Five-a-day

The thing I like about gardening is that you can see where you've been. I could spend hours digging and sowing and weeding and I probably do. After one of the wettest winters on record and gales which ripped our poly tunnels to shreds we survived. I sowed the broad bean seeds in little individual cardboard pots and then planted them in a row once they were 2 or 3 inches high. The mice usually polish them off, but these made it through and have quite a decent crop.

Two lots of tomato plants. 'Shirley' at the top end and 'Alicante' near the front of the picture. The 'Shirleys' have got fruit on them already, but have also got a few brown spots on the leaves. Could be 'blight', hope it isn't, but I'm feeding them up with tomato feed and hoping for the best. The 'Alicantes' look OK so far and have started to show yellow trusses.

I sowed a few rows of carrots too. We don't usually have much luck with carrots, must have the wrong kind of soil or something. I bought some carrots from the supermarket last week. You know the kind - all washed and wrapped up in plastic. Why is everything wrapped in shrink wrap when we're supposed to be trying to save the planet not annihilate the ground we walk on! Anyway they've all gone black and stink and I've had to throw them out so I shall be growing successions of Molly carrots for a few weeks.

D'you like sweetcorn? I love them. I cook them in a table spoon full of boiling water for about eight minutes in the microwave, then plaster them with lashings of butter. They're usually ready about August. This variety is one called 'Incredible' which has a fantastic taste.

The beetroot is coming quite well. I started those in plug trays and then planted them out in the soil when they were big enough to handle. I find they're a lot less work as you don't have to bother thinning them out which is a bonus.

The runner beans are in flower so we should have our first runner bean meal, the beginning of July.
I've harvested the first of the onions and garlic and have got them drying on the runner bean supports. They were planted as 'sets' last October.

Our first early potatoes are ready for eating which is just as well. The potato tops started to go brown so I had to whip them off quickly. Thought they'd succumbed to blight as well, but the potatoes in the ground don't look as if they have any sign of the disease so that's good news. These are a variety called 'Rocket' They don't keep very well but they taste good. Only got two short rows of them so we wont waste any.

I sowed some purple sprouting seeds last October. We've had quite a few meals off them.  Some of the plants are starting to go to seed, but that's how it is.

Really Appreciate All your Help

Thankfully there have not been any more uninvited nasties on my reader list - well not for today at least. Thank you so much for your help - Tom in particular.
If anything like this happens to you (really hope that it doesn't)  - but  here's what I've done.
1. First of all, I contacted Google (did that yesterday) - on their help page. You describe the problem and then the next stage is to highlight  the bits that are causing you grief.  Submit the lot to them.
2. I changed my Google Account password. If you type in  'Google Account' - they walk you through the necessary. I also added a double layer of protection by allowing Google to send a verification code to my phone.
3. Dug out the ethernet cable like Tom said and changed my Home Hub password.
So hopefully things will be OK
Thanks again.

Trashed

My site has been trashed again. 15 hours ago unknown person (persons) attached a number of  definitely uninvited,  filthy, disgusting posts to my blog reading list and I don't know how to block/get rid  them. Has anybody else encountered this problem? Help!
I'll leave my site up for a couple of days in the hope that you or Google can show me how to block these scums. If there isn't any other way, I'm going to have to take my site down and start again.

Sometimes ......

the truth hurts

Dance .....

Like nobody's watching.
I've always liked dancing. When I was about 17, every Saturday night I used to go to 'The Music Hall' in Shrewsbury with my group of girl friends. I remember this one night, one of the local star dancers, grabbed my hand and pulled me on to the dance floor. ME!



We danced like there was no tomorrow and everybody there stood back and clapped when the record finished. It was fun. Do you have any happy memories?

Bye For Now

Time for a short break. Love reading your blogs. Thank you for reading mine. Love Molly xx

The Lambs Are Growing

We try to go for a walk most days if the weather is anything like. Mostly it's up the single track road to Bridge 41. This one, built of solid red brick, canopies the main Cambrian Coast Railway line. Sometimes you see the train heading  towards Aberystwyth and feel the bridge shake as it hurtles underneath your feet. On the right hand side, almost adjoining the track, there's a field of sheep and lambs. I love to see them and they seem to grow a little bit more as the time goes on.  They've got used to us now and come rushing to meet us at the gate, living in hopes of something tasty to eat, I guess, but they're mostly unlucky.

Back home along the track,  wild daffodils are all out on the bank at the edge of the stream.

Little bits are starting to come into bloom in the garden

Brunnera. Almost like a forget-me-not. The colour blue a bit more vivid and crinkled bright green leaves.

 Anemone Blanda, the little wind flowers are starting to come out in the front border. Talking about wind ...... we replaced the torn half of the polythene sheet with some spare polythene we had by us. Two days and one night later, the gales blew  and all but ripped it off again. So back to work with spades and Rhino tape. It's holding at the moment. (only just.)

My Camelia bush has made it through the frost. Most years the buds turn brown before they have a chance to open. This year's a bonus.

Masses of lady birds on the Euonymus bush.

I divided a clump of Hemerocallis (day lilies), blue iris, poppies  and planted little bits under the apple trees. The ground was flooded in the winter, but some of last year's plants have survived. Last year's ring of delphiniums are starting to push through. Be interesting to see what grows.

Got a few plants of purple sprouting in the tunnel. The spring cabbages I planted, didn't like the change in temperature and all went to seed so they ended up on the compost heap.

My sister gave me a tub of lettuce seedlings last Autumn - they're looking quite good now.

The broad bean seeds sown in individual cardboard pots have germinated. They'll get planted out in a week or so once the roots have established. One year I had a really good crop of plants, planted them all out only to find that mice had been along the row in the night, scuttled and chewed the bean seeds still attached and left a line of chewed bean tops strewn about as dead as dodos.
Think I might have the gardening bug again, every year at this time it's the same.
Have a good week.