Sunday 12 August

• First rain Tuesday evening, a lot of showers between then and now, and rain most of the day Thursday. Temperature has gone down quite a bit in the house and I am sitting typing this in a jumper.
• Out by torchlight late Thursday evening after snails and saw 5 frogs. They don't seem to jump from being caught in the torch beam just if I approach too near.
• Today I found hidden in the tomato foliage 4 cucumbers. Picked the 3 largest and had the largest of those with tomatoes from the garden and some olives this evening.
• The rain appears to have badly affected insects. Yesterday saw no bees, just 2 cabbage white butterflies. I did see two bees on the lavender outside the garden centre by the Hertford Union canal cycling back from Victoria Park. I also saw one bee in my garden on the verbena this morning.
• Where I sowed sunflower seeds ages ago I now have a 15 cm seedling. If it survives the weather, snails, etc will it flower? The sunflowers in a front garden a few doors down are 2 metres plus tall and in full bloom.

Sunday 5 August

• We had some rain last weekend. Even though it wasn't a lot, still gratefully received!
• I've started getting figs - from the new fig tree that has 2 crops a year. Still nothing from the older fig tree. There are no figs on that one for this year, just masses that will be half grown and will need to be picked off and discarded before winter.
• I have had 3 courgettes recently that almost became marrows!
• First runner beans on Monday, and first French beans yesterday.
• Plenty of tomatoes. They don't taste of tomato but lovely and sweet.
• Have collected two bag-fulls of plane bark. Presumably because of the hot, dry weather, the local plane trees have shed most of their bark. Will use this as kindling.
• Chimney sweep/stove maintenance guy due to come on Thursday, but problem with his clutch. Now coming September.
• Wednesday morning on the way to the bus stop, I passed a car with a snail on the roof! 
• Also found a goldfinch feather on the pavement.
• Yesterday morning bike ride. I picked blackberries for crumble, then cycled back to pick up (using trowels!) two lots of horse shit (there were another 3 lots I could have got if I had had room). (Blackberries on one pannier, horse shit in the other!)
• I cycled through both sections of the Walthamstow wetlands, cycled back through one and then pushed my bike along one of the walkers-only paths which brought me back to the path near the gate I enter by.
• To B&Q yesterday and got verbena and rudbeckia (both had insect friendly signs on) and dahlia (the plant in the pot beside the one I chose had a bee feeding on it). I have flowers dotted round the garden but felt the need to get some more for the insects.