I challenge you to read the title above without adopting Tom Jones’s voice. And I can’t mimic his voice without uttering the words “throw yer knickers at me”, but that’s just me. Grass, what an amazing plant, so resilient. Just over a week ago as I left for my hols in Cornwall everything in our arid part of the country was parched, with the grass looking like, and with the texture of, Weetabix. Hey presto, a drop of rain in the intervening period and I return to fresh green growth and the sound of the earth sighing contentedly as if having just had a particularly good lunch.

I measured 19.5mm in my rain guage (three quarters of an inch), which was just what the doctor ordered, particularly as it was accompanied by some cloudy weather by all accounts. Down on the Roseland Peninsula we had some rain every day bar one, in varying amounts, but also some sunshine each day too, so whilst changeable it was by no means a washout, and made for a very relaxing week where reading felt like the natural thing to do as the rain was falling – slumped in a large and extremely comfortable bean bag. I ventured into the sea once for a very invigorating swim, though it was more of a frolic than a swim, because on that day the waves were quite large, which is quite unusual on that part of the south coast, and also great fun. I managed to stay in for a good 20 minutes before the Raynaud’s disease made my hands too numb to function. I was going to brave it for a second time on Friday, but my fingers were beginning to go white whilst still on the beach just at the thought of it, so I decided to sit and shiver while watching the womenfolk bobbing in the briny instead.

So I’m back, feeling rested, and thankful to Laura who did the watering and picking in my absence. I went to the garden before breakfast this morning for a recce, to see what effect the rain had had on the crops, and to discover what I could and could not put in the shop this week. There are still tomatoes – more small ones than large, but there should be enough for everyone. Cucumbers are still producing, but they are now most definitely in the limited category. Little Gem lettuces have responded well to the moist conditions, and the chard has recovered too. Flat leaf and curled parsley both look well, and whilst I didn’t inspect the summer squash this morning I am assuming that there will be courgettes, patty pan and spaghetti squash. There will be savoy cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli, and wait for it…..the return of chestnut mushrooms! What there will not be are avocados. They are currently coming from Peru, and it is my policy not to buy in produce that has travelled by air, so until the European season starts again I will not be offering them. I didn’t get to look down the orchard, so I’m not sure what variety the eating apples will be this week. The Discovery may still be good, but they might have gone past their best in that week, but there will be others to take their place, and also cooking apples.

That’s now my focus over the next couple of weeks, apple picking. Because of the timing of my holiday I have missed some of the ‘earlies’ for juice making. I need to crack on and pick as much fruit as I am able to and get it to Battisford for pressing asap while it is in good shape. It will be great to have apple juice to offer you again.

This week everything is back to normal in terms of deliveries, with one small exception. If you collect your order from the farmers’ market at Wyken on Saturday you will need to be there relatively early. I will only be there for the first hour or so, because I have a family wedding to attend at 1.00pm so I can’t hang about. As a consequence I will only be taking a limited amount of stock to sell on my stall. The majority of my sales are made in that first hour to the regular weekly customers, so I hope not to disappoint too many punters by my early exit.

There is a lunar eclipse this evening, when the moon is going to appear blood red. However, as I type this the cloud is stubbornly thick, so unless it clears fairly soon I suspect that there will not be anything to see. I believe that the northern lights were visible in parts of East Anglia last week, did you get to see them? I think it’s pretty rare to get a glimpse of them in Cornwall.

This week’s photo is of Carne beach on Friday morning, just a couple of miles from where we are staying. When the tide is out it combines with Pendower beach to become a stretch of sand a mile and a half long, a perfect place for dogs to stretch their legs. Sitting just above the beach on the low cliff is a very fancy (and expensive) hotel – The Nare. It has very nice gardens that extend to the cliff edge, and with it’s mild climate some relatively exotic plants can be grown. At some point some Agaves were growing close to the cliff edge, but over time with coastal erosion some of the garden has fallen into the sea, and so it is that two massive Agaves cling to the face of the cliff some 6 feet below the edge. I took a photo but you can’t really get a sense of the scale from it – each plant is the best part of 8 feet across!

Well I hope that you have a good week, it’s looking like quite a pleasant one weather-wise, so make the most of it.

Phil