September

September arrived with pleasantly warm weather and a bit of rain. Here in Edinburgh we haven’t had the extremes of heat and drought that others have experienced so it has been rather a good summer for our gardens and allotments. This weekend was the Edinburgh wide allotment and garden show. I had been away and so had to rush around on Saturday morning to collect up some fruit and veg and preserves to enter. This show permits garden as well as allotment produce. I didn’t have time to get along to the allotment so my entries were all from the garden or store cupboard. My dash around the garden provided a great pile of ineligible fruit and veg: bendy beans, a solitary pear, a cucumber, the first garden tomatoes, a pile of assorted apples: I picked out a couple of things to enter: apples, Howgate Wonder and Red Falstaff And some of last year’s jam and chutney. I could have entered some sweet peas but thought they wouldn’t be good enough (too bendy, too full of wildlife nibbles). I was…