The photograph hasn’t captured just how purple the landscape was this morning when we walked Nellie, the fields of Borage stretched out before us like the lavender fields of Provence, but the land falling away gently before us was sloping down to the Stour valley rather than the Rhone. I have never seen so much Borage being grown around these parts before. In recent years there have been fields of the hairy herb dotted around, but this year there are lots of them, along with a large acreage of Maize – also an unusual crop for this area. There must be good money in both at the moment to tempt farmers away from wheat and barley. Borage is grown for it’s prized oil, which is used in food supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals; it’s nice in a jug of Pimm’s too.
It hasn’t really been Pimm’s weather this weekend though has it? There was a very welcome spell of good steady rain on Friday, and then on Saturday afternoon the wind was blowing a hooley, bringing lots of foliage and branches down. Today has mostly been overcast and windy….but less so. It makes me feel as though we struck pretty lucky on our holiday. This time last year we were sweltering in 40° heat, hiding indoors with the curtains closed; it’s southern Europe that is suffering this time, with even higher temperatures! I don’t envy them.
I’m sorry to disappoint my Saturday customers again so soon after my trip to Devon, but I will be absent from Wyken next Saturday, so there will be no order collections, soz. The reason for my absence is that I will be attending a wedding in St Paul’s cathedral! Ooh la la! A friend of mine, Chris, used to work for me in Japan in my previous life, and after we set up a small factory in Yokohama together Chris was regularly invited to the British Embassy in Tokyo to make presentations to visiting dignitaries. As a consequence he was nominated by the Ambassador for an MBE, which he received from The Queen. One of the privileges of that honour is that you can get married in one of the chapels within the cathedral – who knew? Anyway, Chris the confirmed bachelor finally met the woman of his dreams, in China, and they are tying the knot, and I just have to be there. The downside is that there is a rail strike that day, so my travel plans are in the air somewhat.
The rain will have bucked up some of the crops in the garden that were stalling somewhat. I expect the courgettes and patty pan squash to burst into full productivity, and I am hoping that the runner beans will stop sulking. They are covered in blossom, but it just hasn’t been setting. I want to see lots of tiny beans forming after the rain, because once they start they soon become nice long juicy beans…and we all want those don’t we? The broccoli has gone, as have the broad beans, I’m going to run the flail mower over them tomorrow. I was very disappointed with them, I think that they suffered from a lack of water at the crucial time. I will start picking tender young leaves from the curly kale this week, and there will be cabbages and chard again. There are little gem and red oakleaf lettuces, plenty of cucumbers, and there will be the first of my tomatoes in mixed bags. They will be very limited in quantity this week, so it will be first come first served. New potatoes are Accord, there are carrots, beetroot, spaghetti squash, chilli peppers and mushrooms. From next week I will start pulling my onions and offering them in bunches ‘green’, which basically means fresh and uncured, so you will need to use them relatively quickly – or dry them yourself.
I have discovered a nest of leaf cutter bees living inside the rung of one of my ladders! I have some old metal orchard ladders, one of which is standing in the greenhouse, and I was surprised to see the odd bee coming and going from inside the hollow first tread of the ladder. Yesterday I saw a bee carrying a leaf almost as big as itself in its mouth parts and cramming it into the tube of the rung. Apparently the leaf is used to construct cells into which they lay their eggs. I tried to take a photo of a bee coming or going, but the shutter speed on my phone isn’t fast enough to capture an image, but the picture below shows where the nest is. Ain’t nature wonderful?
On our walk this morning we found a large deer antler laying on the track we were striding along, it had obviously been shed by a good sizes beast. Now Nellie loves to chew on an antler, some of you dog owners will know that they can be purchased at great cost to keep your pooch occupied. One the size of this could sell for as much as 50 quid! When I got home I sawed it into three pieces, so our girl has very many hours of fun (and jaw ache) to look forward to.
I’m off, I need to go and get my shiny shoes out to see if they need a good buff ahead of the fancy do on Saturday. Have a lovely week.
Phil