Salvia involucrata' Bethellii'

the latest addition to the garden at No 81. My Garden House birthday pressie to myself. I love to buy plants from places I visit as a living memory, as I also love plants given by friends, it makes the garden more personal. This is "my" colour, & Salvias are such good doers ... Salvia 'Amistad' a gift from Cassiesmum has been flowering all summer long. I will probably take cuttings from both Salvias if I can bring myself to cut them back.
A beautiful sunny morning I headed to the allotment , a friend had been promised some runner beans & courgettes & hubby was having a drink with him this evening. A lifted all my potatoes, the ground is so hard below a forks depth which makes planting a bit of a pain. I'd love to get the ground more friable. A job for the Winter perhaps. I might apply a green manure after chatting with Stuart up on his plot. I need to do that now so must make up my mind.  Veg picked, I took back some large grain sacks. Hubby had been stripping the ivy off the exterior of our boundary wall which he's done all on his own, unsupervised, & without injury. Quite an achievement actually. He is rather accident prone. Breakfast in the sunshine. My Fuchsia microphylla has produced lots of  berries, so they accompanied my raspberries on top of the yogurt & granola .. Last year the blackbirds were eating the berries but I have'nt seen them in the garden much since they were rearing their young. I mowed the "lawn", weeded the border.  We filled the sacks, loaded the Aygo,   the ivy cuttings to burn in the incinerator, the grass on the compost heap. Only Stuart & Jackie up there & the smoke blew directly past them. Sod's Law! Had a laugh and a chat, discussed what we were all going to enter in next years produce show. Then Jackie let me in on a little secret of hers ... she won second place in the 3 Dahlia stems category, but only 1 of the dahlias was hers. Tut tut!!... she added 2 of Richards, the plot neighbour. He'd been away on holiday and she was watering his plot. When she went to pick her 3 stems, she only had 1 worthy of showing ... I won't tell anyone ... honest!
Back home just making lunch when an old friend of hubby's arrived. John had'nt seen Bob for about 40 years. His wife had bumped into John's sister in Weston Super Mare a couple of weeks back, they exchanged phone numbers. Bob & Rita had been down to Dartmouth for the day, rang John suggesting popping by to say hello on their way back through. I remembered Bob but not his wife. It was lovely for hubby to catch up. Bob & John used to hang out together with a few other chaps when they were young. Bob still in touch with many so got John up to speed. They headed off, I did some weeding & dead heading in the back garden. Saved some more antirrhinum seed. Love the idea of scattering annual flower seed in among the perennials next Spring. The dark blue lobelia, self seeded, has looked fab as have the many different coloured antirrhinum, also self seeded.
Rustled up a quick dinner tonight as hubby was going down to Bishopsteignton for a drink with mates, I was taxi. A veggie soup including onions, courgettes, borlotti beans, French beans, potatoes, & chives from the garden plus a couple of hot dog sausages, chunked. A liberal dollop of wholegrain mustard gave the stock a bit of oumph. Naan bread to accompany.

Back from Bishopsteignton, I caught up on BBC catch up. Interior Design Masters ..tick! .. Then Gardener's World, tonight's episode.... tick! Now watching Portrait Artist of the Year .. Courtney Pine, the sitter. Amazing artists.

Not sure what aftershave Andy was wearing, the other passenger for the taxi ride earlier, but it's still lingering. I might have to enquire what it is & treat hubby. :)

Thanks to Anni/BikerBear for hosting