Another sunshiny day...

Thank you all so much for your kind dusting of stars yesterday. I really appreciate you all.
Another early start this morning had me turning on the garden sprinkler, baking muffins, catching up with office work, writing Christmas letters, sowing mesclun, harvesting herbs and enjoying a gentle amble around the garden.
I wonder, do any of you know about the care and encouragement of mulberry trees.
We have one in our orange grove and it is about 8 years old, has grown amazingly fast from a 30 cm stick, thinner than a pencil, to about 3 metres high. The last 3-4 years to my excitement , fruit has formed , grown to about the size of an acorn, then fallen off, whilst still small, hard raspberry red and a long way from ripe! Very disappointing. I feed it and this hyear have mulched around the base more generously, watered generously and am living in (not very much) hope. I'd love to hear from mulberry "experts" in Blipland...please : ))
The images today are acanthus mollis (why is their common name bears' breeches I wonder?),a  softly pastel hydrangea, beautiful hydrangea arborescens "Annabel", a  view under the scarlet oaks beside the buddleia hedge blooming with rambling roses at present and the state of the mulberries today.