Self-sown

This year's sunflowers, which I've helped J to grow each year since she was very young, have been rather disappointing. They have grown very tall but the plants are skinny and weedy looking, with poor leaves and a lot of rather small heads, mostly plain yellow. We had hoped for something closer to last year's display, having bought the same variety of seed again because we loved the colour variations. These blooms, however, all sixteen of them, have all sprung from a single seed which germinated in the vegetable garden. It must have arrived there buried in used compost from the tubs on the deck. The flowers are like last year's beauties, and considerably healthier than the plants grown from new seed. 

This was a quick photo taken when I went to pick vegetables. The aubergines are coming along quite well but I left them to grow a bit more: they have benefitted hugely from the unexpected September warmth. The courgettes were rather small, so I left them too. However, I picked a good cabbage, five heads of calabrese which need to be eaten very soon with lots more to pick in the next few days, a box of cavallo nero and some of the chard which has sprung up among the cabbages. I didn't have time for the raspberries, many of which are now overripe - maybe tomorrow.