What a noise

It was late afternoon or more realistic early evening when I heard this noise. It was the Farmer who on my neighbours request trimmed the hedge using his flailing attachment on his tractor. The trouble is that it makes an awful mess. The hedge was reduced in size by about 60cm or 2ft.
 The  mess was such that I went and asked the young man to assist me in sweeping the main up. He came out and I immediately told him to wear some protective gloves as the hedge was Hawthorn and would be very prickly.  The Owner came out a little later and the young man went to get a wheelbarrow. I started to get the trimmings in a heap so that as soon as the wheelbarrow arrived I filled it up. Although I was not so particular, the Owner was more precise getting a dustpan and brush.
 I helped after clearing my driveway and I think he took 6 wheelbarrows away I finally left them to it after about an hour tidying up.
 This morning I saw the Postman, he had a new van. HE first remarked on the weather stating that we seem to have rain every day, yesterday he told e we had 17mm of rain. We talked in general about gardening then he told me that he had saved pumpkin seeds from last year but he thought they had been cross pollinated by his marrow plants. Although the shape is of a pumpkin it looks like a marrow.
 I told him that this year in general was dreadful, even my runner beans had slowed down. He then told me that his runner beans were no better being affected by the strong winds.
 So far we have had no rain, the first time this week but we have been promised rain this evening. What is most disappointing is that is so cold for the time of year. I looked at the thermometer around 10.30am. this morning and it was just 14c. WE hope for some more warm weather before the Autumn starts. More soon.

No real improvement

With the weather being as it is, I am struggling this year to have any real successes but with regard to cucumbers this year has been very good. It was my Postman friend who told me it was a good year for cucumbers. The two photos show a couple of fruit one is ready and is just 12" or 30cm. I have had so far picked 10 fruit off and there are 3 more ready to be picked. I have tried to show the size of the leaves, very large indeed. I could do with a little expertise my American friend has.

On Saturday morning the young man from next door brought round some more chicken manure combined with plenty of straw. It was good of him to bring the wheelbarrow full round but I did tell him that I did not need anymore of chicken manure but would love some pigeon manure sometime. He understood what I told him.                                                                         I was listening to the radio on Friday, a couple of things made me laugh. The first was the cricket commentary and the commentator suddenly remembered  that Saturday was a Blue Day. Something to Red Nose day. The commentator turned to his summariser and told him he had no clean blue shirt. On this his reaction was first to offer him to lend him a shirt, but he told him he was tall and his arms were long. The summariser's next suggestion went like this. "Surely there is a 24 hour laundry service at his Hotel" where the commentator was staying but he was reminded that he needed a blue shirt by tomorrow morning. The next suggestion was this. "Can't you give the guy a back hander to get things done quicker" The commentators reply was this. " A  back hander? I can't possibly offer anyone a back hander, I am a BBC correspondent". I just couldn't stop laughing. Eventually he told his summariser he would get up early in the morning and go shopping for a new blue shirt.                                            

The other thing was this. I think it was Jack Dee talking about when he first started to go into comedy. He said he used to go to youngsters and go through the alphabet. He said that when he got to D he asked the audience what was the difference between a dog and a deckchair. Someone spoke up and asked him what a deckchair was.  They don't know just how much fun they have missed. On the beach great fun and laughter was had watching men generally trying to erect a deckchair. I have seen some give up after failing to get the chair into the sitting position. I must admit my late Father had trouble getting it done until he finally mastered it. More soon.            

 

                                     

More rain

 The picture shown is of the so called Victoria plums which the tree was sold to me. Obviously they are not but almost certainly Czar. I will say this though. I like Czar plums as they are sweeter than Victoria plums, they are a little earlier too. The skins are not as bitter as Victoria plums are. This year I had about 18 plums, next year I hope for many more.

The pictures shown show just how much rain we have had. Last Friday we had an awful lot of rain and it only stopped raining just before dawn on Saturday. Sunday we had the remnants of Hurricane Bertha, although the rain was heavy and the winds almost gale force at times, the amount of rain was not as great as Friday's rain. However the culmination of two such days once more has turned my garden into a quagmire. The sad thing is we don't seem to get sufficient dry weather to lower the water table. Even today we have had a heavy shower.
 I saw the young man from next door, he could not get in as the Owners were out. I took him in my garden and we picked some raspberries, blackberries blueberries and some grapes. When we walked round to his home the Owner was there she had forgotten about the time. I showed her what I had given them, she then told me she had a bush with something on it and asked if I would go and look. I was surprised because it looked very much like a Sloe tree. I have never seen a Sloe tree such heavily laden with fruit. I told her that it could be a Damson tree so she must let them ripen. Sloes are very bitter indeed. I did take one off and it was bitter but on reflection it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be a Damson. I will be keeping a watch on the tree.
 Finally for now, the other day she gave me a marrow, incidentally it was very nice. She told me today that when I wanted another I could have one with pleasure. More soon.

