Was that it?

Suddenly last week the sun came out and the summer started... well for 5 days it did, glorious sunshine, warmth and the plants loved it. They all began to grow rapidly. Finally we were going to be able to eat something homegrown. 

I told you about my first ever homegrown cucumber a week or so ago, well now with some sunshine, it was looking ready to eat. One slight issue was instead of growing longer ,  it just got fatter, It was beginning to resemble a marrow.

I really must find that packet and see if they are baby cucumbers, perhaps they wont grow like the ones I am used to buying at the supermarket. Anyway, it was time to cut it.

  

There are two more which shall be eaten by the weekend. 

Then a few radishes, also a first for me

and the basket was ready to head to the kitchen

A quick wash and brush up and they were ready, 10 minutes from garden to dinner plate, cant get better than that

And in chilli news, they are well on the way, planting on 1st January worked well, this time last year my plants were still  tiny, so I should get a really nice crop throughout the summer. 

Thats about it for veggies, everything is growing nicely.

My Iris had a chance to grow properly this year as we kept the hens off of them in the spring. The flowers have been beautiful. This is looking like the last one for now

I mentioned last blog, that the Yellow Rattle I planted on the stream bank was growing. The bank needed a bit of a general tidy up in areas where there is no rattle, I needed to cut back the grass to let the flowers grow, so I covered my self in Mosquito repellant and wadded in! The constant sound of buzzing was quite annoying, but good old Avon Skin so Soft saved me again. Not a single bite. 

Here are a few pictures, its not looking great yet, its going to take years, but the improvement is amazing, the yellow iris in the background were strangled by brambles two years ago, There were one or two flowers last summer, now they are in danger of taking over. 

And finally some time ago, I mentioned we had bought a classic sports car and it was being restored. Well its nearly finished and we are taking delivery on the 26th June, we have lots of plans for trips and holidays already and so are really excited, heres a few pictures of how it is getting on. 

Its been resprayed its original colour of Damson

and the restored original engine is back in and running. The car was last on the road in 1982 so an impressive job to get it working again

And finally the beautifully restored walnut dash is back in after being French Polished, by a Frenchman!

Finally here in the UK, we fancied a bit of bling, so we bought a beautiful new set of wire wheels for her to have on in the summer. 

I called her she... but she now has a name. Until recently she was known as Red 6, simply because she was Red and a TR6 . We decided to find an appropriate name and so looked at the pop charts for the week she was registered in 1970. The number one song on the day was this  No 1  So the car is now named Freda. I think it suits her. 

Have a great week