Sunday

Good morning, all!  Yesterday turned out to be a bit of an odd day as far as the weather was concerned.  Sunny times, cloudy times, warm and cool, even a bit of rain but not enough to be of any use and, throughout the whole day, a very stiff breeze.  In fact, it is still quite blowy now but 'they' say it should die down by the evening,

Strong wind notwithstanding, it was a lovely day yesterday, a pleasant mixture of busy and lazy.

I met with Beth down the allotment and we worked together to smarten things up.  We decided that the shed really wasn't anywhere near needing a tidy out so we didn't.  No point making work.  I crawled around, dealing with random weeds while Beth gave everything a good watering (which takes longer than it sounds).  When she had finished, we sat down and had our lunch and some coffee while we chatted away about this, that and the other.

Everything's growing well apart from the runner beans, which haven't emerged yet.  I'm getting a bit concerned about them after my experiences last year at home when not one seed grew.  They haven't started at home yet and, if it isn't for the fact that I have planted them in two different places, I'd be starting to think there was a problem with the soil.
I shall give them until next weekend and if there are no signs by then, I will give in and buy baby plants, as I had to last year.  Maybe I need to start them off in little pots, although you are supposed to be able to plant them direct into the soil from mid-May onward.

Apart from that, everything is absolutely fine and doing nicely.

Back home, I got some more tomatoes into pots and out.  I'm now just waiting on some 'growbag  watering pots', not because I'm using growbags but because they are great on pots too, as they provide both a bit of extra depth and a very useful reservoir for water on those hot days.

Like this!

I planted up all the other pots I have apart from the five new ones because I'm waiting on another set of watering pots for them.  The remaining tomatoes won't hurt for another week of being in a pot.

It's going to look like a tomato nursery along the fence by the time I've finished!!

Later on, I set things up for the barbecue.  It was so gusty, it took me ages to get it alight as the matches kept being blown out, but I managed with the help of a firelighter!  After the flames had settled and the charcoal had settled to a dull glow, I got the food on and thoroughly enjoyed sitting out, watching it all cook and reading my Kindle between times (I'm re-reading and old favourite, Scarlet Feather, by Maeve Binchey).
For a diddy little thing with precious little scope for temperature control, it managed really well, although there was one scary point when I thought the bottom was breaking apart.  It wasn't, it was just the red paint scorching and peeling off so now, instead of a red bucket, I have one with a fetching black stripe around the bottom.

It just needs a good clean now.



I will definitely be using it again, very soon.  It really is only big enough for one person as you do need a bit of space to move food around.

I need to get some longer handled tongues or similar though.











Today is a day with nothing on the 'to do' list, not even the allotment as Beth is going to water today.  It feels rather good.
I might stay in my bed things a bit longer than usual, I might go for that long overdue walk, I will probably get soil into the remaining pots, ready for when the top bits arrive, I will read and lounge in the sun (when it is there) and - oh, thought of one thing - those new perennial plants are now nicely happy and need to be planted out, three round the front and one round the back.
So that's one thing I really ought to do.  No, two, because the bucket needs a clean!

I wonder if Beth would like to come round for distanced coffee and chat in the garden.  I'll give her an invite and see.

It feels like it's going to be a really lovely day!  Excellent!  I hope yours is too.  xx