Tuesday

 Morning!  Well, yesterday was fun, dodging the raindrops all day.  Talk about April showers!  It seems everything is a month behind.  We got February snow in March, March frosts in April and now April showers in May.
Today actually looks more promising - dull but dry (we can hope!!) and in a few days time it looks as if we will enter a more sunny and dry period at the end of which we will be longing for rain again!

I had frolics with the rain (no, not IN the rain, WITH the rain) yesterday!
I had just loaded up the car with the mower and strimmer when the first drops of rain fell bit the skies didn't look too bad so I thought go anyway and it'll clear.  By the time I got to the plot it was chucking it down.  After a while it eased up so I got everything out and set to, mowing the shockingly long grass (well, mostly weeds really).  It wasn't ideal, the grass was terribly wet and the rain kept falling.  I had to tackle some of the weeds on the grass with the strimmer first, but we got there and by the time the battery gave out, there was only a small patch left to do so, again, the strimmer dealt with that.  It was hard work!!

See what I mean.  It made the plot look terribly neglected and I was thoroughly ashamed when I got there and saw how much it had grown.
By the time I had finished, it wasn't great but at least it looked 'tended' again.
I'll take the mower back Thursday morning, I think, and give it another going over on a lower setting and that should do it.

The spuds are coming up and will need to be earthed (is that the word?); in other words, covered with soil again, to give more growing depth for the tubers to develop.  I know it looks a bit messy but the grass at the front is what was thrown onto the soil by the strimmer and there are surprisingly few weeds.  All that work over the past few years seems to be bearing dividends.

Three of the four rhubarbs were flowering merrily, unfortunately.  I cut out all the flowering stems and fingers crossed.  The fourth, out of picture to the left, is a much younger plant and hasn't tried to move on in its life cycle - yet!
I came home with some rhubarb and will take it to Dad's and make something with it.

The pansies are doing beautifully but the sweet peas - oh, dear me.  I'm not sure what we did wrong but they are not happy, not happy at all.

The broad beans, on the other hand, are doing very nicely and blackfly watch has begun.  I'm quite chuffed with them really.

The strawberries also look quite happy.  They are first year plants so not very bushy yet but there's plenty of flowers and developing fruit so that's good.

And finally, all the new raspberry canes are showing growth now, as it the spare one I have at home.  We should get some fruit from them this autumn.

As far as the trees are concerned, the apples look healthy, there are some pears although I think a lot were damaged in the frost but, sadly, I can't see any baby plums whatsoever.

Another thing I must do today is get the codling moth traps out.

I forgot to mention yesterday but I've booked another holiday in Southwold.  Yes, I know I said I thought I'd have done everything there was to do but, quite obviously, I haven't.  Sutton Hoo is only one place I'd really like to go too, there are plenty of others.
I've not booked the same place again - it was OK but looking a bit ragged around the edges this year and, frankly, the whole open plan living, bedroom, kitchen and all, isn't my thing.  I like rooms and doors and stairs.
So I did a search and found a nice little place - it looks nice on the web site and I went to take a look at the outside while I was still in Southwold and it looks fine.  It has garage parking and a nice courtyard area, it's easy to get to and it's a bit closer to the sea.  It's also a bit more expensive, of course, but I have a year to save and pay so that's OK.
There are just two things.  The first is that the loo is downstairs but I can live with that for a week.  The other is that it is decorated in 'French boutique style' which, I suspect, meant lots of tut around.
However, the kitchen looks nice, it has a dishwasher (yay) and a washing machine and just more space all round.  And rooms!
I was going to leave it for a few weeks but when I went online to take another look, the week I wanted as first choice had been takes (it was available on Saturday but had gone by Sunday) so I grabbed the following week instead - the week just before half term.
All very exciting.

I'm also umming and ahing about another few days at Bury St Edmunds.  It seems a better place from which to explore the wool towns and I wasn't feeling terribly well when I went before so didn't really get the best out of the visit.
I'll take a nosey on the Premier Inn site and see how much that will cost me.

Isn't it nice to be considering holidays - hopefully it won't all crash again.

I woke this morning to some very, very good news.
Since Friday night, one of Beth's cats, Fred by name, has been missing.  He's an outdoor cat although he spends more time inside than out, he's a very handsome fellow and stands up for himself .  Some of you might remember I told Fred's story a few years ago.

Here he is, looking all cute, innocent and 'What, me????'

Anyway, there was no sign of him and he didn't come running when called which he often does.  Three days is quite a long time not to come home so we were very anxious.
Yesterday, I printed out some posters/ flyers for Beth and Alex to hand round.  Later on, in walked Fred!
I'll know more later but I do wonder whether he was stuck in a shed or garage and when some nice local saw the flyer, they checked their shed or garage and out came Fred!  I guess we will never know.

Anyway, huge relief all round.

The only thing in the diary today is the tuition session.  I'm more or less prepared, I just need to go over the papers to check I know what to do (always a good idea) and get the table set up for two students.

I will go down to the allotment, probably earth up the potatoes and weed - there are still a very few nasty weeds (ground elder and the like) coming up in a very few places so I'll sort them out and then tackle around the broad beans.  I've decided to plant out the courgettes and the corn next week.

And that's that for today.  I'm trying not to think too much about tomorrow as I have the dental surgery for the other implant I am having.  I'm not looking forward to that one little bit!

Take care, enjoy your day whatever your plans are and be safe.  xx