Ends not with a bang but a prolonged season of weeding.

After the high point in July, when all was present and correct for the family shindig, the garden was left to its own devices till mid September, when we returned from the States.  Our many crops of self-seeders that are rather sweet in June and July had  become scraggly heaps of crowder-outers. I've filled up several cubic-metre compost bags with that green stuff.  The area where the old conifer was removed has been cleared of weeds and mulched with weed-free peat compost left from potato experiments. In that area 3 ruffly multi-coloured  California poppies were been flowering away during an unexpected week of summer that we got in late September. As I weeded, I enjoyed each poppy as it opened.