We Actually Had Rain Today

First thing this morning it was cloudy, but no rain.

I picked some peas and froze them for Christmas, and then took the basket and collected some sweet yellow and red plums.

I may freeze some later, after cutting the stones out of each and every one of them, it is a bit of a chore, however, better then crunching on a stone at some later date.

Yesterday morning it was sunny and I spotted this pheasant in amongst the barley.

The orchids are looking particularly good at the moment.

Last evening I spotted this little hedgehog, I hope he has brothers and sisters who are eating lots and lots of slugs.

Motorway Travel

So........
Apparently the powers that be, have worked out that travelling at 50mph along great stretches of the M3 is pretty darn boring.

So they have placed some helpful messages to relieve the boredom.

Sorry that I did not get a picture of them all, I was so shocked that it took a while to realise there were several. Also the photo quality is rubbish. 
But, you get the gist of this.

Does that infer that you stop all the traffic and get the whole motorway helping?

Do they wear their PJ's?

Then ......

Just to add yet more fun and make sure the drivers are all paying attention, the M25 had these trundling along.

So much for 'Let The Train Take The Strain'.

Things Are Growing in the Veg Plot

Still short on rain here, so the watering that we have done is definitely paying off.

We have dwarf French beans, they are almost magic as they are a beautiful shade of purple when raw, but, that goes and they are green when cooked.

We have the very first, all 2 of them, runner beans.

 I made a salad and realised that all the ingredients were from the garden, (not the balsamic vinegar) lettuce, beetroot, French and runner beans. 

Yum.

 The pumpkins seem to be growing, although a third one does not look like it will make it, what a shame.

 I think this is the first marrow, well at the moment it looks like a marrow, just as the pumpkins look like they will be pumpkins, however, because of the wind all the seedlings got mixed up, so until there is a fruit/veg I have no idea what plant it is, the leaves are remarkably similar and it is just too difficult to tell.

 This is the first sunflower, it is very yellow, rather than traditional golden yellow and the great thing is that it has lots of side shoots so when this flower is over there should be more to follow on. Makes me very happy..

What a difference a week makes.

I had taken this picture a week ago and thought that the corn looked pretty ripe.

Until I took this picture today!

I do not know when harvest is, so we shall see how things look next week.

Spiced Red Berry Jelly

A while ago, I found a red currant bush in the back garden, it had a few green currants on it. So, with an old charity shop net curtain, I wrapped it up against the birds, and managed to pick enough berries to make a little jelly.

Red currants are so beautiful, however, they are pretty tart so I added some raspberries and a few black currants along with cloves, cinnamon and allspice. 
After it was ready to bottle, I added brandy.  
Now it definitely has some zing!

July Drizzle

We have been having some damp weather, it has been drizzling, however, not enough rain to do any good except damp the dust. The vegetables still need watering, so it is all a bit annoying, unless you have hayfever, then the rain definitely helps that slow down.

However, during the wonderful sunny days I took this photo of hollyhocks. They look fabulous and seem to be very good at taking care of themselves.

Christmas In July

There is nothing like getting ready early!
Have picked some broad beans and shelled them straight into the freezer bags then instantly popped them in the freezer before doing the same for the peas. 
As more ripen I will add them too.

I have also planted seeds for parsnips. The brussel sprouts are growing nicely.
Cruelty to poor cabbage white butterflies is smelling the brassicas and not being able to get beyond the netting placed there specifically to stop the butterflies laying eggs. Once the eggs are laid out hatch the caterpillars and the next thing you know you have cabbage doilies.

However, there are a few cabbages planted that do not have netting over, so the butterflies can reproduce on those! 

Speaking of butterflies reproducing and caterpillars. For the number of nettels we have, you (or at least I) would have thought that there would be a surfeit of peacock butterfly caterpillars munching our many and mighty nettle patches. Have yet to see any nettle damage. 

Forgot the Epic Fail.

Completely forgot to mention the epic fail.,,,,,,
Cucumbers.

Bought a pack of seeds early in the spring and planted them all warm and cozy to grow, they all did nothing. So bought another pack, (let me tell you by comparison cucumber seeds are expensive and you only get 5-6 in a pack) managed to get a few of those to germinate, then they died. 

Next year I will just buy a cucumber plant. SO much easier!

To make up for that here is a pick of my very overstuffed root bed.
It looked paultry earlier so I planted lettuce in the gaps.
Now the bed is oozing healthy greens.

