I am really hoping that the weather improves markedly by next weekend. Not for any horticultural reasons, though a spell of fine stuff wouldn’t go amiss, it would be good for the plants and would also help to lift spirits. No, it’s because next Saturday Esther, Hector and baby Axel are arriving from Spain to stay with us for 9 days, and I think that everything will be a little less chaotic if we can use the garden to spill out into, because our cottage is by no means large, so a little extra personal space will be very welcome. It will also make days out much more pleasurable for our guests. Esther is our Spanish ‘daughter’, who we have known since she first came to stay with us as a 14 year old language student, we liked her, she liked us, so thereafter for several years she came every summer for a few weeks, which always encompassed joining us on our annual holiday to Cornwall. Then she grew up, got a job, got married, had a baby, so the summer stays ceased, but she still came to visit for a few days most years. She’s now fast approaching 40 and is keen to introduce the next generation (and her husband) to the madness at Mizen Towers. I reckon that I am going to need a holiday myself by the time they depart! The photo above is of Axel in his Basque traditional costume last Christmas (they are from Pamplona).

July was a bit of a stinker weather-wise, and the first week of August equally so. If we are to believe the meteorologists it looks as though the worst is behind us and that as the month unfolds the sunshine returns and temperatures get back to where they should be. Yesterday at the market I was positively chilly – on the 5th of August! The crops in the field will respond positively to any improvement in conditions, and it may give the farmers a chance of having a run at getting the wheat harvest in.

As I was cutting some grass between showers last week I disturbed a family of pheasants that had taken refuge in amongst the beans. It could be that the hen had made her nest there. Anyway, mother and at least half a dozen very young chicks scattered at the approach of the ride on mower. I parked the mower at a safe distance and observed the hen trying to corral her young, they had nipped up different rows of beans, becoming isolated from each other. For several minutes there was frantic high pitched calling from both mother and babies until the family group was once again together. Needless to say dad was nowhere to be seen to lend a hand.

While we are on the subject of beans (well kind of), it’s a go Johnny go-go go-go (a puerile ‘League of Gentleman’ reference). What I mean is, there will be beans this week. Not tons of them, but hopefully enough to match demand. They are runner beans, French will be a couple of weeks off, though there could be some next week. What there ain’t is lettuce. I am between batches, and whilst I was hopeful that some would be ready this week they really won’t be. Hands up, I got my timing wrong. The other disappointment is the sudden, nay catastrophic decline of the cucumbers. They have succumbed to the ravages of the dratted red spider mite rather sooner than I had hoped they would. Next year I might have to introduce some biological controls, but buying in natural predators is expensive, so I will need to assess the economics before doing so. However, early August is far too early to be cucumber free.

There is chard and kale again this week, ‘green’ onions, turnips, carrots, courgettes, marrows, patty pan and spaghetti squash, Gatsby new potatoes, mushrooms and chilli peppers. There are green medium hot ‘Lemon Drop’, Padron, and for the first time ‘Portugal’, a large sweet red type that is medium hot – particularly the seeds. Tomatoes are ripening relatively well given the lack of sunshine, and this week you can choose from mixed larger salad types, or mixed small ones – cherry, plum, cocktail. Pesto will be Sorrel. There will be no pesto next week, I can’t face making any with a house full of people!

Last Monday I received the saddest news. Out of the blue I got a message from an old school pal, passing on news from the daughter of my best friend from that period, informing us that her dad Paul had died suddenly from a heart attack last Saturday. That information was enough to trigger a physical gut wrenching reaction from me as I read the message, but worse still was the fact that it happened at his son’s wedding reception! I was devastated. Paul and I had been so close through our teenage years, he was the first person that I met when I joined my new school in Bedfordshire, and thereafter we got on like a house on fire. Inevitably we lost touch over the years, but in my previous job I used to meet him every so often when I was on business close to where he worked, and only last year four of us classmates met up for beer and curry to talk about ‘the old days’; I am so glad that we did. I can only imagine the trauma that his family is enduring right now, and it is with them that my thoughts are with – together with the fondest of memories of my time with my mate Paul.

I wasn’t sure whether or not that I should share that news with you, it doesn’t really have anything to do with organic vegetables, but let’s face it, Moyns Park Organics is Philip Mizen, and I tell you about lots of other stuff, so on balance I decided that I would.

Have a splendid week, I’m off to make a start on taming my wild garden at home ahead of receiving our visitors, or should I pass it off as a rewilding project? The undergrowth is so long at the end of the garden that there could be a Japanese soldier living in it thinking that the Second World War was still going – a bit of a family joke.

Phil