Wonderful Sungold tomatoes - first fruits

Week 27, Monday, 23rd June 2008

A lovely day today with lots of sunshine! Mom and I tasted the first Sungold tomatoes – boy were they good. There are lots of tomatoes on the plants both at home and on the greenhouse and even the cucumber plants seem to have stopped their sulking and have begun to romp away. Can’t wait for things to really get going. Seems strange that we have already had the Summer Solstice and we are now on our way to Autumn again. Yikes! Think that I will rather think about lots of lovely ripe tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, melons, etc.

Got the Job!

Week 26, Saturday, 21st June 2008

Well I got lovely news last night. I was offered a position that I was interested in and am so happy. I really need a change and a new challenge. My family and I have been really blessed over the last couple of weeks I am very thankful and count my blessings.

Despite me having an embroidery class at 14:00, Mom and I still managed to nip down to the lottie and drop all the composting dregs.

The lottie is really looking well with everything just going mad. The British corn that Rosie planted is starting to come up and the mange tout tepee is going bonkers! I picked another batch of mange tout which we can add to some vegetables at dinner. Also picked enough beetroot to make a meal and give the remaining ones place to start bulking up. The dahlias are starting to put on some good growth as are the cosmos – I must remember to head them next time I am down so that they can bush out some. Have been eating strawberries from the planter at home but not enough at one time to make a meal though. Will have to look at bulking my strawberry patch up on the lottie next year.

The greenhouse got a good watering and I refilled all the two litre bottles. All the bottles, bar one had emptied - so this time around I have not tightened the lids that much – I will see how that goes. All the bottles are vacuuming too much and it does not seem that enough air is getting in. Mom picked a huge bunch of sweetpeas and there are still tons on the tepee. Will try and get back next week-end to do some real work

Experimental Watering Bottle Tops

Week 26, Sunday, 15th June 2008

Managed to get down to the lottie for an hour and fitted the bottle tops for the watering bottles in the lottie greenhouse. This should save me time having to go out quite so regularly to water. Fingers crossed, that’s the general idea any way.

Everything is looking good on the lottie with the French beans starting to make their dash for freedom up the bean frame. No flowers yet, but patience. The gem squash and pumpkins are looking very good and we already have a couple of flowers on the Hubbard squash – can’t wait for harvesting. I might even enter one of my squash for the lottie summer competition on 9th August. The Ambo FE potatoes that were left in the ground by accident are flowering and I will have to dig them up soon. The label for the New International Kidney has got lost and I am not sure which row they are – it would seem that some of the labels have gone MIA all together. I have tried seeing the flowers but there is not one row that is obviously flowering profusely besides what I think are the new Sarpo’s I am trying this year. Maybe the flowering ones are the NIK’s with the wrong label on. Mmmm! Will go and investigate when next down there and have a bit of a dig around. We managed to forage a lovely huge bunch of sweet peas and some mange tout.

Jacquie's got wheels!

Week 25, Saturday, 14th June 2008

Went out to Sturminster Newton to fetch Jacquie’s car from Trevor and Tracey. Still think they are nuts going back to Zimbabwe with all the political unrest going on at the moment but hey – they are adults and should know what they are doing. Tracey did not even bother to put enough petrol in the tank and I am sure we just made the garage on fumes. It was quite a laugh when we got to the petrol station to fill up – we did not know what kind of petrol to put in. I must admit I felt quite foolish but in the end we decided to put in unleaded.

Got the House!

Week 25, Thursday, 12th June 2008

Mom and Jacquie got the house! Another one off the list now. They have accomplished so much over the six weeks they have been here it is amaxing when you sit down and actually take stock of the full picture.