Update

We've had prolonged and torrential downpours this week.

Not quite what is hoped for in June, but it does mean there has been no need to do any watering!

As a result, the garden and lottie are looking lush.

Pink Marguerite Daisy ....

...and a beautiful rose, a little battered from the storms but still looking good.

On the allotment, we have self seeded Sweet Williams; they have sprung up mainly in the gravel paths between the raised beds. 

I love the pretty sugar candy colours and they make a great cut flower, lasting for ages in a little pot or vase on the table.

And it's that magical time when the first home-grown strawberries start to ripen.
Just a mere handful when I went down to the allotment yesterday, but hopefully a lot more to come.

There may not have been any need to do watering, but there are always plenty of other gardening tasks to be done.
I did not realise until I started growing raspberries a couple of years ago that they are very rampant. Despite being cut down to ground level earlier this year, the Autumn Bliss canes were fast turning into a thicket that even Sleeping Beauty's prince would have found daunting.
So armed with secateurs, I set to,cutting out the thinner, weaker canes.
Eventually, the thicket was tamed, but at the expense of my arms which are covered in scratches!
I'm hoping ,come the late summer, there will be a bumper crop.

The raspberries in the photo above are bought ones. I used them in a recipe from Jamie Oliver's book Everyday Super Food called Pretty Fruit Pots. The recipe uses highly fashionable, chia seeds which are purported to have many health benefits. The seeds absorb many times their own weight in liquid and mixed with coconut milk, banana and vanilla essence (as in this recipe), they thicken up and produce a spoonable mixture which can be topped with fruit of your choice.

I have also been experimenting with flavoured water in an attempt to drink more. Water is good for us and I have always been notoriously bad at drinking enough liquid.

I was attracted to this idea from the same book as it used grated fresh ginger and anything with ginger has to be good!

With lime and pomegranate seeds, it made a refreshing change, but I think next time I will up the quantity of ginger and omit the expensive pomegranate which didn't really add much to the overall flavour.

A jug of this would be nice to keep in the fridge though, for hot days, when we eventually get some better weather!

Wishing you a good week ahead, come rain or shine.

annjenny x