Introducing friends, both new and old.

 It has been his habit to take the free seeds from the front of his gardening magazines, and scatter them in the front garden to do as they please. This year they have been very disappointing apart from some rather showy Scabious, which are much bigger and brighter than the wild ones.

Even the buds have a very attractive form,

 And they make really interesting seed heads which you could nearly make a pet of!

 We are very glad to see our little Milkweed plants - he had a horrible suspicion that he had inadvertantly weeded them, but there they are. They came all the way from Surrey with us and we are very fond of them with their two sets of petals to each flower.

 Finally, I have had to introduce a new friend to help me in the kitchen.

Our local baker has had to shut up shop. He was not able to sell enough to make it pay. We were very disappointed, since it was really good honest old-fashioned bread, and I have not been able to find anything as good anywhere local. So I must bake for myself, and the food processor was working right on the limits of it's capacity, and kept cutting out. Hence the new piece of kit, which will keep us fed with the right stuff.