached its full pottential. The late planted Clematis are all in flower and flourishing, the plum tree is laden with ripened plums, we expected to come home to a bare tree because we had left the keys with a neighbour who had a partiality to plums. As summer was so late this year we picked a load of ripe ones in mid September but there were boodles left on to ripen. It seems the weather whilst we were away was dampish with a little sun so the remaining plums really have been left to slowly ripen to sweetness on the tree. I had some whilst I was out there tidying up and tying the Borage up and ther is nothing nicer than eating plums straight off the tree when they are ripe.
Tish, the lady who rekindled my garden bug, is on holiday still in Cyprus and no doubt she would appreciate some plums as would Jim next door, our 90 year old charming neighbour. He is very partial to plums and jumped at the chance when I offered him some earlier. There are loads of drops which I can give to his lady friend along the road, Lorna, as she is of the age when it is habbit to make jams, plus she is an excellent cook, she has to be 90 as well.
My geranium cutting which almost expired thanks to a slug in August is still alive and sprouting. I took the cutting in May and it flourished to flower with two flower heads, then new leaves appeared at which point a slug attacked it so the pot is filled with slug bait now. It has caught two so far and I did not think anything ate geraniums. One of the flower heads appeared to have leaves sprouting from where the actual flowers were so I did not snap it of as you usually would with a dead geranium head and that now has a flourishing bunch of leaves growing from it with two flower buds opening, so in effect the stem of the flower head has become a branch, if you see what I mean. A cutting from an ancient fucshia which came with the house when the previous owners left 24 years ago has fowered for the first time since I took the cuttings seven or so years ago. The poor thing needs potting on as there are five cuttings growing together in one pot and they appear to have a very good root system, so that is another job to do before winter sets in.
Hector is back home now and sleeping in the lounge with the Man with the Limp as he eats his lunch and watches telly.
The skies are leaden and I have been rained on three times, there is some blue sky as the sun is shining but it is that glow that you get when there is a layer of pinky brown clouds around, just like the cloud that we flew over on Wedneseay from Hungary right the way up to Germany when we saw some twinkling lights on the ground. When we landed in Birmingham it was the mildest I have ever felt there, normally temperatures from a return holiday would be in the 40's but it was 65 and very pleasant but for some drizzle.
I went out into the garden to have a look around and was pleasantly surprised to find that everything was flourishing still when it should really have started to die back for Autumn. Peter, who looks afte the house and houseplants said that the weather was just right for the plants to have a second flourish whilst we were away. I am pleased to find the clematis flowers still there as they were just coming in opening buds when we left mid September. I am actually glad they survived because they had such a poor and late start.
There was some Papaya seedlings in the back garden just before we went away but I think the slugs have eaten them as with the conditions of warmth & wet they should be five inches high by now but there is nothing to be seen. My fault for not putting slug bait down I suppose. Still, it is likely that we will end up having another very cold winter when it does arrive so maybe that is as well. It is amazingly warm outside 68 degrees and the leaves have not really left the trees yet so the woods across the firlds are lush and green still. The only problem with that is if we get any more rain, we must have had four inches in two days, as it will make the trees top heavy just right for toppling them if we get some freak winds. Ah, I must get some more washing in the machine as I cannot get on the garden to do the lawn today and then get a power nap as body clocks are strange things when you don't get much sleep at night. +++