Last Sunday evening, not long after I had finished writing the blog, I lit the barbecue for a belated al fresco birthday meal to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. The weather was beautiful and the area around the gazebo was abuzz with activity, which prompted our neurotic dog Nellie into annoying obsessive behaviour – snapping and lurching at any flying insect that went within a couple of metres of her – bees, flies, wasps. Only butterflies are spared her attention. Let’s just say that her wiring is a bit suspect. Aside from that it was a very pleasant occasion enjoyed by all. Betraying my less than sophisticated upbringing I was drinking my cold beer directly from a can….I know, uncouth aren’t I? After the meal I took some things into the house to clear some table space before returning to my seat to finish my drink and watch the sun go down. We are extremely lucky to have a wonderful widescreen panoramic view of the western sky, that often dishes up magnificent sunsets for our delectation.

Anyway, upon returning I sank back into my seat and raised the beer can to my lips to empty what remained of its contents, when bang!! The most excruciating pain filled my mouth as a wasp that had been doing the backstroke in my beer stung me twice on the inside of my bottom lip. I don’t have a low pain threshold, but boy did that hurt! I spat out the offending insect, and sucked in air whilst emitting a weird anguished cry of pain triggering the release of natural endorphins and oxytocin to help my body manage the trauma. My companions looked on wide eyed wondering what on earth had happened, but soon cottoned on and promptly took action by fetching an ice cube for me to massage the sting sites with, followed by an antihistamine tablet. In the space of a few minutes my throbbing lip had begun to inflate, and continued to do so for the rest of the evening, going through several stages of metamorphosis – from mild Botox lip enhancement, through exaggerated Thunderbird puppet lips, to grotesque badly gone wrong botched Botox lip enhancement! And with the ever increasing swelling so my capacity to speak coherently diminished until I sounded somewhat like a gibbering idiot.

But wasn’t I lucky? Or so I was told by my wife and daughter, “Just imagine if…” before the sentence could be finished I retorted “oh yes aren’t I lucky?” in the most sarcastic tone that I could manage, “is that why they call me ‘lucky lips’, the man with the luckiest lips in Christendom?”. “Look it’s old fishface, I wish that I was lucky enough to have lips like that”. Suffice it to say, I didn’t feel in the least bit lucky, though I do realise that if the stings were further back in my mouth it could have been a blue light job. Where I was lucky was when that I woke the next morning the swelling had reduced dramatically, and by the end of the day the lip was back to normal, though still sore. And the moral of the story? Don’t be uncouth, drink from a glass.

This very unflattering photo was taken when my lip was about at maximum pounds per square inch. I look like the village idiot.

They had a brief mention earlier – butterflies. What a great summer for them it appears to be – at least it is here. There are lots of them, and a broader range of species than is usual. At the moment the are lots of Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals, Large Whites, Peacocks, Meadow Browns, Commas, Gatekeepers, Skippers (they never stay still for long enough for me to identify which type), and my favourite of the week was the Marbled White. At a time when the narrative is all about the loss of insect populations it is encouraging to see that not all is doom and gloom. I’m not saying that there isn’t a problem, but by providing insects with the food plants that attracts them we can at least give them half a chance to feed and breed.

The least said about the weather the better, so I am not going to dwell on it for fear of being labelled boring. That said I’m almost at the point of marking this growing season down as a disaster! I just can’t keep everything alive, I do not have the irrigation infrastructure to provide enough water to all of the crops, so I am now being very selective about where I direct my limited resources. Nearly everything is heat stressed at the moment, with many of the crops either shutting down or bolting. I am concentrating my efforts outdoors on the squashes, the sweetcorn, beans, and some of the brassicas. In the greenhouse and polytunnel I am trying to keep the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers productive. it is the toughest year that I have encountered thus far, and it looks like carrying on for some time.

As a consequence of the weather the shop is not as well stocked as it should be at this time of the season. The cabbages have been hammered by the heat and pests, and the chard has bolted along with the salads. I will be cutting broccoli this week if it manages to hold up, and the courgettes are cropping well now. There will be French beans, carrots, beetroot, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes. I am also getting in some fenland celery. The nectarines were delicious, but I have had to knock them on the head because of the quantity that went straight on to the compost heap. Of the 15kg of fruit that I bought in last week more than 6kg of it was scrapped upon receipt – it just doesn’t travel well in these extreme conditions, resulting in a financial loss that I can ill afford. It is advisable for you to refrigerate any of the fruit that I supply at the moment, because it just won’t keep in current ambient conditions.

The main photo was taken on the dog walk this morning. It’s of bindweed, the scourge of many a gardener, but ain’t she pretty?

I am going to leave it there, because I need to go back to the garden to do the watering now. Let’s hope for a fresher week with more comfortable nights.

Phil