Scenes from the garden in early June

Today we were due to fly to Sywell Aerodrome for AeroExpo (an aviation exhibition thing that loads of people fly into), but disaster struck when we started the taxi to the runway and discovered that Wilhelm had a flat tyre. After a while trying to fix it, and having moved him from the highly inconvenient place at which we had stopped, right in the taxiway, we realised that there was to be no AeroExpo for us this year (what made it worse was that we had a friend waiting for us in the air over Gaydon, as we had been planning to fly there in formation!!). So we ended up going to M&S, buying a tonne of barbecue food and spending the afternoon in the garden watching other people flying over.

We’ve made a bit more of an effort with the garden this year, and with the flowers starting to come out, it’s looking lovely. So I thought I would share a few pics. We only have a tiny garden, but it’s surprisingly cosy and has the added bonus of being remarkably low-maintenance.

Here’s the barbecue in action. I built this with my own fair hands a couple of years ago and it has cooked many a summer meal for us since. It’s starting to show its age though, and rusting leg supports look set to consign it to the dustbin before too long.

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After gorging ourselves on the finest barbecue ingredients to be found in M&S, I stationed myself at the bottom of the garden, in the shade of my office (shed) for a couple of hours of reading Bill Bryson. I don’t get the time to read much these days, and I’m usually so stuffed with words after writing all day that I don’t always particularly feel like looking at even more words in my spare time. So this afternoon was lovely, watching the gliders thermalling above our house and taking the time to relax for a change. I’ve worked SO hard in May that I really needed that.

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This rose bush is my favourite plant in the garden. It’s absolutely covered in buds at the moment and the beautifully perfumed flowers are just starting to come out.

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The flamingo seems to share my enthusiasm for the rose bush – or perhaps the rose bush shares my enthusiasm for the flamingo. The flamingo is a tribute to my godmother Carole, who died several years ago and who also had flamingos in her garden. Also in this picture you can see the pond, which a number of newts call home.

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Lee rescued these violas from a shopping channel that was selling them. They were the demo ones and were going to go in the bin, but he heroically stepped in and has nurtured them from puny, half-dead things to the thriving beauties they are today.

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These are my attempts at growing food this year. The one farthest from the camera is a tomato plant, which, as you can see from the yellow flowers, is doing well. In the middle are onions. I have no idea how you tell when onions are ready to be picked. Nearest the camera is a strawberry plant, which quickly came out in white flowers that are now developing into strawberries.

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As you can see, they still have a way to go!

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These little shoots will be courgettes, and at the rate they’re growing, it won’t be long before they’re on my plate.

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Finally, I don’t know what this plant is – it looks a bit like elderflower, but it isn’t – but the bumblebees absolutely love it. They’ve been buzzing around happily on it all day, bless them.

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