Hanging on by its fingertips!

Summer that is. Every time I think I should turn on the heating and get settled in for Autumn the sun reappears. Once again this weekend after a couple of miserable wet day, the sun has got his hat on and it looks like our TR club run in Freda tomorrow will be blessed with a nice dry day. 

And that brings me to my flowers. I thought by now I would be buying them at the supermarket or elsewhere, but each time I need a new vase full I manage to find enough to fill it. There are still loads looking beautiful.

And my Helianthus Giganteus are only just flowering

Elsewhere in the garden, the tomatoes just keep coming, 

so it was time to try some in my new dehydrator. I wasnt quite sure how to prepare them and was thinking about looking it up online. Wandering past my bookcase, I stopped to pick up one of the dogs toys and looked at the books. I noticed a book on the shelf, I had no memory of buying, so it must have been a gift, but sorry cant remember who from, anyway , who knew,I have a book about preserving veg !!

And luckily there was a section on preserving and drying tomatoes, so out came the dehydrator again

A quick wash and dry and then cut in half and a bit of salt sprinkled on each piece and that was it. It did say though it may take up to 24 hours to dry them. 

As it was going to be running, I decided to try drying some of my herbs to see how they came out. So I picked Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

The smell was amazing. The herbs took a few hours. As this was only an experiment, I only dried small amounts and didnt have any jars to store them in. But once dry, the concentrated smell of each herb was wonderful. I am going to have to buy some jars and do loads. 

A great many hours later, the tomatoes were also begining to look ready. I had decided to try and store them like the sundried tomatoes you buy in the shops, so I sterilised a kilner jar and added some of my dried thyme.

Then as the tomatoes were dry enough, 

they were added to the jar

And then covered with a nice olive oil

I have tried one and they are very tasty. 

Outside, I have continued to tidy up the patch . The sweet pea tower was the next to be  cleared. 

And then whilst rummaging around in the flowers patch I noticed this. Its is one of the Bells of Ireland. I think it looks beautiful even though it is now dead.

The Nigella seed pods are also very exotic looking, like they have come off the set of a Sci Fi Movie

This afternoons job is to try and tidy up the greenhouse a bit, it has got very messy lately

Finally  in the veg patch, after a couple of nervous nights for me, when the wind was howling, I am pleased to report that the Courgette/Veg Spaghetti/Pumpkin towers are still standing and the three huge pumpkins look pretty much ready. I may cut them this week .

Gibson, makes his last attempt of the summer to win a class in a dog show today. Its very local today, just around the corner. He says if he doesn't win this time, he is going to retire from the whole summer dog show scene.. 

Well thats all today, so I shall finish with two last beauties a rainbow over the house the other day

And Freda getting herself ready for our run tomorrow

Have a great week