Autumnal glut!

Today I am clearing my allotment and garden of all edibles before the frosty nights come, our tomatoes are a bit later than yours Char, but the best year I have had for them ripening, so many I really am having to think what different things to make with them, pasta sauces, passata and roasted ones to freeze have been done, I've also put some roasted in jars with Balsamic vinegar. Today it's soup as it's windy and chilly outdoors. Not that you'd believe it from the middle picture from the other weekend. We went to some friends and they had this big paddling pool out in their garden, it was a day for July not October. When we arrived all the adults were sitting around the pool with there feet in the water up to their knees to cool off, their 4 children were paddling sweetly in the middle, there were loads of Canada Geese feeding on the apples from the orchard at the bottom. Our two children arrived after a 3 hour car journey stripped off and within seconds all the chairs were soaked the adults back up the hill far away from the exuberant monkeys that had descended on them and even the other kids evacuated their little pool! It was gorgeous but I did feel as if maybe I'd caged my children for weeks the way they acted! The last picture is of my little one, so proud of drawing her first rainbow all by herself. Such a cheeky face I know! The only other thing I have been up to recently is many many visits to hospital, my grandma had a stroke recently and sadly it really affected her this time, so we are trying to get someone there every day to see her. It's a mindblowing time, and has turned our normal life upside down. Anyway off to get some more produce in, hoping the artichokes haven't flowered before I can eat them!

Tam, Lincolnshire,  UK