time for a siesta...

The best thing about this really hot weather we are having is that you can't do anything in the middle of the day.  We have slipped seamlessly into the summer pattern of busy morning, sit around all afternoon and then allotment after tea, once it's all a bit fresher.  That means that we have also all started going to bed with muddy feet too, but I think that is all part of getting back to nature and is perfectly ok.

As it only stopped raining and being freezing last week we are ploughing on with the winter digging, only now the ground has baked hard and the crust needs a serious implement to break through it.  Extreme gardening. We did have the first ripe strawberry of the year today though, although one between four doesn't go very well, or very far for that matter...

(I've just popped this print into my Folksy shop as well, by the way)

bumper berries

After all these holidays those of us with allotments should be way ahead this year - gulp.

At the moment I'm dreaming of thistle roots, having just turfed all my baby peas out of their spiky nursery in order to dig it over for the THIRD time this year...at this rate I'll have perfect soil by September, with not a crop to show.  Move over thistles and bindweed, the potatoes are coming.  My new tactic is to plant more potatoes than we will eat in our lifetimes in the spiky end of the allotment and then ignore it....

The lovely end of the allotment is doing well (if you don't count zero precipitation thus stopping all germination) and there are an exciting number of berries on their way this year - hurrah.