Pal called

My Best Pal rung me up from home on Saturday evening informing me that he would be down at his Private Caravan site on Tuesday.
 Yesterday he came to see me, it was nice to see him once more.
 I asked him how he had got on about Hardwick Hall. He was there as a youngster and now The National Trust own to property and he has been interviewed as to what is was like in the 40s. He told me that is was great and he had been there from about 11.00am. and the next thing he knew it was around 4.00pm.
 He was late getting to see me as just as he was about to leave the heavens opened so he waited for about 10 minutes to get to me. I just told him that this was the norm for this year. Terrific downpours and  fairly regular too. I was surprised to learn though that this was very local as both Towns to either side had a dry day, we had a couple of these downpours.
 Yesterday morning I switched my radio on as usual. All was normal until just before 9.00am. It started to cut out. Incidentally I have DAB radio which I like especially Radio 4 extra. Eventually it packed up. I just thought that it was the radio and another expense would occur. Then I decided to try the other DAB radios I have, 2 more in fact and found that they do did not work and all it said was no signal being received.
 I had sent my mate an e-mail earlier in the day, well this morning he rung me and told me that the transmitter was down all of yesterday. I told him that my radios started to work once more from about 6.30pm. Thank goodness for that.
 This teatime the young man from next door rung the door bell and had in with him some pigeon and chicken manure so tomorrow I will begin to spread  it on one of my raised beds. More soon.

Plenty of people

This morning I went to collect my Pension then went off to get my haircut. I generally parking the Co-op getting my haircut and then do my shopping at the Supermarket.
 I was surprised to be greeted with a young guy asking for £2. this was to park for a maximum of 2 hours. however if one called in the shop and spent around £5 then the money would be refunded. He informed me that this was to discourage the visitors from leaving the car in the car park all day. Mind you the charge is a lot cheaper than the other car parks.
 I went to the Barbers and was surprised to see it was standing room only. To be candid I think there is enough seating for 8 people. With the 2 hour maximum parking I was a little perturbed as to how long I would have to wait before I had my hair cut.
 I really needed have worried as it was just over an hour when I walked out after having my hair cut.
 I called in the shop then went on to Lidl. The refuse men were collecting the fortnightly domestic waste and with the traffic coming in to the Town the delay was rather long. Eventually I managed to do my shopping and once more started to travel back to the Town Centre. The traffic was chaotic so much so that I decided to take a detour and finally managed to get on my way home.
 Normally when I have my haircut I get back home soon after 10,00am. This morning it was much nearer 11.15am. Still I will not grumble as when I was in Business this is what I wished, plenty of people at the sea side. I will however be pleased when the holiday season is over and once again we can move about somewhat freely. 
 Must say this, the young man from next door came to see me yesterday. He asked me if I would look at his small piece of garden, I told him I would go and see his garden. To my surprise while I was looking at the weeds he noticed another shallot set. There were about 6 shallots in all so I helped him dig them up. We then went to look at his tomatoes, since thinning them out the tomatoes have begun to fill out and also some ripening. With that the Owner came up and I told her that he had found some more shallots. She remarked that this was good as they were having salad for tea and the onions would come in handy, also she asked him to pick some tomatoes. I remarked that she had plenty of marrows, she agreed and told me she would try to sell some. She then asked if I would like one. I told her I would and selected a small one. Some of them are massive. I was well satisfied with the small marrow I have. Hopefully with a couple of weeks I too will have one of my own. More soon.

Garden

This photo shows some of the hazel nuts that are on one of my trees. I must watch out for the squirrels later in the year.
I do have a plum tree called Oullin's Golden Gage. It is not a true greengage but it tastes great. Not that I have had many off it.
 This year I had about 2 dozen flowers and about 12 fruit. I went to look at them about a week ago and thought that they would be ready within a fortnight. Today I went to check, those pesky blackbirds had eaten the lot. I can assure you that next year this will not happen.
 I think I mentioned that I bought a group of fruit trees last year. This included an apple a pear and a cherry also a plum supposedly Victoria. When I received the bare rooted trees I thought that the shape was unusual for a Victoria plum. Anyway this year it did produce some fruit, about 12 altogether. They started  to turn black. Czar plums are the first plums to be
ready and they are almost ready now. To be honest I have taken a few off and stewed them. By the way I really do like Czar plums, my late Mother used to like them also.
 My Best pal has just rung up from back home in Chesterfield, he tells me he should be down here next week so we will once more be putting the world to rights. More soon.