Friday, 10-07-26

Morning, all.  How are you all doing?  I hope you slept well and feel refreshed this morning.

Let's start with the photos.  Mostly tomatoes . . .

I'll probably pick this one to have with my lunch and there are now more coming around it as you can see.

These are honeycombs.

The sweet millions are starting to redden now too.  Nice one.

The bigger tomatoes, including the plums, are remaining obstinately light green but their time will come!  :-)

Last photo - I picked the blueberries that were ripe.  They're delicious.

There's more still to ripen but not loads.  It's not a mega crop like last year but it is a satisfactory harvest so no complaints!

I pulled the three rhubarb leaves that were browning, cooked the stems and will have them, with some blueberries, folded into yogurt for breakfast.
And after yesterday's comment, I put the leaves into the recycling bin.  However, I googled and yes, it appears you can compost them:

"Many people wonder if rhubarb leaves are compostable and suitable to use safely as an organic fertilizer. Rhubarb leaves are potentially harmful for people to ingest because of the high amounts of oxalic acid they contain. However, composting these leaves is perfectly safe because the oxalic acid will rapidly degrade in the compost pile and not impact the finished compost quality.

Because the toxin molecules cannot survive outside of the plant’s cells, your compost pile will not be affected. You will even be able to fertilize edible plants in your garden safely."

https://homegrail.com/can-you-compost-rhubarb-leaves/

There was also a suggestion that you chop up the leaves first to make the composting quicker.  However, NEVER try to eat rhubarb leaves as, in their fresh state, they are toxic.

So that's something learned.

Chris and I had a lovely chat sitting in the garden room.  It was a cool start to the day so it was delightful to sit in.  We're not necessarily going to be able to make Thursdays on a few occasions in August but that's OK, normality resumes in Autumn.

Then I drove to Val's for lunch.  It was absolutely lovely hearing about old friends and exchanging news and views.  It was hot in the car but the air con works fairly quickly so that was fine.

When I got home, I was zonked and spend the next few hours dozing - in fact, when I came to, it was nearly 19:00.  I slept well too!

Today will be another hot one, of course, but maybe not in the 30s (says the BBC).  I have Slimming World first and it will be busy because the lovely lady who does the weighing with me is not there today so it's just me.  Kay is coming round with something her husband has made which will be nice.  
Then, early evening sees me out again, picking Diane up and going to a get together for those who are coming on the Spain trip in early September.  It's getting pretty close now!  We're meeting at The Castle which has a really interesting history.
This is what Wiki says:

The village has two public houses: the Castle Inn and the Dog and Partridge, both on Main Road. The Castle, formerly called the St Anne's Castle, has a long history. The current building dates from the early 19th century, but it was built on the site of a medieval hermitage known as St Anne's which served as a resting place for pilgrims on their way to and from the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The old hermitage continued to serve as a hostelry after the pilgrimages ceased at the Reformation.

At some point I need to do more weeding round the front but I will see how hot is gets before deciding when.

And that's it for today.  Have a good one, everyone, and stay safe in the sun.  xx