Some photos

The gap shown is where we managed to cut some hawthorn branches down.

These photos are of my apples, I didn't think that they would turn out so nice after last year. My trees had apple scab and I bought fungus fighter online and religiously followed the instructions and I am pleasantly surprised at the outcome. The first tree is a Laxton Superb, I didn't spry that tree as it was not affected, the second are of Bramley cooking apples, the third is of Sunset and finally that one is a James Grieve an early eating apple that can be used as a cooking apple as it generally cooks to a pulp like Bramley. With the exception of James Grieve all other apples should grow a little larger, in fact Bramley's will grow quite large. Incidentally the netting is to stop the blackbirds from pecking at the fruit and ruining them.

The other day my mate sent via e-mail a photo of one of his cucumbers with a tape measure it showed 20" it was the sort of length and size you get at a supermarket. It looked fantastic. What I have tried to do is show you my cucumber that is weeks behind my mate's. It is funny really as he gave me the best plant but at mine it just sat there in the greenhouse not moving for a few weeks, in fact I had a job to rear it but eventually it began to take off, now it is taking over.
 How my mate got the seeds is funny really. He has had trouble growing cucumbers and last year my Italian friend gave me a cucumber plant, it did so well and produced around 15 fruits, larger than the normal fruits and my mate was impressed so I asked him to save some seeds which he did.
 This year he set the seeds and what he has produced is the best we have ever seen. From my photo is not easy to see but it is about 12" long but no where near ready yet. I hope to take a photo when I pull it of the plant.
 The other photo is of my plum tomatoes, they have done well and I prefer them to Gardener's Delight, the young man next door also prefers them too.
 With all this rain I am getting plenty of runner beans, mustn't grumble though. More soon.

Hot work

Saturday morning my mate rung to see if I still had connection to the Internet, I confirmed that I had and we talked for a few minutes but was interrupted by the door bell ringing. It was the young man from next door coming round to help me with cutting some branches off the Hawthorn trees at the end of my garden so I told my mate that I would have to go and start work.
 It was a terribly hot day and we both worked for well over an hour. It made me smile when the young man asked if we could have a minute. I told him that when we had cleared the branches we had cut, that was all we were doing because I was buggered.
 I guess it was another 30 minutes later we managed to shift the branches and then I called it a day. Both of us were covered in perspiration and I asked him if he wanted any juice. Robinsons Orange with no added sugar. He loves it and soon downed well over 1/2 a litre. He then asked if we could watch T.V. he hoped that the Motor Racing would be on but the start was 1.00pm. for the final placing's for Sunday. Unfortunately he had to go for his dinner at 1.00pm so missed the final practice.
 Sunday was very very windy and heavy rain was forecast for later in the day. True to form it poured down late afternoon and continued for several hours.
 With all the heavy rain we have had recently my runner beans have produced many beans, so much so that I have many extra so this morning I decided to go to a near neighbours to see if she would like any. It is a Lady that occasionally walks her rescue dog passed my place.
 Off I went and knocked on  the door, her Husband opened and I asked him if he would like a few runner beans, obviously I didn't want anything for them. His Wife immediately said she would love some. I also asked if she would like a few tomatoes again the reply was affirmative. He Husband told me that he would give me 6 eggs for the vegetables. I informed him that I didn't need 6 but if he must give me any then 2 would be ample. With that I went back to mine and collected the beans, tomatoes and took also a few shallots. Off I went back and gave them the vegetables, I was then given an egg case with 6 fresh eggs which the Wife ensured me that they were fresh this morning. I told her that she had informed me that she only kept the chickens as pets, she admitted this and told me that she had 2 turkeys that had been rescued. The hens sometimes lay regular but often they don't. I thanked her for the eggs and told her that if I had more vegetables spare I would take them round for the two of them.
 I did managed to take the 2 largest onions up before the rain yesterday and took them into the greenhouse. I have told the young man that he will pose with them to show just how large, or small they are. I guess this will not be for a few days at least. More soon.

