Cardoons

I thought they looked like Scottish thistles on steroids but apparently they're cardoons or artichoke thistles.

We were invited up the road to a friend's house for lunch. She's not long moved in and after a lot of alterations the house is looking great and the garden too. Apart from taking my car into the garage to have a coolant issue sorted, I haven't been anywhere today so I grabbed this blip with my phone.