Home James and don't spare the horses

So, after our brief sojourn in Rhodes the Jimbster and I are home. The mother lode of washing is drying on the line and snorkels and flippers litter the Shandon palace like breadcrumbs. I have come home to a pile of gardening magazines and I have already caught up on the episodes of Gardeners World that I missed.

Garden wise I have done some deadheading and a brief survey. The lavender is in full flow and the house smells amazing. A great welcome home.

Fight To The Death: Mint Vs Mint Beetle

Mint is a survivor, a coloniser and an evangelist. He believes all should march to his intoxicating tune and sends his disciples out in waves to conquer the world. Mint is useful but always in glut. He must be confined; like an American fundamentalist and will drive out opposing views while drowning the world in his children. He would flourish unrestrained, but in reality Mint benefits from harsh treatment to bring soft new growth.Left to his own devices, Mint grows tall and woody with leaves tough as dragon's scales.

Mint had no enemy but man, until the arrival of Mint Beetle. The Green Mint Beetle is native to our isles and mainly eats Mint's wild cousins who live on the outskirts - verges, rivers, scrub land. But over the last couple of years gardeners have been noticing the arrival of the Blue Mint Beetle who prefers our more cultivated friend.

Both beetles are beautiful and iridescent; vivid with colours not out of place on a peacock feather. They are not even as crawly and ugly as many of the enormous beetle family. Beauty is always a matter of perception and mine may of course change if they eat my herbs to the ground. 

So, Mint vs Mint Beetle. Who will conquer?

In the glass I see a girl who likes macaroons

       After the lovely weather yesterday, we have been treated to a far more normal day of variations on rain. I walked to the gym in the early afternoon as there was no bus coming and was drenched to the skin in a fairly definitive manner. As I was in some kind of sporty man-made fibre this didn't matter especially, but my back-pack's contents did become damp and a little fusty which was a nice post-shower surprise. I'd had a vague plan to pick up a coffee afterwards and walk around the old town to make a few trips to some of the vintage and independent shops, but frankly that would have been miserable.

       So I parked myself in Looking Glass Books, which for the uninitiated, is a bookshop and cafe that has opened in the Quartermile area. Really it is a place of heaven, with shiny black and white floors, velvet sofas and beautiful books everywhere. While ordering a cappuccino I saw a plate of macaroons on the counter and ordered a pistachio one. The waitress told me it was lovely and she was not wrong, in fact I ordered another to take with me when I left which was gobbled in a horrifically greedy and hopefully unobserved manner.

       It's nice to see new places opening up around the city and I hope Looking Glass does well. I've been a couple of times as I am often in the area and it has coaxed me away from the delights of Peter's Yard on occasion. When I think back a couple of years, it's amazing how many well-designed and interesting cafes have opened up and we are no longer confined to visiting chain coffee shops with dry muffins in plastic packaging and watery coffees that disguise their lack of taste by the huge mug they are served in.

Hazy August Morning

The poppies are fading and bending and twining across the bed and I'm hoping the plants beneath them will soon pick up the baton. The yellow rose has bloomed again too.

The lavender looks particularly beautiful through the hazy sunshine.

The Astilbe has come into bloom at just the right time and I'm rather taken with it.

Now that it's August, let's bring out the big guns! The buddleia has leaped into bloom and the purple velvet spires are very vivid.

And the demure white rose has a lovely bloom again.