Sea and clouds

Think you're brainy enough for this?

Clipped

The hedge across the road has a smart new haircut.

Nothing is as precious as today

Bench plaque, Hove seafront.

Pink and orange

My flat has a tiny, tiny balcony (I have friends with larger coffee tables); there's only room for a few plants. Rosemary and a couple of varieties of mint are essential, as are a scented pelargonium or two. This one's called William of Orange - pretty flowers and deliciously orange-scented foliage.

Neglected

I hate to see a garden full of weeds.

Pink and red

Flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa).

Progress report

That's Alyssa smiling at the camera; Treacle & Co is her new venture (local cake afficionados will probably recognise Alyssa from Ethel's Kitchen) and she's hard at work getting the inside sorted ready to open (fingers crossed) at the beginning of July.

White

A beautiful Deutzia scabra, Hove Street.

Purple

Hebe growing in a garden on the corner of Kingsway and Hove Street.

Looking towards Worthing

Sitting on Hove seafront this morning; nice to be out and about and feeling better after several days of being confined to quarters with a streaming summer cold.

The Connaught

The Connaught Pub & Kitchen, 48 Hove Street, after refurbishment from local watering hole to gastro pub.

Scrap metal merchant

The present-day version of the traditional rag and bone man.

Sunset

Real-life Hove sunsets have been rather bland lately - dull and hazy - so here's a rather nice one from earlier in the year.

Looking back

Seeing a ship sailing along in the distance always reminds me of this. It takes me right back to being a five year old in the school playground.

Info for cake-lovers

Several friends have asked me to describe the exact location of the eagerly anticipated but not yet open Treacle & Co in Hove. Here you go - photo taken from the entrance to Hove Tesco looking across Church Road.

Just a little over the top

Looking to the right

Taken from the same place as yesterday's photo but looking towards a group of tables outside the café. Nice café, by the way, and it serves a decent cup of coffee.

St Ann's Well Gardens

In St Ann's Well Gardens this morning for a little gentle knitting with friends to celebrate WWKiP Day 2010.

Minimalist

5 Vallance Road - not really my sort of garden (I like colour and softer, more, er, messy foliage), but stylish in its own way.

Clogged with sand

Living so close to the beach, wind-blown sand piles up regularly at the far corner of one of my living room window frames. It's easily removed with an old knitting needle and a paintbrush.

Brighton beach

Hove beach

Reflections in a shop window

Velvet in Church Road, one of those shops that sells lovely, intriguing bits and pieces that are not strictly necessary in life, but great fun to look at.

Sailing

Irises

Garden full of irises, Vallance Road.

I wonder what's going to be built here

It's a tiny plot in Vallance Road - watch this space.

Shopping at its most boring

Tesco supermarket, Church Road.

Opening soon

Treacle & Co. are coming to Church Road. I like the way the window's been obscured with wildlife magazine pages while work goes on inside the shop; it's definitely a cut above using traditional sheets of newspaper.

So good to see

It's green everywhere I look. What a nice time of year!