A Well Deserved Award

A most unusual shot of a happy family

I've just returned form a weeks holiday in the Lake District and probably could do with another one to recover! Jesting aside entertaining three teenagers is no mean feat, so we spent the time walking, playing cards and mini golf, on aerial assault courses and horse riding.
No wonder I felt weary after returning to Norton Conyers yesterday. However my spirits were soon lifted by the news that the Grahams have won the Historic Houses restoration award for 2014. After battling death watch beetle and numerous other major inconveniences the house is now ready to re-open next year. There was a very nice little piece on Look North yesterday evening which I only just managed to catch after the bus was late, but it should be available on BBC iplayer if you missed it.
The garden itself has transformed into its autumn colours whilst I was away and the temperature has dropped away enough for us to light our stove in the evenings, it makes me feel that summer has ebbed away far too quickly.
"Summer will end soon enough and childhood as well"
George R R Martin

August Bounty

August is a soporific month for gardeners, in some way it is the high point of the year as the summer planting peaks and then dips. All is quiet as nature holds her breath, before a hint of autumn acts as a catalyst for a new flush of short day plants striving for their moment in the limelight. Our time is now taken up with dead heading to keep the plants flowering, a lovely job on a warm day as the insects hum contentedly next to you. Unexpectedly we are also harvesting a lot of vegetables, the summer crops of fruit, tomatoes, peppers and beans are as normal, but we also have a fine crop of cauliflower and cabbage both red and white. In an attempt to keep the pigeons off we left them covered with fleece and the nice warm conditions have brought them on very early, also completely bug free. A real success but heaven knows what we shall have to eat in the winter. It's always a learning game this gardening lark!

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning"
Natalie Babbitt