Yep, this is going to be a short one. In the interests of work/life balance, it being a bank holiday weekend, I am working reduced hours, so I am being disciplined in the length of time that I am going to commit to this.

Well yesterday was miserable, but I was disappointed with the volume of rain that collected in my guage – only 10mm. There had been a Met Office weather warning, predicting 30mm, but it wasn’t to be. If it’s going to be wet and miserable I want it to be properly wet. At least it freshened things up a little, but with no further precipitation predicted in the foreseeable future I suspect that the sprinkler will be in use again in no time.

Good news on the copyright infringement! After submitting documentary evidence to support my request for clemency based on the marginal profitability of my business, the claimant reduced the bill from £500 to £150, for which I was very grateful. It was still an expensive lesson learned. I am going to be very careful henceforth.

There are more items in the shop this week that are limited. This is because at this time of the year I am not having a delivery every week of bought in produce to supplement my own stuff. As a consequence the main casualty will be carrots. Demand for them last week was greater than anticipated, so I don’t have many in stock – basically I didn’t order enough to last 2 weeks. I have fridges, but I do not have sufficient capacity to store as much produce that I would like to. Lemons will also be in short supply. I will be cutting some broccoli, but I’m not sure if enough will be ready to satisfy demand. Having rested it for a couple of weeks I will be picking cavolo nero for this week’s orders. There are runner beans and purple French beans. I like the colourful ‘Brunhilde’, it is a tasty bean and remains tender even when the pods are larger. Sadly it doesn’t retain it’s colour when cooked, shame that. There are courgettes, patty pan squash, and some large spaghetti squash (minimum of 2.3kg). The apples are a different variety this week, but I don’t know which one. They are nice and crisp with a good flavour. There are only red oakleaf lettuce.

Right, that’s it, I am off to be sociable (I know, it’s hard to believe). Enjoy the extended weekend.

Phil