The SUN is shinnnng...

   The sun is shinning. At last a prolonged spell of sunny weather is forecast. Well that is this week. Last week? No heavy rain, some sun, not bad. 
   On the animal front it has been a sad week. Our Buff Orphington cockerel was killed by our Ixworth coq. I am not really surprised,  however, our Buff Orphington hen has gone broody and is sitting on a clutch of seven eggs. Hopefully we will get some chicks. Our Ixworth chicks are growing and the first two are becoming more aware of their world and are now outside in an enclosed space. We continued to shear sheep, only one left to do. Usual maintenance, that is, cleaning out, of the coops done.

RIKEA potatoes and peas

First round courgettes

   In the garden early potatoes in abundance and the first courgette has been picked. A very good crop of peas so new potatoes and peas dominate the dinner plate! Some mange tout but it is a poor crop which given the good pea crop  is a surprise. Lots of lettuce and it looks like I am going to have a gap in my lettuce production! Darn it.  In an effort to mitigate this gap I have transplanted some lettuce to pots. The idea being that they can grow to a decent size to then be planted outside. Time will tell if my idea is worth anything! Ha! I have found Great Lakes lettuce seed in the local agricultural shop. I love Great Lakes lettuce. It is an iceberg type. Tomatoes are mostly doing ok but blight is setting in. Hopefully my diversification plan will at least allow some to produce tomatoes. Colorado beetle have and are being a pain but at least the potatoes are at a stage where they can be harvested. A sign of the year zooming buy...first sowing of swede in modules done. More Touchon carrots sown and it will soon be time to start to pull the first round. More still need to be sown though. More beetroot transplanted. Growing in modules is definitely the way to grow beetroot. I have been surprised by by haricot vert in that they are climbers!! The cucumbers in the poly tunnel are picking up which has come as a surprise as I thought they had been attacked by aphids. Hopefully I may get some cucumbers as the outside ones are currently looking very sad as are the melons. I fear no melons this year.
  So the season moves along and thinking for more winter crops is kicking in. 

The rain continues

Chickens clearing the gone to seed lettuce

    Sometimes they are a help, other times a menace! I allowed my chickens to clear the "gone to seed" lettuce and as usual they did a good job.
  In desperation more than anything I transplanted my water melons and five dessert melons to the melon bed. I do not  think we will be getting any melons this year. The plants do not look happy. Too wet, too cool. More lettuce picked. It is being a good year for lettuce and I am not starting to pull my own home grown lettuce
rather than plants that were bought from 

Violet garlic crop

local market. The weather is still mild and damp. I have been able to do some weeding and I have got the next patch of ground ready to sow more carrots. I noticed that the peas are ready to pick. I have three lettuce leaf basil plants that I have now transplanted out in the poly tunnel. More Jack Ice lettuce transplanted in the poly tunnel. The Colorado beetle menace is still present in the new potato crop but I am hoping to get them dug before it gets too bad. In the mean time its hunt and squash! Of course grass cutting continues and rain has interrupted the latest round.

   On the animal front we have finally managed to start to shear our eight ewes this last week with four having been done. We caught and examined the female runner duck. She has a swollen ankle and has done for a while. No infection or indication of a break so the guess is she has pulled or twisted something. Need to try to keep her in the coop for a few days. We have two more Ixworth chicks from the last batch of twelve we incubated. The two from the first batch continue to thrive and are growing quickly.

Its raining, its pouring, the old gardener is snoring....

   Well what can I write? The last week has seen thunder, lightning, heavy rain, floods and roads being destroyed or damaged in our little hamo. One side of my garden turned into a river with the flow being divided by the tomb and the garden is now saturated. To make

 matters worse our little community started to put things back together and guess what? Another storm appeared, more heavy rain but fortunately this time not so intense. Despite the bad wet weather plants in the garden continue to grow quite happily. I am very late in getting my water melons and five dessert melons in. It has just been too wet!
  Due to lack of germination I had to buy some moss curled parsley which has been planted in the poly tunnel. More haricot vert  

Water is starting to pour into the poly tunnel

sown into modules and the three peppers I had transplanted into a bed in the poly tunnel. Outside I transplanted some Wautoma cucumbers which were promptly set upon by the chickens. Two were destroyed. I have a love hate relationship with our chickens. 
  On the animal front we are now left with nine ewes. Everyone else has now gone. We were going to keep two rams but Socks, our first bottle fed ram, died and that left Boxer, our second bottle fed ram, on his own so he had to go to a new 

Water is disappearing down a mole hole!

home. The chickens are laying well and our two Ixworth chicks are currently thriving. They are developing feathers on their wings. So I have a desperate need to get on the beds to weed and to transplant some more plants. I am hoping for drier weather but the forecast is not good.