I did think about having strings of onions as my main photograph. Onions are fairly topical for me at the moment, they’ve been drying nicely, firstly laid out on the soil after pulling, then in the little grow-house and are now ready for stringing up with raffia. But as last months theme was a bit vegetablish….

Flowers. I do love my garden and at the moment it’s crammed full of flowers past and present. Past as in seed heads such as poppies (above), Love-in-the mist, Alliums and Chives. Present as in Verbena bonariensis, Sweet peas, and Echinacea - so much going on and especially busy with butterflies this year. Cabbage Whites in abundance (Not so good for the brassica growers!), Painted Lady, Tortoiseshell and those pretty little speckled brown ones that flit around from flower to flower looking very busy.

I often get asked how do I have time to tend to my own garden? Am I like the cobbler with his bare foot children? I’ll bet those children were never without shoes and as for my garden, well,  there’s so much going on that there’s no room for any weeds. Plus it’s amazing how much can be done with the odd ten minutes here and ten minutes there, a pair of secateurs, stout back and,doubtless like the cobbler, a fair bit of pride.

On a different tack… I was delighted to meet fellow Twitterers Phil and Ott this week at their fantastic shop ‘Abundant’ www.austinbryan.co.uk. Even more delighted that they are now stocking my photographic cards and wooden plant tags.

Coming across genuine people is like stumbling upon a rare Orchid on the Russian Tundra.