I have been quite busy on the allotment as ever this month but stealing moments to take the odd photograph around me to remind me of summer as much as the broad beans and raspberries I'm busy freezing.

Poppies are my mother's favourite wildflowers - I too love them for the bright positive attitude suggested in their red silken petals. These had been missed by the mower and not yet destroyed by the wind & rain.

This year seems to be the year of the ladybird on my plot. On Gardeners Question Time last week one of the contributors was saying how few ladybirds are around this year so I must have most of the British population on the allotment mopping up the aphids and brightening the day.