October!

I've had a few tomatoes I could freeze, I have now dug up the plants, along with kilos of green tomatoes. I will be away for a month so, even if they ripen, I won't be here to pick them.
I cleaned my garage and whilst I was doing that a neighbour asked me if I would like some peppers, she gave me 5 enormous peppers, I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have dug up my pepper plants as well, they looked really healthy and had loads of flowers, but that isn't much good at this time of year, I'm sure we had a frost the other night.
There are more pears than I can cope with, I have had a few raspberries but they will mostly ripen whilst I am away. I have had to buy walnuts, there are so few this year, the price will go shooting up closer to Christmas. All in all it has been hit and miss this year, still my freezers are full :)

Autumn

How temperamental plants are! How different one year can be to another! I have been away for a week, I was sure that when I came back my tomatoes would have ripened, some have but they are sick, they are all black at the bottom.

 I can eat the undamaged half, but I will only be able to freeze them if I cut them up and cook them. There really aren't sufficient to freeze many anyway. So different from the crops I have had in previous years.
Yesterday I pulled out the 'Cherry' tomato plants and collected the ripe tomatoes, they will keep me going this week. the peppers have been a real disappointment, it is too cool for them to ripen now.

I have also had the first of my Autumn raspberries, there will be a large crop but I doubt I will get many of them as I go away again next week. This next week I have to harvest my pears, I had a look yesterday, there are lots on the ground, there were strong winds and rain last week, but there are still plenty on the trees. I also have to clear all the cobwebs from the 'garage' so I can store them. A week of hard work ahead of me.

nearly Autumn

I now have loads of  'cherry' tomatoes, that at least is something. I have had a whole 5 decent sized tomatoes and there are 2 nearly red now. Progress is being made. The days are still pretty hot so I hope I may yet get enough to put some in the freezer. I still have loads of lettuce though it is getting less as I am pulling out whole lettuces instead of just taking off the leaves.
I will start picking my pears this week,there are loads. No walnuts though, that is a shame, there were so many last year. My apples were delicious, though very small. I will soon have another crop of raspberries so I am getting plenty of fruit.
I have been forgetting to water my carrots so I am not sure how they are doing, but they seem OK.
My peppers aren't doing much, the plants look healthy enough but the peppers seem a bit pathetic, other people seem to have enormous peppers. It is strange how some things do well and others don't.

September

We ended up with no water again last Sunday, hardly surprising as many people had left and those who remained were washing sheets by the wash load, next door did 6 wash loads!
My tomatoes are really on a 'go-slow' this year, I am managing to get a few nearly every day but they are still the very small ones. I have had 3 tomatoes that it was possible to slice, very different from the last 2 years. There are almost no walnuts either.
My autumn raspberries are starting to show fruit, I hope I will be here to enjoy them.

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!