Subtle signs of a preoccupation with growing things everywhere:
The Marché aux Fleurs. How convenient for city gardeners to go on contemplative forages during their work-a-day breaks ... an experience far removed from the London hordes descending on Columbia Rd of a Sunday morning.
Green festivals galore.
Parterre de Latone
Bassin d'Apollon
Le Grand Trianon
Potager behind the Boudoir, Hameau de la Reine (natch!)
Marché Bastille
We couldn't get enough of this sun-ripened goodness:
Pique-nique à Paris Plage.
Pique-nique au Le Jardin des Plantes.
An upside-down-tree on the South Bank, what, what?
We took a little breather in the South Bank Centre's rooftop garden. Bliss, this is something worth shouting about.
The plot is wild, wet and woolly. It'll be weeding and more weeding for us next weekend if we don't want everything to go to the gastropods.
Ours wouldn't win a bake off but this chocolate brownie meringue cake with raspberry cream* proved an effective way to spread the joy of homegrown raspberries.
*After the taste test, we decided we'd cut down on the total volume of sugar used when making this next.
We met this proud mum and her darling brood on our way to the Kew Garden lily pond.
The lily pond is idyllic and the canny coots have called dibs on this prime location.
The giant lily in the lily house is as flamboyant as the sensitive mimosa is bashful.
The entrance and gangways of the lily house are strung with resplendent melons, chilies and aubergines and it is at this point that we had to concede to ourselves...
greenhouse envy, we has it!
And, the proud peacock knows it too. So we used it as an excuse to cheer ourselves up with homemade gelati from the fantasy icecream parlour. Yum.
We made our first ever batch of homegrown strawberry jam this evening.
♥ sweet heaven ♥
Why yes those raspberries have been collected in an unused slug trap! Hmmm we really must sort ourselves out some sort of trug for ye freshly gathered victuals.
AAaaarrghhh slugs! We're struggling to produce enough beanlings to garland the bean poles.
In this time of great sogginess and damp, we've taken to growing our own sunshine.
We finally picked enough peas to make our favourite Marcella Hazan recipe, risi e bisi. Comfort in a bowl.
The pea bed, sans la princesse.
The cauliflower patch.
No prospect of a courgette glut this year, the plants aren't thriving. We'll shelve that courgettte cake recipe for now then, bleugh.
Our dismal, rootbound tomatoes. What a disappointment after all that cosseting - we weren't able to plant them out in time for them to thrive. We'll have to try again next year. C'est la vie.
♥ Baby Bramleys ♥ Dreaming of apple pie.
