Last week the sunshine stuck around and we enjoyed summery weather. We seem to have skipped spring and jumped forward into summer. Will it last?
At the allotment, we are even having to water. The soil is still wet below the surface which is fine for potatoes and anything that is fairly well established but the surface is dry so seeds and young plants with shallow roots need a helping hand.
We are a bit concerned about our first sowing of peas. They don’t seem to be growing fast enough and the weevils are chomping some shoots into oblivion. The row is very patchy.
As well as general plot maintenance, I also sowed a mixture of annual flowers and picked the first small posy of sweet peas.
The wood pigeons are causing problems and taking the immature fruits of the jostaberries so we have had to try to thwart them using more netting.
As well as work on the allotment, we have been busy in the garden. Martyn planted out all the tomatoes that are staying at home either in the greenhouse or outside.
A video is posted of inside our garden greenhouse here.
Martyn has also cleared the allotment greenhouse ready for planting tomatoes there. When doing this he made a rather surprising discovery.
If you are curious a video is posted here.
In the garden, more and more plants are flowering.
We have lots of self-sown plants. One is a white aquilegia. We’ve never planted a white variety so I’m not sure how we have ended up with this. Most self-sown aquilegias seem to revert to blue.
We also have some poppies popping up in various places, (I wonder whether this is the reason for their name). We have never planted any of these.
At Nostell, wild flowers are making an appearance.
We also had our first sighting of this year’s cygnets. As I mentioned previously seven eggs were laid and five hatched but sadly only four cygnets remain.
Fingers crossed that they all make it into adulthood.
The first thing that we will do on each visit to the lake will be to count the cygnets.
A video of the cygnets is posted here.
The black-headed gulls are now sporting their summer plumage. Black-headed is a misnomer as their heads are really brown.
It isn’t only the swans that are raising young. Two coots have built a nest but we couldn’t see whether it was occupied.
Coots are not the easiest birds to photograph as often no sooner do you have the bird in your sights than this happens.
A result of the dry weather is that the winter lake which develops every year in the meadow is now drying up. Baked mud marks the place where the lake had been.
The electric fences have been set up in readiness for cattle to be let out into the fields.
We have to make sure that Ruby doesn’t get too close.
Finally, a couple of meals last week used some of our frozen vegetables.
One was a chicken, vegetable and rice dish into which, along with an onion, went some of our frozen peas, green beans and sweetcorn.
A veggie bake used an onion and frozen peas, green beans and broad beans.,
Oh and in other news, I had yet another birthday! Where did they all come from?
That’s all for this week so as always stay safe and well.
If your weather has been similar to ours Sue summer has certainly retreated this week. Torrential rain here all day on Wednesday and going into Thursday and then a thunderstorm complete with a volley of hail this afternoon! I hope that summer returns soon. Your sweet peas are gorgeous. I have the same aquilegia mystery too – in my case a double white flower in an area well away from any other aquilegias 🤔
It had, Anna but the end of this week has improved
Haha, that disappeared coot photo is excellent and Martyn’s video made me chuckle- quite the escape artists!
Your flowers are looking great and so much growth in the greenhouse.
I hope you had a Happy Birthday!
Thank you Belinda
Those frogs will thank you later by eating all the slugs 🙂
I’m glad the weather is picking up for you guys.
The weather has now changed again, Steve
A belated happy birthday! Such a cute photo of Ruby. I picked my first sweet peas yesterday. And I’ve been wiping off aphids from my little cherry tree otherwise it will have another stunted year. The cygnets are lovely, I hope they all make it. I have a garden full of starlings and it’s quite stressful as their flying skills aren’t quite there yet.
Thank you CJ. Wipig aphods ogg sounds easier than getting rid of wood pigeons
Such a shame about the cygnets, let’s hope the remaining four make it to adulthood. That’s natures survival of the fittest.
Strangely they alwaus seem to lose obe cygnet, Jo