Before I tell you about my ‘Boys Own’ adventure we had better deal with the nuts and bolts of the next week or two. I am going to Cornwall for a week on Saturday, that means that I will miss 2 farmers’ markets at Wyken, because I will be travelling back on Saturday 6th July, so there will be no order collections until the 13th. Deliveries this week will be as normal, so that’s straightforward enough. After this week the next deliveries will be on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th July. I will see if my tech man can remove the shop from the website during my absence to avoid any confusion.

My friend Alf bought 20-odd acres of land about 25 years ago and planted it with trees. I can vividly remember the day when we knocked in about 10,000 tree stakes one chilly winter’s day. Fast forward to today and he has a proper woodland of almost exclusively native species. There have been failures – at the time of planting Ash Dieback was not even a thing, so many of the hundreds of that tree type have died or are in the process of dying, though some of them still look pretty healthy, but in the main the woodland has flourished. He left a nice sized grass clearing in one section of the plot, and around this time of year three of us old blokes have a night there camping, and that was what we did last night.

We arrived in the early evening, got the camp sorted out and then walked the mile and a half to the pub for a couple of pints and something to eat. While we were in the pub a police car shot through the village at high speed and with its lights flashing, and we speculated on what the incident might be that necessitated such a dramatic response. We finished up our drinks and set out on the walk back. The lane on which we were striding out is tiny, just the width of a single vehicle, and not one that carries very much traffic. Around a quarter of a mile from our destination we were surprised to see a police car glide up alongside us and for the officer to wind down his window and ask us if we had seen a man with paint on his face? How strange is that question? We confirmed that we had not seen the painted man, but not before Alf asked the question what colour paint? 🙂 The deadpan officer replied “black” and went on to tell us that there had been a robbery and that Al Jolson was on the run and had been spotted running across some fields. If we happened upon him we were to call 999 and should not approach him.

We completed our journey, lit the camp fire, filled our glasses and began putting the world to rights and generally talking a lot of drivel. The sky was beginning to darken, and we awaited the rising of the Strawberry moon when we heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter not too far away. We watched it scan above the trees about half a mile away, and then it approached our camp and hovered directly above us for half a minute before moving on. They carry thermal imaging cameras and would have clearly seen the 3 of us and our fire and probably wondered what the devil we were doing. It was at that point that we started wondering when we would see armed rapid response officers emerging from the trees with assault rifles trained on us. Happily that did not come to pass, and we currently have no idea if they apprehended the fugitive or not, but I will keep an eye on the local press to see if anything is reported. But what a very unusual thing to have happened, in that remote place, on that day, and to us! We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening despite all of the unwelcome excitement, but I confess to not sleeping all that soundly.

Right, I bring you good news. Carrots are back! They are from the sandy Breckland soil of Norfolk, they are expensive at the moment, but I have never been happier to see a carrot. Also, I will be digging new potatoes and picking broad beans. The latter will be in limited supply so please show some restraint when ordering them. The next batch of lettuce is ready, and I have round and little gem types. This lot does not appear to have been as damaged by our slimy friends as much as the earlier ones were. I have had to rest the cavolo nero because you all went nuts for it last week, so it needs to be allowed to regrow. There will be limited availability of the bought-in items this week too, because I don’t want to disappear on holiday with stock on my hands that will spoil.

By the time I return from my holibobs I think that I will be adding my own tomatoes and cucumbers to the shop, and probably courgettes too. I have already picked a very few toms and cukes for personal use….what a treat.

Last week I went up to the compost heap to empty a full bucket of veg waste and disturbed a very large grass snake. It silently glided through the nettles and disappeared from view, but I saw enough of it to estimate that it was the best part of 3 feet in length. The place that I spotted it was little more than a snake’s length from where I dug up those old eggs a couple of weeks ago. I hope that it has a nest in the current heap, I would love to see some snakelets again.

Right then, I need to crack on, there is a lot for me to do before I can relax in paradise next week. It’s going to be hot in the coming days so be careful in the sun, my brimmed hat will be fully employed. Bye for now.

Phil