Aubergines

The aubergines are loving the hot weather, though it's a little too much for some of the other crops. I picked the first five large ones, and there are plenty more growing. I love aubergines, both to eat and to look at - that lovely, rich, shiny purple contrasting with the rough green stalks - and was delighted to discover when we moved south in 2013 that here in sunny Kent they can, in a good year, be grown quite successfully outdoors. Last year's dry and very overcast summer did not give us a crop at all, the plants simply didn't thrive, but this year, although the plants have not grown as large as I would normally expect, they are producing lots of good sized fruit. We will need to think of some alternatives to ratatouille..

I've now caught up with the current week, having posted three days' photos in quick succession; I still have something over two weeks of hospital photos to back blip.