My American guests

Huge, sprawling, and oblivious of climate change, they seem determined to fulfill their national stereotype. Even though they are pumpkins.

Almost a year ago I stuffed, and blipped, this Long Island cheese pumpkin in Philadelphia. Its seeds followed me home and have been grown in the hospitable soil of Pembrokeshire. The plants have burgeoned massively, bursting out of their quarters and invading the lawn with their sturdy leaves and curling tendrils. But they have not got around to flowering until just recently, and it's already September so how will the fruit (an embryonic one is visible here) have time to swell and ripen as the sunlight fades and the temperature drops? I fear that the whole enterprise will prove in vain.

Luckily for me, a week today I will be back in Philadelphia, catching up with my friend and fellow blipper, Guinea Pig Zero, and taking my pick of as many pumpkins as I want.