Summer harvesting

Well, I won’t be doing that again. Thursday market mid morning. I always go up super early to our weekly market. That way I can actually park the car rather than doing what most people do and abandoning them in every available space without imagining the traffic consequences.

I have a sneaky spot down by the amphitheatre and the nursing home. But I didn’t even bother trying to park there this late.

If I go early I can actually sit and chat with my friends who have market stalls before the hordes. Oh yes, and I can get the loaves of flute ferment as the baker never does enough and they have sold the entire batch by 0810. And deliver my flowers before the queues outside the butchers’ snakes down the road.

But today I just decided to go for my daily walk in the gorgeous cool of a summer’s morning before the heat started pounding.

We actually had rain overnight. Well, when I say rain, the ground was damp when I got up. So I did that rather undignified race down to the rain gauge in the east garden, in the pjs, clutching the cup of coffee to see what delights were recorded.

1 millimetre.

And a dead wasp. Maybe the wasp trapped in the rain gauge drank all the water before it expired. Somehow I doubt it.

Still, a bit of rain. A teensy bit of rain. And I’m back on my mountain top after a week away. So that’s two good things.

The potager looks great from a distance. It’s a bit parched – only one watering in a week in a heatwave is a bit on the hard rations side.

But giving the first lavish watering is the most perfect way of saying ‘I’m back’. And harvesting.

We have cucumbers and courgettes coming out our ears. And of course there is always one courgette that gets forgotten – that’s one mighty monster marrow ready for the compost heap.

And with the hose in hand I was able to shoo away the entire wasp and hornet population of the farm from my figs.

So that’s great. It’s all great.

My trip to London was necessary and urgent (hello, dentist) and I’m glad I went to stock up on the supplies.

But the crowds were confronting. And what is it with the ‘can’t be arsed to wear a mask’ thing? You have to wear them when you go into shops, so why not just keep the damn things on when you are barrelling down a crowded street?

Don’t get me launched.