Things are really going in the garden now. The cucumbers are absolutely covered in flower buds; the first Gardeners' Delight tomatoes have set; the dwarf borlotti beans are now in flower (the ones in the post before last are runner bean Hestia - sorry about the mistake, I must have been operating on autopilot); bees are buzzing, birds are singing...in fact, we have wood pigeons nesting on our North facing wall, collared doves living in the nook behind our satellite dish and now blackbirds raising their second clutch on our front wall!
Above: gardener's delight toms just set.
Above: Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco (dawrf) flower - what a pretty pink.
Above: I just loved the way this butterhead lettuce glowed in the sunshine the other day.
Above: the greenhouse. Cucumbers and the loofa at the back, aubergines in pots waiting to be planted out down the left, peppers and okra with seed trays of Italian beans down the right.
Today I made a lemon pudding according to Sara Buenfeld's recipe in this months Good Food mag...unfortunately for my figure it's worked a treat and is delicious! (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11258/luscious-lemon-pudding-with-summer-berries)
Yesterday afternoon was spent at Geoff Galliver's house. He's the secretary of our beekeepers' association and a very experienced beekeeper. Dad and I will be taking our Basic exam this year (bet you didn't know beekeepers sat exams!) and fortunately after talking it over with Geoff it sounds like we're already pretty up on it all. Just one or two things to check, but most of it is stuff that every beekeeper knows. But I haven't done it yet so we'll see how things go.
Here's a pic of the honey we collected from that wild colony - luckily, we haven't had to melt it! We have filtered it but I think it's still saleable...not as good as ours, which is beautifully floral, but this stuff has a smoother, deeper flavour and beautiful ruby colour.
This weekend we're busy socialising but I'm hoping we'll still be able to go canoeing (elderflowers!) and to transfer one of our nucs into a full sized hive...I'll keep you posted!
No comments:
Post a Comment