Life goes on

I peel yet more tomatoes. I seem to have done a lot of peeling tomatoes lately. I’ve been trying out a few recipes from an Italian recipe book. The Italians clearly love tomatoes as much as I do. They seem to appear in so many recipes, as the basis of tomato ragu sauces. Today I’m having a go at a Potato Cake, which is essentially mashed potatoes with a homemade tomato sauce mixed in, to form a cake shape. We’re having some sausages & peas with it.

Yet more rain fell last night. There are puddles all around. The cracks in the soil are filling up. The rain has encouraged the lavender to start to turn purple. The peonies are opening up, rich dark red & soft pink. The last rhododendron is also opening, a deeper orangey red colour. The bluey purple geraniums are out. Everywhere colour is appearing.

In the front garden we seem to be swamped with yellow aliums. I think I will transfer some round to the back walled garden. Their brilliant stars will brighten up that rather shady bit of garden.

Now I’m eagerly awaiting the buddleias coming into bloom. We bought four last year – two small ones for the pots, one by the garage, one in the walled garden, and two larger ones for the far end of the garden. They were at the end of their flowering when we planted them so we’ve not really seen them yet in full bloom.

Yesterday a couple of goldfinches were back. We did buy some nyger seeds a while back, but they proved unpopular. Most of them went in the bin as they turned mouldy in the feeders. The last few seeds remain. We weren’t going to bother to buy any more. The goldfinches headed straight to them, so now I think we will have to buy some more seed. Clearly now they’ve found them, they may become regular visitors, & very welcome they would be too.