After a week away all's well.

We've just returned from a week as 'home' in N. Ireland. David has been minding my tomatoes and we've returned to a great crop of red fruit. Still not very tasty but certainly good enough for all my efforts.

This is one of the Russian Black Truffle which have made great progress considering they were so many weeks behind all the other. I think the green shoulders are normal and since I slice starting from the bottom we throw that bit away with the woody top.

The sweet pea are flowering their hearts out but are getting tired now, not helped by the changing weather.

Small fruits are forming on the aubergines but as they are a mini variety they will probably not grow much more. I'll start them earlier next year.

Thunder & Lightening

Went down to the allotment today to close up the poly tunnel and pick a few tomatoes. I'd just arrived when as a thunder storm started so Mango and I had to take cover in the tunnel for 20 mins. She was not a happy girl and just wanted to dig her own tunnel to escape
The black Russian truffle tomatoes are getting very big but none are ready to pick yet. I'm trying to reduce water but there's a lot less sun to sweeten them up now too. Fingers crossed.

Sweet peas

I've been trying to find a way to upload this photo from the camera roll on my iPad. Let's see if it works.

Busy Month of August

Well I've been so busy during August I've not blogged for a whole month, so there should be plenty of changes to show. But first the weather.

Weather in Warrington
Thursday 19° 9° 1.7 mm	Friday 20° 12° 1.7 mm	Saturday 18° 12° 5.2 mm	Sunday 16° 11° 1.7 mm

The past month has been warm, sometimes to extreme temperatures but it has also been very wet too. The fields are still very muddy and watering unnessary except for the polytunnel and backets.

The allotment has given it's best but I think a late blight took out my outdoor tomatoes, thank goodness (and David) for the polytunnel. Everything in there is doing well.

Outside has been good too. We finally pulled up all the broadbeans a couple of days ago, they have given us lbs of beans. The courgettes too are most prolific, I've also got an enormous pumpkin which is bigger that this picture suggests.

I've also got butternut squash and onion squash coming, and the ? seed seem to be a cross between marrow and pumpkin, see photo above with small B-Nut at top. The wet summer has paid dividends here.

One of the most outstanding crops has been the sweetpea. Slow to get going, but since June it's never stopped and I cut a bunch or 2 nearly every day.

End of the hot spell?

We've had heat all this week but the forecast suggests it's coming to an end.

Weather in Warrington
Thursday 25° 13° 1.1 mm	Friday 20° 10° 0 mm	Saturday 17° 9° 1.5 mm	Sunday 15° 9° 2.4 mm

Hope we get some more sun as the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. A few days heat has kick started the production of courgettes and cucumbers. The sweet pea is racing away and smells fabulous.
Peas have finished and even the mangetout is nearly finished. The broad beans continue to produce and I've shared lbs with all my visitors. I picked the 1st French beans today and they seem to be cropping well.

We've been enjoying all the potato varieties and running dangerously low, ( who can I bribe to get more potato growing space next year?). I was watching Gardener's World last week and Monty Don did  feature on testing all his new potatoes. He marked down the floury and cracked skin ones and picked the wet ones. I just had to tweet him and tell him he was wrong and to my joy he replied! twitter.com/TheMontyDon/statuses/226784079230681089

At last there's plenty to eat

The wet weather continues but at least the days with a bit of sunshine are very pleasant. The ground is still sodden and I feel sorry for the organisors of the Warrington DAD weekend. Terry's gone to marshal for them today.

Weather in Warrington
Sunday 17° 7° 0.1 mm	Monday 19° 6° 3.6 mm	Tuesday 20° 11° 0.7 mm	Wednesday 20° 12° 11.1 mm

It's been a very successful week on the allotment and there's plenty to pick and eat. The potatoes are really good after all. The broad beans are just about ready but I've already picked quite a few to enjoy young and tender. I've a small amount of peas which yield just about a 2 person portion every couple of days. The mangetout are even better and because there's so much more to eat they go further than the little peas. I was thinking yesterday that I should try sugar snaps next year.

The raspberries are thinning out now and seem to be effected by either the weather or bugs. Quite a lot of them have a little black spot which spoils their look. I picked through these and made a pot of jam this week, but I've already frozen quite a lot of the earlier better ones. The strawberries continue to give me a punnet full every couple of days, providing I can beat the slugs to them first. I've picked a couple of lbs of gooseberries too. They are getting harder to find now and the bushes are a bit cramped now that they are bulking up. I want to prune them into a more manageable shape for next year. The courgettes and squash are slowly coming on. Just enough so far but unless we get a heat wave there's not a glut this year. The unknown squashes seem to be real mongrels, some are green and some are yellow and all sizes of round fruit, but no vegetable marrows.

The tomatoes and cucumbers are bulking up nicely but not ready yet. Even the publano peppers are setting fruit.

Thinking of building a Noah's Ark

Unbelievably bad weather, the river has been up about a foot today but is back to normal tonight. So many places are flooded and my petunia flowers have turned to mush.

Weather in Warrington
Friday 19° 12° 21.9 mm	Saturday 22° 10° 1.3 mm	Sunday 19° 11° 1.2 mm	Monday 17° 10° 1.6 mm

Yet, its not cold so everything is growing and maturing. I've pulled loads of raspberries and quite a few strawberries, in fact it's a race against the Botrytis with them. Tomorrow looks a little more promising so I can get back to the allotment. Stomach pain and suspected ulcers has been slowing me down. The 1st of the peas are ready and beans are close behind. Courgettes are developing in to good sized fruit and I've made my 1st courgette cakes. I need to get the French beans seedlings into the ground and plant the Dill and Coriander plugs.

I went in the allotment shed yesterday afternoon and found one of the blackbird chicks standing on top of the cupboards. Luckily I snapped its picture as 5 mins later it screeched and flew out. It was the last one to go! Just looking back at the photos they were just eggs on 18th June, 2 and a half weeks to fledging - amazing. I don't think it got very far as Mango disturbed a young one in the grass before we left and the parent bird was alarm calling all the time we were there. I hope they all survive and fancy some nice juicy slugs and snails because we have a surfeit of them this year.