A Wet Day In Lottington Stanley

Cucumbers And Tomatoes

The two cucumbers that the Blur planted a few weeks ago are now thriving. The inside cucumber is now about a meter high and already has fifteen tiny cucumbers growing. The outside one, although not as tall or fruitful has taken to the outside world after an initial wilt and aslo has a few tiny cucumbers on it. We now have a daily supply of ripe tomatoes which we have been using in recipes and sandwiches. We are now just waiting for the plum tomatoes to change colour which if the others are anything to go by it wont be long.

For the first time today we will be cooking with our runner beans from the bottom patch. Unfortunately the runner beans in the top patch have a disease which I think is possibly chocolate spot (its sounds better than it looks) theres nothing we can do about it other than to burn the plants at the end of the season.

The sweetcorn is as always doing great. They are on the verge of drooping which indicates that they are ready, though we did pick and eat a few in the week which were lovely. We have an abundance of chilis and soon it'll be the same with the peppers.

Wet Feet And Onions

So today hasnt given us the best weather, especially as we had planned on a lotty BBQ, but none the less we were up bright and early once again. After a McDonalds breakfast it was off to homebase to get a few bits and then on to lotty. The Blur had decided that she was ready for more planting an settled herself in greenhouse one with a few pots, packets of seeds and a watering can. She'd brought a few GU chocolate pudding glasses from home and started by sewing a few cress seeds, and then went on to planting three pots of basil. We have basil growing in two other places but it seem to be one of the few things we use regularly so the more the better.

In the meantime John set about mowing and strimming the grass and sorting out the compost heap, which involved dividing it between two water butts, and emptying the big white bag back into the pile. I planted a few rows of pak choi and a row of garlic. By this point my feet were wet and squelchy, and the Blur and I took ourselves back off home. Returning an hour later with hot coffee, sandwiches and biscuits.

Yesterday we pulled up all of our onions and shallots and left them out to dry. Considering the weather today they were not going to get very dry led out on the soil and we decided instead to string them up. John did the first lot, but soon we were all at it. We all found our own methods that worked for us and it wasnt long before we had at least 7 or eight strings of onions. Apparently stringing them up the French way is more romantic than sticking them in a pair of old tights (according to Alan Titchmarsh.)

Abandoned BBQ Plans

Well as you may have gathered it was slightly too wet for a BBQ so plan B had to be thought up pretty quickly. John offered to cook pasta and the gathering of food began. A few tomatoes from greenhouse 1, a courgette, a few peas, a leek and some of our very long runner beans. Whilst on our way down the a butterfly (im scared of them) with its erratic flying style collided with my face and I shouted in my girlyest voice 'argh, argh, it hit me in the face, which the Blur found very amusing.