Where was I?

Suddenly it’s the 12th of July and I have not written so much as a word.   Too too busy, alas.   But this evening I was doing a quick watering in between turning the roast chicken in the oven, and I noticed that I have squash at long, long last.   The plants have been healthy, producing flowers, but not fruiting.   I was desparing. But there are two plants with some rather fat and bulbous fruit. No idea how I’m going to tell when they are ripe, but that seems to be a long way off.

For the past fortnight it has been over 30C each day. Which means that gardening is mostly restricted to watering both morning and evening to get round to every part of the parched garden.   But things are alive and if I could clone myself I could actually get onto useful things like tying in the tomatoes, clearing some space around the aubergines so they can get more light; cutting down all the spent peas and broad beans. Chipping more so I can cover this part of the soil.   Watering and weeding the strawberries more carefully; planting out more dill and fennel.   Pulling carrots; making pesto from the basil that has finally decided to romp; what else? Tie in the beans better; pull out the spent sweet peas.   Need I go on?

And in the meantime I have managed to have a weekend at Andrew’s helping with a wedding of flowers. Building work and painting ceilings. Cooking and baking and even heading off to town to get a lorry load of wood for all the skirting boards and the kitchen work surface.

Rumblings of thunder in the distance: I will have to unplug soon. Oh that this storm would produce rain that would fall on this mountain top.