ABC Wednesday Round 7 C is for Cultivation

Thanks go to Denise Nesbitt and her Clever Crew who organise and host this weekly meme. To C more Cs please click here.

Courgette flower unfurling . . .

 . . . and opening to attract bees and hover flies and butterflies . . .

A developing courgette almost ready to pick

Cucumber flowers

The cucumber plant climbs heavenwards, twining its tendrils round supports

Is it a gherkin or a cucumber? This baby cucumber is not yet ready to be harvested.

One large courgette - almost a marrow! - and two small cucumbers.

Our courgette plants are bountiful and the courgettes grow very quickly. Left for just a day or two, young tender courgettes soon mature.So, at the moment, it's courgettes with everything - raw in salads, roasted, stir-fried, curried  . . . I could pickle some. I wonder if I could make courgette jam?? 

Macro Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday

Thank you to the organisers and hosts of these meme. To see more entries, please click here and here

Marigold in shade in the front garden

Nasturtium - the flowers and leaves add colour and interest to a salad. They're quite peppery, particularly the leaves.

Cucumber flower with visiting black beetles.

Some one came knocking ...

Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Some one came knocking,
I'm sure-sure-sure
Walter de la Mare
Today Barry was in the conservatory tending to cucumber plants when he heard a tapping.It seemed to be coming from the direction of the wood-burning stove. Flower on cucumber plant


It looks much better when alight!
This has a glass door and it's wonderful in the winter to see the wood glowing.To his great surprise he saw a blue tit behind the glass tapping to find a way out. This is the steel chimney leading up through the conservatory roof

View from outside showing the chimney leading out of the conservatory and up beyond the roof line

Showing the straight stretch to the cowl
It must have got in under the chimney cowl and had difficulty finding its way out again. As he watched it disappeared behind the baffle and we hope it managed to fly up the chimney and out into freedom.

Close-up of chimney cowl

This is not the one that got away!

We shan't be having any fires for a couple of months yet, otherwise we might have been 'treated' to the smell of roasting blue tit - poor little thing!