I was bemoaning a complete lack of inspiration yesterday and I think I would never have guessed, until half an hour ago, that I would have ended up with a photo that thrills me and subject matter that makes me jump for joy.

We’ve ‘stolen’ a couple of days to ourselves today and tomorrow – I was meant to be on holiday all this week but I gave it up due to pressure of work – only a couple of weeks now to the big event that I’ve been planning and working towards all year so the pressure is on.

Even though I didn’t feel I could get away for the week, I have taken a couple of days and today was the first of those. What have we done? We’ve worked like dogs all day. Some of what we’ve done has given me great joy (another tree cleared of a mound of rubbish – a car load went to the dump yet again today) and we’ve taken down a couple of trees that were obscuring our view and making us feel vulnerable as we approached our front door. All good stuff.

The bad bit is that there is still so much rubbish to clear.

My veggie garden has been a real mix of happy and sad. Some triumphs (sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes, celeriac, tomatoes (pre-blight)) and some disasters (broccoli that simply became dinner to a small army of caterpillars, spinach and onions that fell prey to the rabbits and some rather half-hearted peas). We’ve been disappointed with our chillis that seemed to have no heat in them at all…..until now! Suddenly, they’ve taken on the persona of Vesuvius and we’re thrilled.

So, off I trotted to get a couple to go with tonight’s supper and I thought I’d pick a couple of sweet peppers for the dish too. They’ve been OK but not spectacular and we’ve had problems with slugs on them. Anyway, I thrust my hand down the side of a plant and came upon this – it’s by far the nicest pepper we’ve had – big (most of them have been a bit small and thin-fleshed), perfectly formed and much juicier than any we’ve had so far….not only that but the other one I picked was turning red!!!

Hurrah hurrah hurrah.

This is, if nothing else, proof of principle – it proves that if I get my act together and if I start earlier, practice some good greenhouse hygiene and take better care of the plants, then I will get a decent crop next year. I am as chuffed as ninepence as they say.

As I came in grinning like a mad thing and showing off my produce, DM said ‘I think you should photograph that’ so I did! He then went on to show me some sensational Edward Weston shots of peppers that I had never seen, or even knew that he was famous for them. Well, come on Linda, tell the truth, you’d never even heard of the man. Yep – as I said only the other day, I am an ignoramus! So, now I am inspired to shoot pics of my veggies for the rest of my life……

Last year my shot belied the fact that I was wallowing in despair.