Stone fruit season

 Plums and damsons are ripening and I'm busy cooking and freezing the fruit. This year I'm not bothering to remove the stones before cooking, it is a laborious task and hard on the hands, the acidity of the fruit bites into my thumbs! 

Instead I'm cooking most of the fruit in the oven until the stones separate easily from the flesh. When put through a sieve I have a rough mash that can be used for jam or chutney or sweetened as a dessert.

An upside-down pudding is a good way to use plenty of plums.

Melt an oz of marg with 2oz sugar and spread onto the base of a non-stick pan. Cram in as many slices of plum as you can and then top with a Victoria sandwich cake mixture of 4oz each marg and sugar, creamed. Add two eggs and 4oz flour. Slacken with a little milk if the mixture is thick. Bake for about half an hour. Invert  the pan onto a plate and serve. Good hot or cold (with a dollop of cream!)

The weather continues to be mixed and we are making good use of the little conservatory/greenhouse between downpours.

But the steamer chair is ever ready outside for when the sun shines!

The high rainfall has resulted in a growth spurt in the garden. Whenever I put on my boots to do a bit of cutting back the rain returns. Everything is rampaging away unrestricted.

My gardening magazine subscription often includes free seed packets. I planted their freebie tomato seed and they sprouted into such spindly-looking things that I bunged them out in the garden. Well, spindly or not they are doing rather well! There should be enough summer left for them to colour up and ripen.

Squash are fattening.

Late summer colours are appearing and everything in the garden is lovely!