Coming along nicely

This was another "oops, I haven't taken any photos yet" day. There was still a bit of low sun illuminating one greenhouse, and the tomato plants are coming along nicely, though it will be a while before we can pick anything. I am growing three varieties this year: Cristal is a medium sized red tomato with very good flavour, which we use mainly for cooking but is also good sliced in salads, Golden Cherry is what it sounds like, a yellow-orange cherry tomato with wonderful sweetness and flavour which J loves, and this year's experiment is Merrygold, an orange blight-resistant tomato which I'm growing on the balcony. We lost a lot of tomatoes to blight in our first two seasons here, so I now pack most of them into the greenhouses but always choose one blight-resistant variety for our large, sunny balcony. For several years this has been Mountain Magic, which have grown nicely and fruited well into autumn, so we'll see how Merrygold compares.

Cristal and Golden Cherry are varieties which were recommended when we first started gardening here by my lovely neighbour across the road C, who was my gardening mentor and inspiration for nearly a decade. His funeral takes place tomorrow, and this morning I responded to the invitation from his sons and another neighbour who are clearing things from the garden to go and see if I would like any pots. I also brought back a tray of very sad sempervivums, which clearly have not had any water for a very long time but I think will probably revive with a bit of care. C always had beautiful stone troughs of these at the front of the house, so if they survive they will hold memories of the wonderful garden he created.