And it did didn't it:

   Well I have mentioned that there has been a long spell of hot sunny weather. Yes, the weather did the dirty on me and it rained. Steady down pour. It did not last too long but it was welcome. Looks like the weather is taking a turn towards late autumn and the mornings are most definitely cooler and the length of daylight is shrinking (currently roughly 0800hrs to 2000hrs).
  So what has happened over the last week? Not a lot I am afraid to say gardening wise although there is plenty to do. Picked tomatoes, one round courgette which is probably the last courgette and cucumbers, little bit of poly tunnel weeding but nothing more. To be honest the ground is now too dry to fork or do anything with. Despite all the cucumber crop has been very good. I do like the variety Wautoma. They do very well outside the poly tunnel and they continue to produce to the end of September. The tomatoes are now coming to an end and again despite the weather the crop, especially of Champeau Gardeners Delight and Champeau Jens Orange, has been ok, not fantastic but satisfactory. I guess if I had watered there would have been a lot more larger tomatoes.
  On the animal front the hens I think are starting to slow up a little on egg production and the ducks and sheep are being ducks and sheep. 

Champeau Gardeners Delight

It getting boring...

   Yes the sun is still shinning and yes the temperatures during the day are in the upper twenty degrees Celsius. The garden is now as dry as a bone. I have one crop - hops! The hop vine has grown well up the side of the barn. I think the deluge of rain earlier in the year

Hops

has something to do with its vigorous growth to be honest!

Desiree main crop potatoes

Another crop that came in well this year were the potatoes.

NICOLA(earlies TOTAL:		24.835 Kg
RIKEA (second earlies) TOTAL:		32.580 Kg
DESIREE (main crop..storage) TOTAL		68.17 Kg

I was particularly pleased with the DESIREE, 68 kg from a five kilogramme bag of seed potatoes. Cucumbers, especially the outside ones, are doing well and continue to produce one or two every other day or so. I have now been round the outside tomatoes tidying up and cutting off dead or blighted leaves. Still a few to ripen and I am continuing to gather a handful of ripe Champeau Gardeners Delight (grape tomatoes) every day. In the poly tunnel tomatoes are ripening and I should get quite a decent crop considering they were planted late. Despite regular watering the lettuce in the poly tunnel has suffered from the excessive heat in there and have not done well. This is the pattern it would seem. Lettuce is grows well in the poly tunnel early in the season but it get too hot during the middle to end of the season for it to grow successfully. I need to find another crop for the poly tunnel that would like the heat more. Maybe I should try melons. Cucumbers do not do so well either. 
  In the animal world just normal maintenance. The chickens are still laying well but I am expecting a decline soon as the days draw in.
  So autumn is all but here and I have little or no winter crops. Those planted out in August have just suffered with the heat and dry conditions. Watering was really not an option. Oh well there is always next year.

Chickens in the shade....

Its staying warm

   The rain continues to miss my patch of France. Up the road, about five kilometres away, it rained. As I write this looking out of my front room window the sky is dark with clouds that look heavy with rain. Will it rain here I wonder. The garden is as dry as a desert!
   In the poly tunnel lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and basil hang on in there. Hopefully the nice looking green tomatoes will have time to turn red or orange! I have planted out a good number of beetroot in the poly tunnel more in hope than anything that I may get some this year. Those in the outside garden have suffered from lack of rain and I have not pulled any this year. First of the main crop potatoes have been dug up, variety Desiree. The rest of the crop looks promising. Outside tomatoes are now well and truly finished with one or two hanging on in there with the promise of few more tomatoes to come. There is a good number of butternut squash ripening and the outside cucumbers are still producing one or two every few days. Some are starting to go over now. 
   I have been busy cutting down hedges and clearing out overgrown areas in the front of the house. Half of my barn roof is currently being replaced and my long suffering rear garden (from the fosse installation a couple of years ago!) is once again being battered from falling roof tiles.
   On the animal front Mrs Chick lost her third chick, probably to a rat. The hens are laying well, five to seven a day. Sheep are being sheep!