It’s July 2013; a hot day. So hot that the tarmac is sticky on the road. And I am instantly transported back to childhood; to my walk to school, picking wild flowers and pushing my face into hedgerows to look for nests so that I might glimpse a bird’s egg. Back in the  present, I see that my neighbour’s field gate is half open. Still embodying the 5 year old me and with all the inhibitions of adulthood abandoned, I  push open the gate, much wider than is polite and look in to see what I can see.

What I discovered this Summer, was that my little known neighbour had tilled the soil next to a small barn on his land and there, protected by two thick Devon hedges, he had made a vegetable patch and it was FABULOUS! Up he trundles with his wheelbarrow full of horse manure and within minutes we are chatting as my enthusiasm for his crops, for his success and achievements bubbles over into joy. We have connected and before long his squeaky wheelbarrow is pushed over to my patch with several loads of that coveted dung.

Perhaps it’s time for you to push open the gate into my garden, would you like to take a look? You may need to grab some shades, because these photos are fizzing with all the colour of Summer.