The First Fruit of my Labour!

In an unusual turn of events yesterday, the weatherman got it wrong, alright so maybe not that unusual but in any event it turned out to be an unexpectedly lovely day! 

I had noticed a couple of days ago as I peered through the opaque poly tunnel, that I seemed to have a lot of rather large strawberries, and a couple looked red and ready to eat. 

It was my first opportunity to get to them, so first job of the day was to dismantle the now very sagging poly tunnel and get to the strawberries underneath.

Sure enough there were at least three very large red strawberries but only one looked like it was ready to eat. 

A great moment in my Vegetable Garden. The very first edible thing to be picked. So I picked it. Imagine my disappointment when I turned it over and saw this!

It was rotten. I suppose laying on top of the wet weed suppressing fabric had caused this. So now I was on a mission to save the other growing berries. I remembered reading somewhere, that you could place a layer of straw on top of the soil, to lift the berries out of the mud and water and to protect from slugs. Straw is something we have plenty of because of the chickens, so a few minutes later the plants were nestling in a yellow bed. 

Final job was to protect them from birds. I bought some little rubber balls that you can stick bamboo canes into to make joints. I suppose I could have improvised something but I liked the rubber ones . A few minutes later the frame was up.

And my strawberries should now be safe from water, slugs and birds. I just have to hope that we don't get a late frost.

Next job, sort out the potatoes. They have been growing really well with all the rain, so after having banked my early Duke of Yorks, I now needed to do the same for the Charlotte's and Roosters.

A quick weed with the hoe then a bit of digging and they are all now banked.

Time to stop for tea. I have become a bit of a baker since we started getting three eggs a day. Victoria sponge with Oullins gage Jam. No, I had never heard of it either, but my neighbour gave me a jar in exchange for six eggs. They are Yellow Plums. 

Whilst having my tea I admired my cabbages and butternut squash, which I have put out to harden off before planting.

So thats if for plants. Now animals, or birds to be specific. We have a very large Yucca tree on one side of our garden and over the last week we have noticed a pair of thrush going under the leaves. Jim had a quick look and saw they are building a nest under the tree. While they were out collecting stuff for the nest we took a quick picture. Nothing in the nest yet!

And finally as always Gibson. We entered him in the local May Dog Show at our town fair on Saturday. Sadly he didn't win a rosette, but to us he is a winner..