Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Morning all, another scorching day ahead after a hot & sleepless night. I'm worn out before I start the day!

2P, hooray for your toms ripening, I think once they start the rest follow. Never tried San Mazano, mainly because I always thought it was more for cooking, sauces etc and I prefer raw fresh ones. However if I spot a cheap packet I may just try some next year & see how they go

I''m supposed to be out to a posh estate GC tomorrow, with cafe & Farm shop and small gauge train round the grounds. Bit early for clearance seeds but maybe lucky. The plants are usual stuff, nice but OMG. Same with farm shop. Unfortunately the tea is carp weak dishwater, ship & 'apporth of tar syndrome

My Sungold are at sunrise, not long now before real colour shows, and Divinity is at pale ripening. Both are in conservatory, none of my outdoors ones are showing much inclination to ripen yet, despite the weather.

Despite the heat I did get more blackberries picked yesterday, now in freezer. The wild prickly ones growing over my shed are excellent, but thorny critters

Here's pics, ripe are the wild, red are unripe thorn-less, Both tasty. I was trying to capture the shiny juiciness in them

Dustyevsky

You've shown us the blackberry juiciness extremely well, Farway. I'm now feeling guiltyabout neglecting our solitary Merton, down by the woodland. I might have watered it when keeping the newly-planted hornbeams alive, but thought "Oh, it's tough enough!" The berries probably will be too.😯 BUT… as Ana with the accent is always saying, I'm preparing a bed for 3 more up by the polytunnel, so next year they'll be supplying whatever the blackbirds don't find first. 😕

I'm hoping my cold peaked last night. Like you, I didn't get much unbroken sleep, so I'm having a morning indoors, scanning the horizon for those rain clouds. The drunks say Pembrokeshire can have them today, and maybe we'll get the dregs tomorrow. 😞 It's just dull and very warm currently.

Yesterday, with the prospect of the heatwave waning, I became enthusiastic and planted more courgettes, salad greens and mangy toots. Also, a few nasturtiums for salad extras inside the poly. Reading that my lone melon pear was unlikely to fruit this year, I exhumed it from its deep bed so I could get a few more chillies in. That's all the polytunnel space used up now.

wort, I should be terminating the rampant tops of the tomatoes, like you, but I'm not up to ladders today, and nor is Mrs Dusty, who still has vertigo. 🙃 She normally keeps the toms organised, and this year's chaos is down to me. 😢

The other night, when trying to get a picture of the Buck Moon, I turned around and spotted the Cardoons silhouetted against what was left of the sunset. They looked almost as spooky as the moon photo: