If at first you don't succeed.......... and a quick trip on the Poetry Bus.

I don't know how many years I have been trying to grow bergamot, but this year my patience has been rewarded and this plant is just coming into flower with lots of buds to look forward to. It is a gorgeous colour, quite a bit richer than this picture suggests.

I couldn't resist taking a couple of shots of this cantaloupe melon. I just love those shapes and the ridged texture ...........

.........not to mention the subtle blue bands against the very pale green background. It's almost too lovely to eat, but I expect we'll manage it.

I was going to leave these in the garden for the birds to enjoy the seeds and to see them sparkling with frost in the winter. Our garden doesn't seem to know about that, and seedheads just go soggy and dark brown when the summer has gone. These would never have survived and I rescued them from torrential showers and strong gusting winds for me to enjoy on the mantelpiece in a vase. As it was, two of the stems had almost broken but I straightened and strengthened them by pushing an old knitting needle up inside each one.
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This week's poetry challenge has been set by Argent who suggests we write about unrequited love or something with a humourous theme. I think I have incorporated both in the same piece.

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A True Story of Unrequited Love.

She moved majestically through the shoulder high summer grasses.

He followed, trying frantically to catch up,

even though he kept losing sight of her.

She was young and very beautiful

with long slender legs and creamy blonde tresses -

oblivious to his advances.

He was middle-aged

with very short legs and wiry dark grey hair -

besotted and distraught.

But then, she was a Pyrenean Mountain dog

and he was a Cairn terrier -

it would never have worked.

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I have finished the allotment piece but can't photograph it yet as I need to get a batten so that it can be hung. Also, the light is very bad today and it has just begun to rain so there is no chance of photographing it outside. I am so relieved it is completed and have spent too much time looking at it, I don't even know if I like it anymore. Like many other projects - it seemed like a good idea at the time!