We had a taste of summer this week. Jumpers were cast in favour of tee shirts. However, in order not to tempt fate whenever we went out we had a supply of clothing ready for whatever weather we were likely to encounter.
Plants have responded to the improved temperatures and put in a welcome growth spurt.
Last week, I stated that I hoped that, as the first lot of peas had grown taller and were staked, the wood pigeons would leave them alone. I hoped in vain, the wood pigeons persisted in eating the leaves. As a result, we have had to drape netting back over them. A plot neighbour told us that he even caught pigeons stripping the flowers off his peas. We’re not sure where we go from here as the peas will end up tangling with the netting. The only option seems to be to build some sort of cage.
Last week, we sowed some mangetout peas which were also netted. We really need to construct a gigantic cage that covers our entire plot.
I also planted our last lot of brassicas. These are protected under an enviromesh tunnel as they need protection against butterflies as well as the dastardly wood pigeons.
We harvested the first root of our early potatoes. It only produced four tubers but they were very large.
We also harvested our first calabrese and cabbages.
As well as more strawberries and gooseberries we picked our first tayberries.
We decided on a different venue for one of our walks and headed for Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. It’s a dog-friendly National Trust property. On arrival, a great fuss was made of Ruby and she was given one of her favourite treats.
The cafe is divided into two areas, in one part dogs are allowed. As it was a lovely day we opted to sit outside and were kept entertained by a group of jackdaws. As soon as a table was vacated they swooped in on the off chance that some tasty scraps were on offer.
There are two walks to choose from and we decided to take the long five-kilometre walk.
This is mainly a woodland walk with the latter stage being along the lakeside.
Several weirs control the changing levels of the lake. 
Ruby enjoyed having a new area to explore and many new things to sniff. Dogs have to remain on a lead but Ruby’s extendable lead was allowed so she had plenty of freedom to wander. She actually prefers to keep us on a lead so she knows we can’t run off while she is busy sniffing.
A selection of photos are shown below.
That’s all that I have to share for now, so as always keep safe and well.
Once again I am joining Dave’s Harvest Monday on ho Our Happy Acres blog
The lake and weirs at Kedleston Hall look amazing – great photos, I’m sure you’ll be going back there!
All the netting does make picking more difficult but it’s essential for everything these days it seems.
You have some excellent and varied harvests already – well done!
THe netting is a necssary evil, Belinda
What a lovely spot. Full on pigeon attack here as well. They are eating the cherries from the tree out the front which drives the dog bananas. He will go through the glass one of these days. I realised that an entire row of beetroot had completely disappeared the other day as well. Literally nothing left. They didn’t even wait for the neighbour’s cherries to ripen, they took all of the little green fruitlets and then started on the foliage. Sigh.
Pigeons are fast becoming a plague CJ we need some raptors
Too bad about the wood pigeons, it seems there’s always something that wants to eat our veggies. I do enjoy your photos of the walks and outings too.
So many things get to eat the things that we grow before we have the chance. Dave