Summer fruits

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This year Ramadan has fallen over the month of July, and whilst the days are long and getting hotter as the days pass, one thing we all look forward to are the delicious, mouth watering summer fruits that are prepared and ready to be eaten soon after we break our fasts, for some much needed refreshment. I think my favourite has to be the watermelon, what’s yours?

Ramadan Mubarak 2014/1435

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Ramadan Mubarak to Muslims around the world who are fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and this year in England the days will be quite long as Ramadan is over summer, but I will try to make the most of it and take things a little slower than my usual hectic pace. I hope that everyone fasting during this special month makes the most of the days ahead to shake bad habits, create new ones and purify heart, body and soul

Kew Gardens – Autumn visit

I recently went to Kew Gardens in West London; the last time I went was in school and I’d been meaning to go back ever since, especially as over the last couple of years there’s been some changes. For some reason or another I just wasn’t able to go, so a couple of weeks ago I decided not to wait anymore and just go. Initially I was a bit apprehensive about going in late autumn, as I imagined that most of the trees would have shed their leaves and there wouldn’t be much to look at, as well as the point that I always imagined going in late spring/early summer to see nature blossoming. In the end I decided to go anyway and see what there was to see, and learn from the experience.

I packed my DSLR camera to take with me and got there by mid morning. I was really lucky with the weather as it was nice and bright, and not grey and cloudy like it had been in previous days. I was also pleased to see that as we’ve had a mild autumn in London so far, most of the trees still had their leaves, and many were in now in brilliant shades of yellow, red and orange, which in the bright sun looked even more magnificent.

Here are a few of the photos that I was able to take whilst there, but what I didn’t realise was just how big the Gardens were- that after walking around for about 5 hours I still hadn’t managed to see all of it!

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Seeing as I managed to take lots of photos and because there’s was so much to see I’ve decided to do separate posts on different parts of Kew Gardens, this one being about the Palm House which houses plants from tropical and subtropical climates all over the world

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Here’s a banana tree with bananas growing from it, with leaves so big you could place two grown ups end to end and the leaves would still be bigger! There was also a pineapple plant – these pineapples were so tiny – the size of walnuts

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The walkways were full of leaves growing over it, giving you a an idea of how they would grow in their natural habitat

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There was a strange looking plant growing in the Palm House too called a Cycad, that is known as a living fossil. These plants have been around before dinosaurs, living up to 2500 years long!

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There is so much more to see but I don’t want to post too many photos of one area in case you want to visit the Gardens soon. I will hopefully be able to do another post soon on another part of Kew gardens

Each Peach, Pear Plum

A short time ago I posted a blog about cherries that we had from our neighbours’ garden this summer and I mentioned that we had a couple of fruit trees in our garden too; a pear tree and a plum tree (sorry, no peaches, not in this country anyway). At the time the fruit was just beginning to grow and now after a long hot summer the fruit is finally ripe and ready to eat – well the plums at least anyway, the pears still need a little more time.

I thought I’d share a few photos of the fruit as they look so good. The plums we have are called Victoria

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My sister’s father-in-law is visiting at the moment and was pleased to be able to pick the ones that were ripe. They were really soft and juicy and enjoyed all round

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Our pear tree grows pears called Conference. The ones in our garden are almost ripe

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I’d love to hear what others have in their gardens at this time of year