Wednesday...

One of the best things about Autumn, apart from the amazing colours, is the change of light...

I usually take my blog pictures in the morning as it feels so immediate, but yesterday afternoon was a perfect example of the Autumn light I love...

...the Virginia Creeper being the best background of the moment...

( I picked one of the Sedums a couple of weeks ago, so that I can root it in this jam jar and spread them around the garden next year...)

...and this will be my Christmas tree this year

Amazingly the dahlia is still going...it's had 4 flowers compared to last year's one...

...although the spider's webs are kind of preventing me from getting too close!

I'm starting to harvest some nasturtium seeds too, although the more flowers I pick, the longer they flower...

The Montbretia seeds are also bursting open...

...and although the creeper is magnificent, there will be loads of tidying and bonfires over the next few weeks!

Friday...

A complete madness of nasturtiums this morning!

It’s so true that the more you pick the more they flower...

my son and I were both arranging this morning...I was very impressed by his Temple of Heaven...

...and as he sees me playing with flowers every morning I never expect or receive any compliments, but this morning he looked over and said " ooh, I like that Mum! "

I was so surprised...and consequently have left all these little arrangements amongst the Temple of Heaven today!

Tuesday...

The shasta daisies have finally opened as has the montbretia ( or Crocosmia )!

The daisies are pretty hardy and will hopefully now flower throughout the summer; I have to pull up a lot of them as they spread like mad, but I am really happy about the montbretia, because some years only a few appear.

I think because we had a lot of rain earlier on in the year, followed by some beautiful weather recently, they’ve been a lot happier, and they always remind me of The Lake District too, where I spent a lot of my childhood...

The tin of Lakeland Pencils ( Cumberland pencils were very famous in their time ) is also a sentimental reminder of the Lakes as they belonged to my Grandparents who lived up there...( and which have now become one of my most useful props for the table! )

Although the garden is blooming, there are also lots of plants experiencing their exciting twilight days...

I’m amazed that these poppy heads I’ve picked are already shedding seeds...

This is the first year I’ve grown these purple Opium Poppies, so I don’t want to demolish the whole plant just yet...

...these Nigella seed heads are probably my absolute favourite pod at the moment ( I think I even prefer them to their flowers! )

and this little weirdo is, I think, a Chive...I say 'I think', because other Chives I have, always grow flowers and then drop seeds, but this seems to be growing more chive plants from the actual seed head!

I will watch and learn...

I’ve been a bit remiss with the picking of the Calendulas, so there are only a couple of flowers left at the moment, but loads of seed heads...

I have been picking a lot of sweet peas though, and only left a few seed pods on the plant. They seemed very fat this morning so I’ve risked picking them...

and the Californian Poppies have so many seeds appearing that I only save a few of the pods having picked loads...

I usually let things just self seed, but as I have so many pods and seeds already this year I thought that I’d try the brown paper bag method of putting them all into paper bags and letting them dry out over the next few months...

...I’m also hoping that over the coming weeks the recovery table will look a bit better, although the succulents are doing really well; producing their mini succulents on what had appeared to be dead stems...

So, many seed pods in the garden making me happy and being very productive...

...unlike these many gastrpods who are making me nervous and still being very destructive!