Mellow Fruitfulness

Who does not know these words by Keats and I'll regale you with the beginning of the poem later on in this blog.

I was reminded by Lenna (thanks!!) that it has been quite some time since I showed you pictures of the garden. Partly this is due to the weather as it seems to have been raining non-stop for over a month now but finally today we had a lovely day filled with sunshine.

At this time of the year you never know whether or not this will be the last sunny day so it's definitely worth making the most of it although I do hope October will bring us some fine days as well and maybe even November might provide some sunshine, but that won't be as warm as the sun now still is.

I walked the dogs clad only in jeans, t-shirt and my Crocs, instead of weatherproofs and wellies and my camera has been in my hands for most of the day too. And yes, the sky really was this blue and the birch tree provided a lacy foreground.

The other wonderful discovery is that there are both rosehips and rosebuds on one and the same Rosa Rugosa. I did briefly think what I could do with such an abundance of rosehips but in the end decided to leave them to the birds as well as the greyhound, who simply adores them.

Anyway it was a day for Keats and here is the first verse of his poem about Autumn:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel, to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'erbrimmed thier clammy cells.