That's Shallot!

Its still glorious and I made a pledge that I wouldnt complain about the heat. After all the bad weather in the last 12 months it has made a very pleasant change. I have stuck to my pledge and have so far uttered, not a word about how hot it is. It has meant though, that I have been using lots of water on the garden and today, I discovered my water butts were empty. This meant I had to drag the hose all the way up the garden and refill all three butts. It took ages. 

Ice cream is of course the best antidote to sunny weather, so lots was required. In order to do this Jim, got an Ice cream maker attachment for my Kenwood for his birthday         (long story) . The large pile of strawberries I showed you in my last blog were destined to be it's first trial run. 

As you can see it worked very well, it took quite a long time, but the flavour was amazing. So picked in the morning and Ice cream by the evening. 

As usual in a garden everything is ready at the same time so I am trying to think of inventive things to do with all my produce. This was the first of the courgettes, and it was destined to become a quiche.. 

The squash is growing out of control, in fact one of the pumpkins has decided it would rather be growing in the leek bed. 

I have to walk the long way round now as I cant step over it anymore . 

The leeks have been sharing space with shallots since the spring. I also planted some Nasturtiums to keep the bugs away and it seems to be working. 

They are covered but the veg isn't.

The bed was very messy and needed some attention. It had all sorts of things growing in it including a couple of Foxgloves, goodness knows where they came from !

10 minutes and order was restored. 

The Shallots looked ready to come out, so they did..

They are much better than last year Still not huge but at least they are not rotten this time. They are now laid out to dry.

The heat has been a bit much for the cucumbers in the greenhouse. Lots of them have shrivelled and gone brown 

But the tomatoes and aubergine seem to love the heat. This time last year, we were eating the tomatoes, but they still seem a long way off at the moment.

The cut flowers are an absolute triumph . I know I keep going on about them but I cant help it. I just love them 

I got this beautiful old jug in a charity shop for £1 and it is perfect for the sweet peas. 

And now Gibson, you haven't seen much of him lately. he is happily getting on with his busy life of basically eating and sleeping. This week though he has been busy posing for the camera again. 

Earlier in the week it was to wish a twitter flower loving acquaintance Happy Birthday

As soon as I took the picture he ate the flower. Then yesterday a purchase we have been waiting a while for, arrived. He will be travelling in the back of the TR6 with the top down and we wanted to make sure his eyes were protected, so we bought him some doggie goggles. I think you will agree he looks pretty cool !!

Have a great week