Last week I joined ‘wood for the trees’ Charly for the Frome Tunnels tour, on the day of the town carnival.

More on that later, but first six things from the garden for six on Saturday, to share with the garden ruminations blog, which this week features a terrifying cactus called Vlad.

1. Magic seeds. On the way back from our tunnels tour, we bumped into a friend and her child in a pushchair. The little’un was keen to get to the fairground quickly, while his mum wanted to chat, but he was briefly placated with a shiny conker that I’d collected from a huge horse chestnut in town.

I’ll plant these into pots and see how they do. As this is a mast year there’s lots of seeds around, it’s a strategy trees use to occasionally produce overwhelming quantities of seed, having held back in previous years to reduce the numbers of seed eating creatures nearby.

2. Bellflower. I think this is the wall bellflower, Campanula portenschlagiana, but the label was lost a long time ago. A few clumps are establishing in various corners and I’m hoping it will settle in and begin to self seed. In this particular spot at the side of the house it’s an epic battle against ivy and brambles.

3. The pirouette rose is in bloom, this variety is particularly good for late year flowers, and was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law. Thanks guys!

4. Next years flowers – my marvellous husband has been busy with bulbs, and our veg bed is a cut-flower patch of daffodils and tulips until next spring. I blogged about a New Year meme on the optimism of planting flowers, along with the observation that new year is not the best time to plant bulbs.

5. Ladybug – on Wednesday I was enraged by AI, after hearing that ‘I rise to speak’ has infected our hallowed halls of parliamentary discourse thanks to lazy interns drafting speeches using systems based on American assumptions. In parliament one does not ‘rise to speak’ one addresses the speaker. Tsk! To be clear, I’m not cross with the interns, but I am annoyed at lazy MPs who don’t check their speeches before speaking and rely on AI to think for them.

More or less – one of my favourite radio shows – has more about this story: Is it possible to prove that MPs are using AI to write their speeches?

I wrote an angry note about AI in pencil and paper, just to show technology who’s boss, and then sorted some sweetpea seeds by the pond and noticed a ladybird. For no particular reason, although menopausal insomnia may have played a part – I’ve been blogging more than usual lately.

Midweek notes on reasons AI sucks plus squirrel, seeds and ladybird

6. and finally, a happy place. I’ve done a bit of end of summer greenhouse sorting out, and restored some order to the chaos. There are peppers and tomatoes, sweetpea and pansy seeds, and a selection of succulents. And its a lovely spot for a sit down and a cup of tea.

Whatever you’re up to I hope you have a lovely weekend,

J x

PS – In the Frome tunnels tour we crawled to a spot underneath the old market place, where the remains of the roman road here can still be seen. It was a wet experience but absolutely fascinating. Tunnels tours sell out in moments, so catch the next one if you can. Many thanks to Charly for taking me along, and do check out ‘Wood for the Trees’ a beautiful series of films about the future of forests.