The noble sunflower hangs it's heavy head and prepares to release it's bounty to the goldfinches et al.... 

Maybe we will get a few winter squashes after all! 

There are still beans coming.... 

The Jerusalem Artichokes are in flower - it must be Autumn! 

Things are still looking quite lush! 

As expected the catterpillars got at the cabbages a bit since I took the protection off but next year I'll use that just for cabbages so I don't have to remove it and do something else for the Purple Sprouting which grew too high for it. 

We are still getting raspberries at nearly the end of September. The Autumn fruiting varieties go on 'til the first frosts. 

Not strictly allotment business but I thought you might like this picture of swans taken from the car window on the way down there this morning. 

By popular request, (well. one professor to be precise), here's Cora. A dog for a Doig. 

...and here she is again trying to look like she knows her onoins! 

I'm still picking baskets of beans...but they must be coming to an end soon. 

I never did transplant the leeks from the seedbed frame. It's a bit late now really so they'll just havr to take their chances where they are. 

On the label it said "...small, purple ripening to red; very strong." 

...and the courgettes haven't given up yet despite the mildew! 

I took up around another 8 flags today having moved the others a bit further down the plot yesterday evening. I dug out a lot of the weeds which were growing between the flags, and pulled out handfuls of horsetail roots. The ones under the groundcover where I had been walking appeared to have died when I took it up today. Tim wasn't convinced though.... 

Hopefully it will be a bit harder for the horsetail etc to thrive beneath this. 

Things have gone a bit mad at the allotment lately...there's rampant stuff growing everywhere... 

The squashes I planted most recently have perfect foliage, although it is a (very) moot point whether the fruit will have time to swell & mature before the frosts come. 

The mildew is really taking hold in the courgettes now. 

That view again!!! 

These tomatoes were roasted with olive oil, Basil, Parmesan and seasoning and served with pork chops (also roasted) with Garlic and cooking apple slices. 

We make loads of Raspberry compote during the Autumn season. This just involves simmering with icing sugar to taste. WE refrigerate it before eating (usually) and eat it with ice cream (or in this case Marscapone cheese with icing sugar and Marsala beaten into it). 

This is to confirm the excellent hedge-cutting skills of my talented wife. 

I finished this bed today as I had hoped. Now I need to make a smaller one the other end, decide what to do with the rest of the path of shame (as was), lay the flags at the far end, decide what to do about the little shed, finish the strawberry bed, etc etc... 

More lovely sweetcorn today...