Nigel Slater’s Plum and Honey Cake (from https://kitchenlioness.blogspot.com/2012/09/nigel-slaters-september-cakes-part-iii.html)

Dear Readers, ever since I’ve been able to get to the kitchen without crutches, I’ve been obsessed with cooking, and in particular, baking. However, there are only two of us at home, and neither of us really need to be piling on the calories, so I have been delivering cake to anyone who would like some. The plums are really delicious this year, and so I decided to make Nigel Slater’s Plum and Honey Cake (recipe at the Kitchen Lioness link below the photo above). I ran out of golden syrup so I substituted some maple syrup, and my cake was a bit thinner because it was in a larger tin but! I did love the slight acidity of the plums  against the sweetness of the cake. All I need now is some custard.

And  so, I took to the County Roads of East Finchley to deliver the cake to my friend A, who only lives around the corner. First up, I had time to admire the sedum  in my front garden, which is particularly fine this year.

And then, here is the sedum roof from the house a few doors along – what a great way to make a cover for one’s wheelie bins or bicycles?

Then the hibiscus is in flower – it does remarkably well considering that we can have chilly winters.  I am still waiting for the hibiscus street tree to flower – it has buds, but is taking its own  precious time.

I do love an acer against a clear blue sky…

And there are plenty of rowan berries for the birds. I especially like these orange berries against the terracotta-coloured brick wall.

The crab apples are looking rather fine at the end of the road. They almost look as if you could pluck them and  eat them, rather than having to turn them into jelly to offset their sourness.

Then it was off to deliver the cake. My friend has some very fine mature shrubs, including this one – my friends over at the Facebook group Plant Identification UK think it’s either Euonymous fortunei or japonicus, we’ll have to wait until the seeds ripen to find out which. Either way, it’s closely related to our native Spindle.

I went to physiotherapy yesterday, and as a result my leg is a bit sore today, so I had plenty of time as I hobbled back to admire this astonishing hydrangea. The leaves are going to be splendid soon, too.

I have some of this liriope in my garden, but it doesn’t flower as well as this one…

And as I get close to home, I find myself admiring the weeds, like this procumbent yellow sorrel, with its purple-brown leaves and happy open-faced flowers (no anthropomorphism there, clearly 🙂 ). Though now I’m looking at the photo, I’m thinking that what I could be looking at is in fact lesser celandine that’s tangled up with everything else.

And here is some sun spurge, one of the first Wednesday Weeds that I wrote about, back in 2014. And the yellow flower there is definitely procumbent yellow sorrel.

And finally, as I stagger womanfully to my front door, here is our recent friend, Canadian Fleabane, a little out of focus because it’s gotten a bit breezy. I am becoming rather fond of this weed, as indeed I am of a lot of the plants that are having a field day on the County Roads this year. There’s a quite surprising diversity of species, and always something new to notice. Who knew that ‘weeds’ could make me so happy? These days I’m greeting them as if they were old friends, much to the amusement of my neighbours. Well, a community really is more than just people.