This hot weather is definitely not fun, I like a good sunny day, but when you open the door and the hot air hits you like opening an oven door, it starts to be a nuisance. I remember being at school and hating the classrooms, which always had the heating on in the hottest days before the school holidays, and the tight, restricting uniforms. Thankfully this house is kept pretty cool and no part of the house is too warm as to be unbearable. And like the title portrays, I've been a busy-bee. A couple of days ago I tried to get out into the garden, and failed miserably, I managed maybe half an hour, but hoeing in 30ºC heat is not for me, however much I covered up - our neighbours think I'm half-Bedouin - so I gave that up for the day.

Baking has also been on the agenda, another insane pasttime when it's so hot outside, having the oven on isn't maybe the smartest thing, but when I have an urge to bake, boy do I bake! Cranberry, white chocolate and banana muffins followed by spinach, tomato and mustard quiches (which are absolutely gorgeous), sausage casseroles, and many other yummy things. The good side to a mass-bake is that I don't have to cook anything on a set day - I can pull something homemade and gorgeous from the freezer, make a salad and it's done. Forward planning!



The rest of these long, Indian-summer days has been spent putting the house to rights. With the advent of the wedding looming, furniture was moved into unlikely places, space was made to accommodate the influx of guests, and there was little time to do much before we left for honeymoon. So when we got back, the house was as we'd left it - a tip. The police officer, who came to see us after reporting the car break-in had to wade over boxes, with profuse apologies from me saying that, no, this isn't how it always looks! He grinned and said nothing.

I've been working room by room through the house, trying to make order of chaos, having a re-arrange of furniture (something I find very relaxing), and trying to avoid flaking out in the heat completely. My one solace has been the garden in the evening. As the day wears on the temperature dips, and by 5-ish I can sit outside and smile as I see the wonderful runner beans do what they do best, creating little curled beanlets, which grow and unfurl into spectacular stringless specimens. The lavender bushes have been amazing this year, the three in the back garden were kept for two years in their pots (due to us not having a garden to put them in when we bought them) and became root-bound. But with some love and attention they've given us hundreds of spikes of lavender flowers, ready to be dried, so I can smell summer all through the cold winter months that are to come. The three in the front garden were bought this year and are full of lavender heads.

The wildflowers are still flowering, more are opening every day, especially the poppies and calendula. One of our roses, William Morris (Auswill) which was only planted in May this year has got a profusion of buds on it already with one which is just opening!

I had to post pictures of our alliums. I didn't think they'd come to anything at all, they were so slow to produce a flower that I was tempted to pull them up and be done with it! How wrong I would've been! Patience, as they say, is a virtue (lest I forget) and I'm so glad I waited!



Not usually a fan of lilies, I was skeptical when I saw these on offer, merely £1.50 for a pot of three healthy specimens. Despite not having them near the house (white lilies = death), I planted them in the semi-circular bed and forgot about them, then one day I noticed something pretty and it was a lily! They've all flowered, with around 5 flowers a plant, and in such splendor!



Tomatoes will always be grown here as long as there is a breath in my body. They are summer to me, and the smell when I brush past them is just as good as their huge bounties of lush, organic, flavourful fruit.



We're growing no less than 5 different varieties, and whilst I've lost some of the name tags to tell you which ones they are, I can tell you that there is one called 'Tumbling tom', a yellow tumbling variety, a red tumbling variety, Alicanté, a red plum tomato and another red one, I think.



The Jerusalem artichokes* (Helianthus tuberosus) are now one of my most interesting vegetables, and have piqued further research. I've eaten them before, and to my recollection, I really enjoyed them, not wholly dissimilar to potatoes/water chestnuts, they are another source of good-carbohydrates. They grow quicker than potatoes, very quickly in fact, produce one tuber which can be quite large (I checked the tubers of ours when I potted them up in April/May, one was already the size of my fist!), and are a really good sustainable crop. According to my complete self-sufficiency guide, they are great fodder for animals, smother any weeds and don't contain very many calories. They're ticking all the boxes for me! We are giving these a go, and hoping that they'll be a great catch-crop for future years - the only problem being that we cannot find anywhere that sells the seeds/tubers at all! If you know of anyone/anywhere that does, please let me know!



*The Jerusalem Artichokes are the tall sunflower-lookin' things below the hanging basket!