Sunshine After The Rain

Finally Some Sun

The last few days have been pretty wet here, and as much as we'd like to we havnt really spent so much time at lotty as we may have liked. But the suns now out and it means a proper chance to have a look around. Already the pak choi has started to appear, which given the weather is a bit of a surprise. Although it was a little late to be planting them out the tomatoes, peppers, chilis and aubergines have done amazingly well, all have new growth and are looking healthy. We did notice after having to bend one of the inside tomato plants that the stem had broken and the top looked as if it were dying. Im happy to say, as with our poorly tomato a few months ago, it has healed and the top is now looking better than ever. We did have to pull up one of the tomato plants as it had stopped growing, but another aubergine has been planted in its place, and were keeping our fingers crossed that it has time to grow.

A Good Feed All Round

Yesterday was the first pork cob Thursday without the Blur as she has now started at a holiday club and was probably having alot more fun there. By the time John had arrived the veggies had all been given a good feed and with cobs in hand we had our daily walk about. The one thing you cannot fail to miss at the moment are our pumpkins. John tells me the previous pumpkins he has planted never grew as big as the ones we have now. They are like monsters. The largest of the plants is roughly 15 feet long, and with the second one quickly catching up they are threatening to take over the whole allotment. We have been pleased with the broad beans which after only a week or two (taking into account the weather) have grown to 5-6 inches already. Not only have all our melon plants got tiny little melons growing already, but greenhouse 2 now smells like melons, which makes it an even better place to be.

Blackberry Jam

Around the edges of lotty we have a number of blackberry brambles. We picked a few not long ago for an apple and blackberry pie, but John asked if I could make some blackberry jam. Im trying anything I can with our lotty hauls so off I went to find all I needed. Annoyingly all of the best blackberries are at the very top, so I grabbed a stool from the greenhouse and started my search. Half an hour and a few scratches later my plastic tub was full and it was off home to make a mess (im not the tidiest of cooks). The recipe was simple enough and within twenty minutes there were two jars of our very own jam cooling down in the kitchen. John spied them almost immediately when he got in from work, but as they were still hot he still had a bit of a wait before the sampling could begin. It seemed like a long wait, with me checking every ten minutes, but the second it was set out came the bread. We dubiously took our first bites, and I at least was pleasantly surprised. The Blur was offered some when she got back from her club and after tasting a bit from the spoon asked if she could have a jam sandwich. So there it is, my first try at jam was a success. Im now wondering what else I can make. We have a few plums which are ripening, and iv never had plum jam before, so there is an idea if we manage to harvest enough of them.

And finally. I would like to thank John and the weather for a lovely morning at lotty.