Taming the Weeds

How is it that you never notice things growing and altering until you go away and come back, if you know what I mean. I've just shifted a carpet of bind weed out of  the polytunnel, it was itsy bitsy tiny before we left.  All the runner beans have gone to seed and the leaves on the sweetcorn have paled a deathly yellow.

Been really busy yesterday and today. Stripped all the bottom leaves off the tomatoes and removed about seven barrow loads of weeds from between them. They are starting to ripen now and we've had a few for eating already. I find a ripe banana left at the base of the plant helps to kick start them into ripening. Read that tip somewhere and it does seem to work. I've picked all the  tough beans off the runner bean plants and sloshed lots of water down them. There are quite a few flowers on the sticks so hopefully we should have another crop in a week or two.  I put a good scoop of dried chicken poo, (the type you can buy in buckets in the garden centre) into a watering can, filled it up with water - a good stir and then watered in the middle of the rows - seems to  get a second crop quicker. I've given the sweetcorn loads of water. The tops of the cobs are a bit shrivelled. The leaves have all gone yellow, but we've tried one or two cobs and they seem pretty edible. Got a great big heap of overgrown courgettes so don't know what I'm going to do with them yet - probably end up on the compost heap.

The red cabbages have all come at once.

Another weeding job tomorrow amongst the leeks.

And I found a nest of pheasant eggs, nestled in the flower border by the front door.

I want to say a big thank you to my lovely sister-in-law who popped down a few times to keep things ticking over while we were away. We'd have had nothing without her. I loved our trip, but it's nice to be back.

Back Home Again

Boarding at Southampton

We've had such a fantastic time, it's not true. Visited seven countries.

Huge vase at Kristiansand, Norway

Heading through the Baltic Sea

Sunbathing on-board

Gydinia, Poland

Big Ships that pass in the night

The Church of Spilled Blood, St Petersburg

 Galleon

Waterways of the Neva

And Fabulous Arcitecture

Palaces of the Tsars and the Peter and Paul Fortress

The Golden Spire built by Peter the Great

Market stalls along the harbour

Shadows on the bridge

Meeting up with my daughter's  friend.
The other side of the world, we got chatting to one of the sales assistants in the Shopping  Emporium only to discover that before she landed this plum job, she worked for the same company as my daughter and was also one of her  friends as well. Small world.

One of my favourite stops was Tallin in Estonia - cobbled streets and market stalls - I loved it.

D'you like my slippers?  They are soooo comfortable.

Little cobbled streets, nooks and crannies. Would have loved to have spent more time here.

Sunrise

Sunset

Me, who's never hardly moved more than a thirty mile radius in the whole of my life, on a cruise like this. Wake me up - I'm dreaming

Three more sleeps and then

See you in a couple of weeks xx

Floral

I love scented flowers. We have a honeysuckle plant clambering up the wall outside our back door.  I don't know how it came to be there. Perhaps the birds dropped a seed a few years back. Honeysuckle grows where it will and early this morning, the perfume was breathe-it-all-in intoxicating.

Last October, I sowed some sweet pea seeds from a few pods left over from the previous flowers. Surprisingly enough, quite a few of them germinated and I planted them out in the poly tunnel. They've been flowering steadily for the last three weeks.  Picked another fresh bunch this morning to put in my kitchen. Don't they boost your morale. The scent is wonderful.

Loads of Astrantia and daisies out in my garden. They smell  a bit pungent, but  look nice, so I can forgive them for that.

This rose has been growing in our garden for over sixty years. My O/H remembers it when he used to walk past on his way to primary school. It's a rambler and grows alongside the cast iron gate leading on to the single track road. It's double pale pink and the perfume is out of this world. No idea what it's called.

The two roses below, I bought from Woolies when they were in business. They're climbers. The red one is called Red Windsor. The petals have a deep velvety feel and the perfume is gorgeous. The pink one is a climber too and grows on the side of the little garage. Can't remember the name? They seem to grow every year come what may.

