Country living

There is still some warmth left in the sun but it is gentle, with a lazy, end of season feel to everything in the garden.

There are delicious wafts of perfume from the various varieties of phlox,

and old-fashioned perennials in bloom that remind me of my childhood home.

Not for nothing is the buddleja sometimes known as the butterfly bush!

The red cherry tomatoes are cropping well,

it's tomatoes with every meal!

And I can do a bit of serious bragging about this year's cucumber crop. I should have entered them in Shepton Show!

But to add a realistic note to this rural idyll I'll tell you that not everything in the garden comes up smelling of roses, or of phlox! Our small hamlet has none of the facilities that people in most larger communities take for granted; there is no street lighting and no mains drainage. Every few years  the septic tank in the orchard needs emptying and that was one of the tasks for this week.

It's probably more information than you feel you need.

If so, my apologies!