Plums, Books and Butterflies

All the plums have been harvested from both trees.  The larger Victoria plum tree and the smaller one which produces yellow plums that have a beautiful fragrance but don't taste as sweet and sharp as the red ones.

We've had more fruits than we expected so some have had to be prepared and frozen.  Others will make jam and crumbles.

 

Two more punnets over the weekend were definitely the last.

We have plenty of empty jars for jam making.

Above four books I've enjoyed reading recently.  All very different.  I loved The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain which was recommended by a friend.  It's a short, sweet and satisfying read which I needed as I was getting bogged down by a few of the books I'd chosen and couldn't finish reading some of them.  I loved all the characters and the setting in Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox and will read the other two books in the trilogy later this year.  I also enjoyed Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan.  It certainly isn't as 'happy' as the other two but the mystery is intriguing.  Rewild your Garden by Frances Tophill is an interesting and useful book you can go back to and dip into many times. The illustrations are lovely too.

At present I'm reading the book above and according to my Kindle I'm 20% of the way through it.  It's a very long book but I'm determined to work my way to the end especially as I also have three books reserved at the library all newly or about to be published.

1979 by Val McDermid - I'm number seven in the queue
The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves - number ten in the queue and The Stone Chamber by Kate Ellis - number three in the queue

I hope they don't all come at once, I expect it depends on how quickly people read them from when they first become available.

The warmer, sunnier weather last week brought the larger butterflies into the garden.  Also two dragonflies which flew around a bit but didn't settle.  Just glimpses as they wizzed by showed one had a green body and one a red body.  It seems ages since we've seen dragonflies which have settled for long enough to be identified let alone photographed.

The Echinacias have been popular with both butterflies and bees.

Although one of the Red Admirals preferred the Hydrangeas.

Whilst one of the Tortoiseshells liked the Zinnias.