In the kitchen and in the garden

One or two people have asked for an update on the kitchen.  I suspect this is so you can remind yourself how lucky you are!  Well, weeks and weeks ago we found we had to take down all the plaster to reveal the stone walls in all their glory.

The stone looks quite good in the photographs but it is what is called rubble stone, soft and shaly and never meant to be on view.  There were gaps and holes and a constant fine rain of dust.  So we accepted the inevitable and had it plastered, using a special plaster which would breathe and allow the old house to breathe along with it.

So here it is, very beautifully plastered by Roger and his son Dylan.  This, to put it gently, was not the work of a moment.  And painting it was not the work of a moment either.

Then today the electricians came, another father and son business and another cheerful, charming and highly skilled pair.  They connected up the sockets and wired the new lights and all of a sudden the place looks like a room and not like a work in progress.

The sharp eyed will perhaps have noticed that there is no oven, no cupboards and that the sink is not connected, but no matter.  It feels like a room, very like the dairy it once was.  It feels like a kitchen in the making.

Outside the crososmia Lucifer is flowering fit to burst.

There is a persicaria in front of it whose pink spikes should clash horribly with the red.  Maybe they do, but I love the combination and love the sedum in front of it waiting to take over as the Lucifer fades.

The giant sunflower is a sun in the sky, its flower bigger than my head.

There are zinnias in the cutting garden.  I have never grown them before and am still not sure about their soldierly bearing, all stiff and straight, but I love the colours.  They may be the ideal cutting garden flower, where flowers on parade look fine.  In a flower garden I think they might look a bit like a suburban park.  I love suburban parks, but don't want my garden to look like one.

The walnut tree is fruiting generously this year.  I am doing that deliberate ignoring you do when you are not quite sure what happens next.  If I pick them now, as green walnuts, I will need to remove the husks.  This is a huge messy job, needing rubber gloves and leaving everything stained black.  If I leave them to dry out, the squirrels will have them.  OK, yes, I do know what I should do.  I might even do it.

And my lovely sweet peas are still flowering away, still can't keep up with them.  The autumn raspberries are just starting to fruit, huge sweetly tart berries which put the summer ones to shame.  I might be falling in love with my house and garden again.