Spores and spires

What a lot of useful expertise there is here! MariainWales's comment yesterday that my tomatoes have blight was spot on (pun intended). So I read up on it and this morning grubbed up two of my nine rows,  rescuing such tomatoes as I could to ripen, if they will, alongside bananas indoors. A disappointment in this year of setbacks, but reading up on what conditions facilitate the blight spores, should they arrive on the wind, has shown me how very many things I did wrong. Next year I will probably learn something different about how tomatoes can fail. (But no, I won't plant them in the same soil.)

This afternoon I walked with my friend D out to the west side of Oxford where she is working on setting up a Community Farm near the golf course. It has fabulous views across the noisy A34 to this surprisingly small city, and this version of the view includes another of the projects she initiated - the wind turbine and pavilion between the sheep and the city belong to Hogacre Common. (If you're interested in what one person's vision and energy can inspire look at the Projects tab on that page.)

Not visible in this view is an arresting flower garden right in the heart of the city at Christ Church, at its very best just at the moment (extra).