Kiosk

While I was offline, one day I decided to go to the Kiosk to see the guy who took over from me. When I arrived at the Car Park I noticed a different vehicle. This made me think that he had done as I suggested and retired.
Anyway I parked up and went to the Kiosk which is a lot more of a Café and Fancy Goods place to where an elderly gentleman was taking out the tables and chairs to the outside area. I asked him if the man had retired. He informed me that his Daughter had taken over the business and his Daughter had known this man's Daughter so asked her if she would run it for a Season. He was then roped in to run the place. He told me he had retired and that it was 7 days a week for 6 months and 70 hours a week. I then let him know that I had sold the Business to the previous guy and knew what it was all about. I then told him that it hadn't been a good year so far. He agreed and admitted that July had been a washout. Not that this month has been a lot better.
 We got talking and I said to him that there was no way they could earn anything like the money they were on. Her Partner was on the Council and I think was in overall control earning in excess of £100.000 a year and She had a job also in the Council in charge of fitness suite's and was earning well over £50.000 a year. What they could earn up there would be nowhere near  the Salary of the Female. He readily agreed but I was happy that Bill the man I sold it to had finally decided to retire. I think he was 67 and not in the best of health.
 I had taken a taste of fresh runner beans to give to Bill had he been there so what I did was offer them to this new guy. He told me he would be thrilled to have them. I know how one feels because it is all bed and work for at least 3 months.
 This afternoon the young man from next door came round. He asked me if I could get him some more grapes, he loves them, also asked me if I could let him have some plum tomatoes as he likes them a lot better than the cherry tomatoes(gardeners delight) he has loads in the greenhouse next door and he is in charge of them. I asked him if he would like an onion, well a shallot really, of course he said he would so I picked a couple of the largest shallots. He then went into the polytunnel to check to see if there were any alpine strawberries, sure enough there were a few. He did comment how well they had done. He then told me that those next door would love some runner beans at the week end.
 I then took his shallots and peeled them for him and put them in a bag. He then added his couple of plum tomatoes saying that he wanted them to smell oniony as he loves onions.
 Finally I had a call from SSE. I asked if it was the same person who had rung up yesterday she concurred so immediately thanked her for getting me online so quickly. She told me she was puzzled because she had rung me to inform me that she had sent a replacement router by courier to get here today so couldn't believe that I had a connection. I did say to her that although I had a connection it was not great and was less than 2 megabits but at least I had contact with the rest of the world once more.
 She told me that she was not there tomorrow but would contact me on Saturday to see how things were.
 Later this afternoon I had a delivery by Hermes with a router and all cables etc. So now I will await her phone call on Saturday morning.
 More soon.

I am back

I do apologise to those who read my blog but unfortunately things were beyond my control.
  It was my mate who told me about a new service that was somewhat cheaper than what I was paying and soon after he gave me the information my ISP informed me that prices were going to rise. Anyway I decided to move ISP.
 I contacted them and all seemed O.K. They did everything and all I did was to wait.
 I received my router and connections also received instructions as to when things would change.
 I received a mail from them informing me that they had hit a snag. I contacted them  and found out that my phone had a voicemail on so that they could not take it over. I contacted my ISP and requested them to remove it from  my phone.
 Unfortunately the new ISP had given a date for my broadband to go live, this was conditional on me having the phone from them. As this had not happened they cancelled the broadband.
 My mate came over today and explained all to the person on the other end of the phone that we did not have any broadband connection although I had been informed I had.
 After a few minutes the operator informed us as to what had happened and as I had been unfortunately disconnected a priority would be given and a latest date of August 25th was given.
 I was astounded when I walked by and noticed my router working so tried my Internet. As you can see all is well, well not quite it is a little slow but at least I am now back to the land of the Internet.
 More soon.

Calls

These potatoes are the latest from my raised bed and are a lot drier. I did dig up a root from my main garden and they were not good at all. Still one can't tell the weather to behave as one would wish.
 Earlier this afternoon I had a call from the Surgery. It related to my diabetes check which was at the end of June. She informed me that all was satisfactory and asked me if I was eating healthily. I mentioned that I had my dinner at lunchtime with runner beans. With this the conversation changed.  She asked me if I had fresh runner beans, I told her I was getting enough from my plants to have a meal each day. She surprised me somewhat by telling me that her runner beans had a few flowers on but so far no beanlets. I told her that this was not a typical year and I had been to Grantham recently and mu Brother-in Law's runner beans were similar to hers. I added that it had been a difficult year for many vegetables but for onions and shallots it had been a great year. She then told me that she also had a good year for shallots. We conversed a little more and she told me she would contact me in 6 months time.
 It is unusual for me to have a phone call let alone 2. This time it was from Louth Hospital. It was an automated call and wished me to give marks for my visit. I chose waiting times because I didn't have to wait at all. I went to the reception and asked if it was where I should book in and immediately I was spoken to by the Nurse and was seen to immediately. More soon.