2 more weeks!

Mostly August has not been too bad but I went to pick my plums last week and found someone had got there before me, there was not a plum on the tree, nor any of the trees round about. Scrumping is one thing but it's normal to leave some fruit for the owner, I think!

Yesterday I pulled out my 'courgette' I really can't face them any longer.

I hadn't cleared it for a couple of days and ended up with these!

My freezer is already nearly full of 'courgettes' but it is going to have a few more! I am faced with a weekend of frying .

I have had a few tomatoes now and they are increasing in size, the first ones looked more like red currants! The warm weather must turn them, it must. I still have loads of lettuce but I have eaten all the first sowing.

This is the second sowing, I think it will keep me going for a while, the peppers are doing well too.

I am starting to pick up 'windfalls' of apples and pears, my apples are very small but I am tempted to pick them, before the local kids do:(

Why I still hate August!

This was a flower bed, a sea of green with a Japonica that I have been nurturing. I cleared it a little last Friday as it had got terribly overgrown but I left it green, on Sunday morning it looked like this. Who did it? Why did they do it? Why is the toadstool still smiling? I wasn't!  I kept my spare keys under the toadstool but fortunately I moved them, knowing that people come up here in August. The Toadstool had been well hidden, under a bramble that a neighbour admitted to poisoning for me! She denies doing the rest of the damage but someone has. Toadstool can go now.

Life isn't all bad, even in August. We had the village BBQ last night, apparently this used to be an annual event but it stopped, now it has been revived. There were 150 people, not bad for a village that only has about 25 inhabitants in winter.

I had my first tomatoes yesterday, 2 very small ones but it was a beginning, none today though :(

My vegetable patch looks full, mostly because of the 'courgette' but other things are doing well too. I will have loads of tomatoes eventually but they are much later this year. We have just had a very hot week, I thought it would have a positive effect but it hasn't done much. Once I gt a regular supply of tomatoes I will pull up the courgette as I have plenty in the freezer already and it is attacking everything else.

 There have been loads more birds this year. The House Martins have started their morning parliaments, those back 2 wires could not have fitted another bird on, there were well over 200. it's incredible how they all know to come at the same time because most of the day there is no sign of them, they meet for about half an hour and then disperse.

August

Well, I said the kittens had disappeared, they were missing for a while but now 3 have re-appeared. They spend a lot of time sitting waiting for the neighbours to feed them, not sure what they will do in October when there is no-one to feed them. I hope the ability to hunt is innate in cats.

I thought my courgettes would grow whilst I was away, I was only away for 3 nights but came back to these.

I think I was given marrows not courgettes, I'm sure I asked for courgettes. One of my neighbours has the same problem so I think the nursery got confused. I have been frying up and freezing already, and looking for recipes for stuffed courgettes/marrows. I am now picking them daily but even so I occasionally miss one, it only takes 2 days to get to this size.

My lettuce look really pretty, I am still eating it by the plate full.
I came back to thunderstorms. It is now hot again but another front is approaching, the weather is still very temperemental, but looking back it was last year as well. I just hope it stays warm enough for the tomatoes to start ripening, the peppers are doing well despite the odd weather.
I am still getting the odd raspberry and strawberry and the plums are just ripening so fruit is good.
The onions are dying back, I will dig them up tomorrow, there are very few. I planted about 3 dozen sets but the wild boar dug up most and the others have not done well. I do not have much success with onions and garlic, I really don't know why because everyone else seems to have enormous ones, it isn't as if you have to do more than put them in the ground and wait! Well maybe you have to hope the boar doesn't dig them up!