July 2025
Mid-way through the summer, and the talk of La Laguna is not just how good this year’s weather is, compared with last, but the sheer quantity of ‘green stuff’’ being produced by all-day sunshine and the odd night shower. This is turning out to be the best summer in years, the only challenge being what to do with so many flawless marrows, lettuces, peppers and cabbages. We neighbours swap them, of course, but even so, we are all but overwhelmed. If only there were a way of sending this bounty to where it’s needed!
(Top) The French call them courgettes, the Italians call them zucchini. Here, they’re calabacines, (Left) White-tailed bumblebee, (Right) Gatekeeper butterfly
Ultimately, of course, it’s pollinators we have to thank. Weeding the herb-bed the other day, I shared space with bees and butterflies of various kinds. They flitted about so busily that it was hard to photograph them, but here are two that obliged me by resting for a moment on some oregano.
Surprises are never lacking in a garden, and one of mine was discovering that a plant I’d thought had died over the winter was very much alive. Here is my Balloon Flower, or Platycoton. It apparently comes in white and pink as well as this wonderful blue, but the fact that it survives winter at 1200 metres is what really makes it welcome.