Gorgeous Goosegogs

Gooseberries to you and me.  Do you think they are called that because geese eat them?  Anyway, mine are now ready for picking.  Although you can pick them in March when they are small and hard, I like to leave mine till they are soft and translucent and sweet.  I hardly ever cook with them as I prefer to eat them raw.  Biting into them and sucking out the juicy middle then discarding the skin which can be tough.  They are such a prolific fruit but protect themselves very well with spines which make picking a painful process.  Except for cutting back a bit of new growth every now and then they need very little attention.

In my cutting garden at the allotment the Rudbeckia are just coming into flower; which is strange because they are a half-hardy annual that I sowed last year, and they withstood a really hard winter, and have grown into huge plants.  How can that happen?  Whereas, I also sowed some perennial pink ones, that haven't made a show.  Nature is a strange thing.  These should continue flowering well into autumn and with constant picking I will ensure a good flow of flowers for the house.  I have sown some more seed this year as I normally do, but really there was no need.  So now I will have an abundance.  Never mind, I can never have enough cut flowers.  Except for the odd bunch of early daffodils I haven't bought cut flowers from a shop for twenty years.