Our grapevine

This year our grapevine has done rather better than in any of its previous 7 or 8 and this is the first time I've seen more than a bunch or two of grapes. I don't think there'll be enough fruit to be making our wine just yet though! Its earlier than usual ripening makes me feel that there is a touch of autumn approaching in the air...far too soon!

In other news: my daughter has been waiting 4 weeks now for Violet's first passport to arrive in time for our holiday at the end of this month. Many of you in the UK will know that this year, our passport offices are in turmoil and hardly able to cope with the volume of applications - a one day strike didn't help either!
Today however she received NOT the passport, but a letter to say that the photos weren't satisfactory ( even though The Post Office had checked the application and passed it!)
After an hour waiting on the phone, she finally got through and was told that all we had to do was send 2 more photos and the passport would be processed. Let's hope they don't find a problem with these, as we are set to fly 3 weeks today!