My World is Blue

What a year it has been for blueberries.  I have been picking them for months and expected them to peter out, but these pictures were taken two days ago

There are plenty more on the way if the weather holds.  That's not say that the cold nights aren't affecting the leaf colour:

This installation is now nine years old, and doing very well after a slow start.  If you want you can check out the early years at Blueberry History or their progress in  2016

Now my outdoor tomatoes...  haven't enjoyed the conditions this year and have remained green. It is time to harvest them for indoor ripening. 

A Funny Old Year

It is dawning on me that, although we had a poor summer,  there is not going to be a compensatory extension.  Septembers wind and rain has arrived and there is no going back.  When I say poor I mean OK up until mid July and then wet cold and sometimes windy thereafter.  Some crops fared well, particularly blueberries, but others took forever to get started (tomatoes, runner beans and squashes) and then got battered by the wind as soon as they did. Everyone's sweetcorn was very late and probably will not ripen - I still harbour  hopes. It was warm and wet enough for the blight to sweep through our site in August.   If I needed confirmation that the weather pattern has been atypical it has been provided by the wisteria which has decided it has been through a winter and it is now time to flower.  It makes a start contrast to the rowan berries:

Bird In the Hand?

Since my post  Mellow Yellow  I have been waiting to collect ripe seedpods from the Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) in our wildflower bed. 

They have not disappointed.  Some birds seem to have more toes than others.

Here is a reminder of what the flower and leaf look like.

And now the real test:  how do the seedpods compare against the "real" thing.    

I think that is a perfect match!

In case you are wondering why I am collecting them.  It is to help stock the new school wildflower meadow.  

Dipper

Today I am over the moon because not only have I met a new bird, but I have managed to capture it on film.  It's a dipper!  

This one patrols the burn (stream) that runs along the length of our allotment site and then disappears into a culvert underneath a very busy roundabout.  I made a very poor quality video and the sound on it is even worse, mostly being the traffic. What it does capture though is the dipping that led me to my correct guess as to what it might be.  This has made my day, or even week. Here, technology permitting is the video:

Only one song suggests itself.  And I apologise in advance: