Our normal English summer is back!

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Good news - for a number of years a solitary Pyramidal Orchid has grown on a grassy verge - this year there are three! According to a local, the original plant has been growing there for about 7 years. From a bit of research, I gather that 7 years is not a particularly long maturing time, the Common Twaybane can take 15 years to set seed! The Pyramidal Orchid is such a pleasing plant - an elegant over-all shape, a rich even pink colour & intriguing individual flowers. What a beauty!

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The Pyramidal Orchid is pollinated by moths & butterflies & I was thinking that this year I have seen lots of butterflies - brown ones in particular. I've checked a few web-sites & I think that they are Ringlets, Meadow Browns , Tortoiseshells & Gatekeepers. In lesser numbers I've seen Orange Tips, Peacocks, Painted Ladies & Brimstones. A few days ago Mr PoppyM saw a Red Admiral. I've noticed that a nearby allotment has been visited by the Cabbage Whites - lovely big plants full of holes. I'm on "butterfly alert" - they are not getting my plants this year! (Visit this web-site for some great photos & info http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/index.asp ).

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Moles - until this year I've not really given them much thought. I've seen the occasional dead one & read Duncton Wood - but that's it. Well that's all going to change! My garden & vegetable plot have become a home to a mole or moles - new hills every morning, hills everywhere. As I walk across the grass between the beds my feet sink - the other day I planted out some brassicas & hit a tunnel a few inches below the surface, & I've had to prop-up a big container as it is about to subside. Little blighters. The beautiful straight rows of seeds now have great empty patches where moles have thrown-up hills & we have smoothed them out. I've re=planted those with radishes. There must be some humane way of encouraging them to move elsewhere!! More in this in a later post.

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It's pouring with rain on & off with thunder threatening & the plants are so happy - some of the leaves on my pumpkins have reached 2' across. I have high hopes for bumpers crops!!

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Gosh isn't it hot!!

Yesterday I took the small dog out for a short walk (too hot for a long one) - down to a little pond. It was beautiful:

*pristine white lilies & glossy deep-green lily pads,

* a small "flock" of the tiniest blue damselflies - "flying sewing needles"

* & in stark contrast, a whopper of a dragonfly - I can see why the big ones are called hawkers - just like a Hawker Sidley plane!

At home the leeks I have let go to seed are looking magnificent - one of them has burst open & the pom-pom is getting ready to come into full flower. I helped it along a little by removing the papery cap - it is the 1st time I've seen a leek do this & I am struck by how like a pixie cap the covering is! Is this where the pixie & fairy artists artists got there inspiration from? (picture from the flower fairy website http://www.flowerfairiesprints.com/)

Onto more prosaic matters - the time has come to "deep-clean" the kitchen & give it a lick of paint. Groan - it has to be done & I know we'll all feel much better walking into a sparking clean the kitchen. The "comfortable chair" & sofa need to go to - it must be the "solstice effect" - that or the fact that bright sunshine shows up all that's lain hidden in the relative-gloom of the rest of the year!

Happy Mid-Summer's Day

Gosh, hasn't time flown - half way through the year already.

It's been a busy few day between the summer solstice & mid-summer's day - the utterly improbable has actually happened. We now own our "little piece of England". It's taken about 18 months but it's ours!!! It's a long term project so I'm thinking about setting up a separate blog to chart the changes - from overgrown ruin to restored building/s with lovely gardens.

The hens are laying well but we are regularly selling out of eggs. So after much debate an order has been placed for 6 more pullets - all being well, they will be available at the end of July. In the mean-time our properly broody hen has been sitting for just over two weeks. I cant quite remember why, but she only has two eggs. Luck may be with us & we'll have 2 hens but to be honest I'd be glad if one healthy cockerel arrived!

Still on the theme of time passing - my little grey mare is soon to be 10 years old. I remember her as a spindly-legged bay filly - ahh. The poor girl has developed summer mud-fever again but it's well under control so should be gone in the next few days. The irony is we got through the whole winter without a hint of mud-fever - well I suppose it was a very dry one.

Plants, plants, plants every where!! The beans have made it to the tops of the poles, the sweet peas are in full magnificent bloom, the squashes are in flower & the pineapple lily has a very promising bud. The veggie patch is planted up & as the new potatoes (just being harvested) come out there is a waiting list of plants to go in! I'm experimenting with sweetcorn this year as I'm sure we are in for a long HOT HOT HOT summer. A combination of growing seeds in pots & being given some trays of plants means we have nearly a 100 brassica plants growing - not bad for someone who dislike a vast majority of the brassica family! But the hens love them as does Mr PoppyM - I'm way too soft.

The No Space Garden

Proving that for gardeners "where there is a will there is a way" !!

Late Spring Bank Holiday

It's that rare thing - a sunny hot Bank Holiday weekend! And nature is celebrating to.

* This morning I walked across a field full of buttercups. Buttercups as far as the eye could see (a bit of poetic license). Boots coated with bright yellow pollen. From the top of the hill - a shimmering haze of gold.
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* Through the buttercups - dragonflies darting. I think they were Brown Hawkers (see picture above). I checked on the British Dragonfly society page - well worth a visit - it has great photos & descriptions (http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/aegra.html).
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* Me & Mr PoppyM spent the morning digging over a patch we have been loaned. It is/was covered in nettles & couch grass so requires a fair bit of work to change it into a veggie patch. The soil is really good quality tho - the early potatoes we put in a while back are looking brilliant. A row - perfectly straight as "he who must be obeyed in digging matters" insisted - of early carrots.

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* I've found a great place to buy our veggie seeds - the old fashioned way - by weight (http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/index.html). So it's just a matter of choosing the varieties & getting them planted in the lovely new plots.

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* The hens - one in particular - really enjoyed scratching out almost everything we put in the wheelbarrow. She was joined by a few friends & we didn't have the heart to stop them - such simple pleasures..

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* Many hens spent the post-laying part of the morning sun-bathing & dust-bathing. Even Alfie the "I'm very important" cockerel sun-bathed for a bit. And the broody hen popped out from her nest to partake of the rays for a few moments. Great contentment in the hen-pen.

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* Mr PoppyM & me are divided on how to increase our flock. I want to give a home to a dozen hens that are due to be culled from a commercial, free-range flock not far from here (12 for £5.00 - what a heart-breakingly small sum for hard-working hens). Mr PoppyM would rather buy day-old chicks & raise them. There are pro & cons for both routes...time will tell which path we take. And of course in the mean-time out broody hen may raise a few her self.

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* Back home - the "Heath Robinson" cold frames I have "constructed"from old sheets of plastic roofing, string, bits of wood & plastic sheeting are holding together surprisingly well: no nails involved. The veggies growing in them seem to be appreciating them & look great - the 1st lettuces will be ready any day now. I have high hopes for pumpkins, squashes & courgettes & a bumper crop of tomatoes.

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* Yesterday the California poppies burst into flower giving the pots & containers a much needed boost. The spring bulbs are almost over & I can barely wait to get the summer bedding flowers etc that I have GROWN FROM SEED (very proud I am to) into the pots. Mini-sunflowers, asters, black-eyed suzies, lupins, nasturtiums, evening primrose.......

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Lovely wallflowers

In praise of WALLFLOWERS

The early ones will soon be over - just rustling sticks with seed pods. What pleasure they have given - green shoots & leaves through the winter months, abundant scented-flowers in arange of soft bright colours through the spring and now, lots of lovely seeds for the next flowering season.

Last autumn I sowed wallflowers seeds, they are now in full leaf, so I have another batch to look forward to.

Go out & buy a packet today!!!

Summer has arrived at last

It's SUMMER

* Yesterday I heard the first cuckoo of the year - a lot later than last year.

* Today I saw the first dragonfly of the year

* And the first swan family to - cob, penn & 5 cygnets.

• I passed another apple orchard - lots of blossom so that's a good sign for the grower
  
• The hops are well on their way up the poles and
  
• The OAK is definitely out before the ASH - it confirms my feeling that we are in for a hot dry summer.

* At last our injured chicken is out in her new pen with a nice quiet companion

* The dog has her pen back

* And the horse is finally living out 24/7 0 hurrah - no more mucking out till the Autumn.

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