So, April, May & June 2018 were all posted on the same day, July 19th, a drizzly day in July which was celebrated as my first proper rainy day anywhere in WEEKS. And it also happened to be the day after I planted out some leek seedlings meaning I’m even more delighted at the rain. Anyways, it’s become apparent today that my photo journalling has been inconsistent to say the least…2 in April, over 100 in May and less than 10 in June. Ha! I’m acknowledging the madness of it, and hoping it will get me back in the groove of taking photos more regularly, and in the mean time…enjoy!
As I’m preparing these entries I go through the (usually 100+) photos I have for a month and edit the selection down. This month I just didn’t feel inclined. So there are lots. Without, necessarily, that many descriptions. May was spent getting seeds in pots, tending things and generally enjoying being at home. I hope the pictures will speak for themselves but if not, you can always ask!
Tools of the trade: I love the floor we have in our hallway, and although I’m not quite sure what the bike pump was doing, the gloves, water and wellie are all staples in my “working outside” kit
I confess I actually don’t remember exactly where this was but that the fields were already this dry in MAY is really quite something…
This is a “before” photo of the spot I now often go and sit to journal in, first thing in the morning. This will have been an evening shot (in the morning it’s flooded in sunshine) and although it’s nettly here, it’s being “tamed”, bit by bit (see later)
I think the action was over by the time this shot was taken, but this was from Chris making the frame of his new work bench – using the big (but perfect for this job) clamps he got at Christmas
The “polytunnel patch”, pre-polytunnel (which isn’t expected for a couple of years) and also pre- this year’s plants: squash and courgette
The “upper” fruit tree triangle, immediately after strimming
Fairly hard to spot in this photo, but this is actually the blueberry patch
After 2 years of not being grazed, we’re finding bluebells are coming back all over the show. It’s LOVELY
It’s a fairly hard line, but the mown/not mown divide is so that we’ve got a clear corridor between the house and the (main) fruit garden. There’s also more of a mown section towards the house (you can just make it out) and in my head I’d like to bring the whole field down to ground level at some point to get a real feel for the lay of the land, but I’m not sure that’ll happen this year: too many other things to be doing than to be worrying about mowing / strimming
The flowering quince (we think) that is now flowering having been given space to grow again after the removal of a Kilmarnock willow and a large old clematis which had got very rambly. Originally this bed was the only one in the middle of what is now our veg patch
The satisfaction of a freshly-mown lawn (this is our most “lawny” lawn, at the back of the house)
Something went awry with this post – so here goes with the rest of the photos: apologies for any duplicates!
Seed incubators for leeks (long and thin) and parsley & lettuce
I think I took this photo because there was an owl in the tree. Can’t spot it now, mind
The blueberry patch
French beans installed in the greenhouse
Ruthje tomato seedlings, some gherkins we were given and the first purple podded sugar snap peas
Freshly weeded, and awaiting some Babington’s leek seedlings
The (rapidly thinning) leek bed
The tree nursery
The satisfaction of a weeded bed
Onions! Hurrah!
The internet cut out one morning. I thought it was the router resetting. Turns out a limb of one of our old oak trees had fallen off (in the not-particularly-strong winds) and the phone line was in two bits. I was due to be heading to Morecambe the next day anyway so left early as there was no guarantee when the line was going to be fixed. As it turned out (and courtesy of me not answering a call from their call centre as I was on another call – and so them not being sure if it was dangerous or not so assuming it might have been) the line was fixed before I’d even made it to Morecambe!
