Late evening, mid July. Raspberries hang ripe and crimson like the blood and sugar of midsummer. The half-dark air is scented with the growth of a 101 allotments- rows of strawberries and sunflowers and sweet peas perfuming the sky.

A moth paused for my camera, iridescent with beauty and colour. Raindrops on the sweet peas shone like tears in the twilight. If ever there was a reason to stop, to watch, to care about the little things in our big world, it’s moments of quiet and fleeting beauty like this.

I bought a mix of lettuces- a ‘secret’ mix of salads from Real Seeds– not yet available commercially. The seeds from this company are traditional and open pollinated, so I can save the seed from the plants I grow for future years. A simple money-saver or a two fingers up, anarchist approach to the bigger plant breeders and capitalist world, depending on how you look at it.

Earlier in the evening, my allotment buddy plundered the allotment for greens to go with our dinner. We finished it with sweet-sour raspberries and zinging mint.

The peas are pretty much finished for the year, courgettes the colour of a sunrise are fattening, and the sweetcorn plants gleam emerald in the soft evening light. Sometimes I wish I could pause time to be forever midsummer.