Why do they sell those soulless, un-perfumed, cellophane wrapped bunches in supermarkets and at petrol stations. I hate them.

Confused, beggared and bewildered

Google is making a whole lot of changes with Google reader apparently disappearing off the face of the earth. Now, I for one like Google reader and have all my favourite blogs (bloggers) listed there - easy to access - easy to read.
I came across a site called www.google.com/takeout
Up to 15th July, they're giving us the option of copying our own sites to hard disk - have a look, see what you think. Anyway, followed the instructions, spent over an hour downloading the bits I wanted to keep. Oh all right maybe my computer isn't the fastest thing on two gigabytes, but I like it. Got them downloaded and then bingo - can't open the files. Did it all over again - no joy. I filled in the survey and told them that as far as I was concerned it was as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Trying out the bloglovin thing. Still not a clue what I'm doing - any help would be so much appreciated.

Across the Sea

For the people of Arizona and for the families of those nineteen brave fire fighters and for all who have lost their lives in those terrible infernos - our thoughts and prayers are with you, right now.

First Day of Summer

According to the weather forecast it was supposed to hiss down today, but it didn't. So I've been out in the garden for most of the afternoon.

Picked some of the first of the beetroot today. I wash it, screw the tops off rather than cutting them (which is supposed to stop them bleeding.) Put them in a microwave safe dish. Add a cup of boiling water. Cover with a plate or glass lid and then microwave them on high for about 10 minutes.The skins peel off quicker while they're still warm. They're pretty hot when they first come out so better to leave them cool for a few minutes to save burning your fingers. I usually slice them and put them in vinegar but they are quite nice served hot.

We've had the first of our broad beans too. I sowed the seed in trays and then planted the plants out once they'd established decent roots. One year, I planted a good crop out in the poly tunnel. The roots weren't that big and the bean was still attached. When I came to look next morning, the pesky mice had bitten through every one of them, polished off the bean attached to the roots and left the stalks on the top of the ground. so I leave them a bit longer now before planting them out. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Bought some Brussels Sprout plants this year instead of growing them from seed. Don't usually have much luck with sprouts but these seem to be surviving OK. I planted them next to my sweet peas in the hope of confusing the white butterflies. Once they've laid their eggs, the yellow and black caterpillars demolish them at a rate of knots. Whether it will work remains to be seen. The other alternative is to pick the caterpillars off when they start wriggling about (ugh)  I hate using sprays through and try to avoid them as much as possible.

I sowed some 'Little Gem' lettuce in March. They seem to be doing OK

Beetroot in the Poly Tunnel

Little Gem

Marrow - 'Table Dainty'

I left a couple of marrows I grew last year in the poly tunnel to disintegrate. They produced a load of little seedlings. I thinned the sturdiest out and planted them in a different place. I've put an old clothes airer over them in the hope that they'll grow up it and the marrows will be suspended  from the bars. Another little experiment which might or might not work - (will let you know later) Anyway it was nice not having to buy any more seeds

Onions are starting to bulb out.

Alicante and Shirley tomatoes

I grew all my tomatoes from seed this year. I've got about thirty plants so with a bit of luck we should be knee deep in tomatoes in a month's time. They are starting to truss up so will need feeding with a tomato feeder as soon as the fruit form. Some one gave me the tip of planting French marigolds between the plants to stop the whitefly. It does seem to work and I usually do that every year now.

Comfrey

We've got Comfrey growing everywhere here. According to the great Monty, it's supposed to be a brilliant tomato feed. You cut it to ground level and put it into a plastic bucket or container. Ram it down as much as it will go and then pour water over the top. Put a lid on it and leave it for a month. It goes brown, yukky and very stinky. I think you feed it on the tomatoes in the proportion of 1 part Comfrey mixture to 20 parts water. Supposed to be fantastic stuff.

Runner Beans in flower in the poly. these are called 'Streamline'.

So that's what I've been doing with my day. Hope you've had a good one too.

Hey and have you checked out Jacqueline's new site 'Happy Food' - it's really good