Weather:  Windy

Spotted: Black cat, ladybird, spiders, blackbird, frogs, seagulls

On the menu:  Strawberries, radish, spinach and potatoes

This has been a very windy May.  Since I planted the Passiflora a couple of weekends ago it’s had to deal with a lot of windy weather and it shows.  It looks a little bit fed up and not curling around the new willow trellis I’ve put in instead the tendrils are tight into its self as though it’s too cold to reach out.  The tall leggy blueberry bush, the Juneberry and the rasps have all had to be tied to bamboo canes or sticks because of the stormy weather, just as a bit of support.  The relentlessness of the  weather means I’ve not been on the plot as much as I’d have liked because it’s been so miserable working there and there’s  lots to do, especially weeding as I’ve now discovered mares tail growing in every corner.  I know you can make tea from it but I just can’t bring myself to do it. 

April saw the driest ever on record and now the incessant wind and strange things seem to be happening.  I’ve already harvested two punnets of strawberries (and ate them) and the roses are in full bloom.  I’ve cut one of the pink blooms and put it in a little vase with the pansy’s I’m growing too.  The frogs are doing well in the environment I’ve built them, a little, tiny pond and some green cover made out of a pile of logs placed higgledy piggledy together and allowing the grass to grow around them.  The frogs seem to be oblivious to the invisible phenomenon that rages above them.

Bob’s pumpkins (5 and 6 now) have perished as I suspected they would.  Why he gave them to me before they were ready to go in the ground I don’t know?   I’m going to have to find a couple of Big Max’s before he asks me how the pumps are getting on.  The kindness of plot neighbours is one thing but I just can’t grow them.

On the plot earlier today as most days there’s a blackbird that sits on a tall post just yards from me singing loudly and beautifully as if to say, ‘look at me up here I don’t mind the wind at all’.

Strawbs in May

Rose and Pansy's

A row of radish