Glorious sunshine today. When I came back from work and did a quick scan of the papers however, I saw that this wasn't going to last. So rushed out to the shed, rigged up the lawnmower and sped up and down the garden. Quick fringe cut of the edges -- done. By that point the clouds had gathered again. Amazing what you can do in 10 rainfree minutes!
But it wasn't raining just yet, only spitting. OH was inside cooking dinner (Fridge-Freezer Risotto) and kindly gave me permission to sow his pumpkins and squashes. These were still languishing in an envelope in our seed box. OH had decided to experiment with different varieties this year -- the Oochi-Koochi varieties, I call them disrespectfully. They were meant to go in in April. Oops. Let's hope they catch up quickly then...
If they're successful, they'll be great: we'll have, on top of our usual Halloween monsters, Waltham Butternuts, Uchiki Kuri, something called Crown Prince and a summer squash with a funny shape called White Scallop.
OH, having put the risotto on simmer, joins me on the patio. Normally, when sowing, we try to stay out of each other's hair and flightpaths, but the sunny day must have made us both mellow. OH discovers his sweetcorn seeds ("Oh yeah! Here they are!") so these go in too. Phew! Thank Heavens for a long growing season here, otherwise our random sowing patterns would spell disaster for our harvest.
I think next year we need to be more methodical than this. OH had put the seed month on each seed packet but then put these in an envelope and in a box and promptly forgot about them. I had sat down in the winter and made a long list of what to sow out when but forgot to print it off and display it prominently.
The wet means the snails are out in force again: something's been at the cabbage seedlings in the greenhouse! OH discovers the culprit stuck underneath the seed tray -- a voracious juvenile. Haven't seen the thrush in a while: in previous years it deposited its snail shells on the patio as a thankyou.
In any case, the greenhouses are bulging and seedlings have been moved out onto the patio table and various surfaces so we're now absolutely relying on there being no more frosts.
The rains have started again. We're officially in drought. And most of Europe is getting high summer temperatures and sunshine. Is it cognitive dissonance or pure envy?
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