These lettuce were a brilliant seed to get. will be buying more of them.

Picked these gorgeous cornflower heads. Will dry them. 

I think with some lavender sprinkled amongst them they will be quite cheery later in the year.

Veg Successes and Things That Might Go Better Next Time

The peas are growing brilliantly. Who knew?
We have picked and enjoyed lots of fresh peas.

There are still many more peas growing. They were certainly worth whatever I paid for the packet of seeds

Not doing so well are the runner beans, it has been a little too warm and certainly way too dry, the flowers we do have are few and far between and only a few on a stalk that would normally have a dozen flowers on. Such a shame as we love runner beans.

The RHS gave wonderful advice on planting the beans and peas (legumes) together. 
When they were all so small it was too hard for me to imagine how big they might eventually grow. 
I planted a couple of spaghetti squash and pumpkin plants in the bed too! 
Ooops!
The broad beans have not yet finished producing, I had thought they would be done by now, and the peas are just happy as can be. 
The pumpkins plants are also enjoying this little bed and are growing rather large. This plant has escaped over the edge of the wood border and the two little pumpkins appear to be quite happy growing.
I am impressed, you may get a little fed up with the frequent progress of their growth.

Our veg beds are very precious to us and when the blackbirds kept coming in among the baby lettuce and eating the worms we put some netting over just to stop the theft of our worms. We have so few as the soil is so poor that we felt we needed to protect the ones we had. 

The bonus of this appears to be that the lavae of the ladybirds were able to hatch, grow and pupate uninterrupted and now we have lots of ladybirds, which is good as we have oodles of blackfly on the broad beans.

So for next year, growing the squash somewhere else is to be remembered, 

Windy weather not good for gourds.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse for the next couple of days. Lots of wind and it is going to come from the north so will be much cooler. We may even get some rain! 
That will be good.

However, in my gardening book it says that marrows, pumpkins etc. do not like the wind.

My poor little courgette (zucchini) only has 4 leaves so may not be too affected but the pumpkins are trying to grow as are the spaghetti squash and marrow. I do not know when we find out how much the wind has affected them.

Here are two little spaghetti squash, they look good as of now.

And two possible pumpkins. I am not sure two growing that close together is a good idea, but will see if either sets and then decide what to do.



Broad beans do have amazing pods to protect them.

Quick splash in boiling water, rinse and pop some butter on, yummy.

French bean flowers, they are a pretty colour, the ladybird contrasts nicely with them. Hopefully we will get some beans soon after the broad beans finish.

4th July

On Saturday we went to see a lavender farm, it was a glorious day and the smell of the lavender was wonderful.

These are some of the young plants.


In the evening fireworks started going off. Seems like there are either a lot of people glad that America is no longer a colony, or, had fireworks to let off. There seemed to be several 'displays' as the the number of fireworks that were let off was amazing and the calibre was fantastic. I leant out of the window for ages watching the displays and listening to music from afar. 

This week has started out a lot cooler than last week, which is pleasant as it is easier to sleep at night. However, still warm enough to wear shorts.

Lavender and Butterflies

With all this sun, and a distinct lack of rain, the lavender is flowering fantastically.

We bought 4 different types at a lavender farm. One plant died however, the others are magnificent, as are the ones we bought cheap at the end of the summer. We just had a lack of choice of colours and now have quite a few pale lavender bushes, which to my mind are not as glorious as the darker ones such as Hidcote.

However, the butterflies do not seem to care and so I popped out to take some pics. These are both small tortoiseshell. I do not know what a 'large' tortoiseshell looks like. Maybe something to research later.

Anyway the lavender blue and purple contrast so well with the orange of the butterflies.

Yesterday evening I noticed this golden orb in the rapidly ripening barley.
I think it is a spiders web with eggs or spiderlings in.

 

Cherries

Early in the spring there was the most beautiful white blossom on the cherry trees along the churchyard. I enjoyed seeing it so much that I took a photo of it.

Now isn't that enough to make your heart sing?



Yesterday while thinking about a fruit salad for dessert, bananas, apricots and peaches, I saw the cherries in the trees and decided that they would make a lovely addition to the salad. 
So picked the ones that I could reach. 
They were indeed just what the fruit salad needed. 
Yum diddly dumptious.

It will not be long before the blackbirds find them and within a couple of hours the whole lot will be gone.

Oh and I should mention that yesterday was HOT. The hottest day of the year.